Dual boot xp & 2000 server

dangerman

Hello.

I was given an XP home laptop machine with a blank second partition and told to put 2000 onto it.

So I booted to the 2000 cd, did the install it all went fine, now i have the dual boot menu and if i select 2000 it loads fine and 2000 appears fine, if without things like drivers installed etc.

Choose XP however, and the screen goes blank. And nothing else happens until you reboot.

Pressing F8 seems to access the windows 2000 startup menu only.

I read on the internet before I did it that its always good practice to install the later os second - but in this case this was not an option.

And everything is in Dutch, because I'm in holland.

Any quick suggestions to get me started troubleshooting?

diarmo

dangerman wrote:

Hello.

I was given an XP home laptop machine with a blank second partition and told to put 2000 onto it.

So I booted to the 2000 cd, did the install it all went fine, now i have the dual boot menu and if i select 2000 it loads fine and 2000 appears fine, if without things like drivers installed etc.

Choose XP however, and the screen goes blank. And nothing else happens until you reboot.

Pressing F8 seems to access the windows 2000 startup menu only.

I read on the internet before I did it that its always good practice to install the later os second - but in this case this was not an option.

And everything is in Dutch, because I'm in holland.

Any quick suggestions to get me started troubleshooting?

You have overwritten the XP boot loader with the earlier 2000 boot loader.
Dont worry this is easy to fix.

First make a copy of the "boot.ini" file loacted in your C:\ drive.

Start up Win2000 and then begin the WinXP installation process...but dont allow it to reboot to continue the install.

Now overwrite the "boot.ini" file in the C:\ drive with your backup as the WinXP installer has modified the current version to boot into the WinXP installation process.
Also delete the 2 file/folder with the $ sign in fron of them.

Voila.....restart the comp and the original bootloader should startup your comp!!!

If above fails we can go through the processmore slowly...but honestly if you follow the above your comp should be working fine in no time.

Capt'n Midnight

There should be no need to edit the boot.ini - as above make sure you back it up.

If the drive is FAT32 you could simply copy over NTLDR / NTDETECT.COM (boot files) from another XP home PC and see if that works

If it's NTFS you could boot from the XP home CD - no idea if it has a recovery console - and use FIXBOOT , might work with a XP pro CD.

You could reinstall XP (stick in C:\win-temp ) just till the first boot as another way to repair the boot files - you could even leave it as a recovery ption

BTW: you would need a second license for 2000, AFAIK XP home doesn't have downgrade rights. XP home most definitly does not allow you to use 2000 PRO. If it is an OEM XP pro then most definitely does not have downgrade rights.

Infini

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

BTW: you would need a second license for 2000, AFAIK XP home doesn't have downgrade rights. XP home most definitly does not allow you to use 2000 PRO. If it is an OEM XP pro then most definitely does not have downgrade rights.

That would be true but unless it's being used in work I doubt microsoft will come banging down your door demanding you buy their liscence or else.

diarmo

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

There should be no need to edit the boot.ini - as above make sure you back it up.

If the drive is FAT32 you could simply copy over NTLDR / NTDETECT.COM (boot files) from another XP home PC and see if that works

If it's NTFS you could boot from the XP home CD - no idea if it has a recovery console - and use FIXBOOT , might work with a XP pro CD.

You could reinstall XP (stick in C:\win-temp ) just till the first boot as another way to repair the boot files - you could even leave it as a recovery ption

BTW: you would need a second license for 2000, AFAIK XP home doesn't have downgrade rights. XP home most definitly does not allow you to use 2000 PRO. If it is an OEM XP pro then most definitely does not have downgrade rights.

What I hae already outlined is the most simple and straightforward way of fixing his current problem.
dangermando as I have outlined and you should be fine!

Capt'n Midnight

diarmo wrote:

What I hae already outlined is the most simple and straightforward way of fixing his current problem.
dangermando as I have outlined and you should be fine!

a partial reinstall simplier than copying two files ? :rolleyes:

Update - safer way.
on the other XP home machine - format a floppy disk
copy the two files onto it
on your machine copy boot.ini to the floppy disk

reboot from floppy and verify it can get in to XP, then copy the files to your drive.

diarmo

And when you have the boot.ini copied from another machine how will dangerman be able to modify it to include the link to his Win2000 install with such limited previous experience at doing so???

Do as I said above dangerman as its the most simple and straightforward way of doing it and dosent require must knowlede of the inner workings of how a Windows O.S. boots up.

dangerman

Hey guys,

first of all thanks for the advice. I did read it and was going to attempt it, but here's what happened:

I continued installing software onto the windows 2000 install as that was working and this is what I should have been doing, configuring multi-boot environments is something i've never done and is not something I should ever have been doing in the first place, however easy it is.

So I met their it guy and explained the problem, even telling him about some of the advice i'd received here. He said he knew all about it and to leave it to him.

I came in the next morning, and neither operating system would load .:rolleyes:
It gives an error relating to ntoskrnl.exe.

No idea what he did, but i can now wipe my hands of the problem, as the software is installed and there on the win 2000 install, and it's up to them to sort out their boot.ini or whatever issue is causing the problem. I'm also now hundreds of miles away, which helps.

Thanks for the help; i'm sure if i'd followed the advice here before the it guy got to it everything would be fine.

Capt'n Midnight

dangerman wrote:

.:rolleyes: It gives an error relating to ntoskrnl.exe.

Probably messed up the boot.ini
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