I have a 2G C: FAT16 primary and the rest extended. W2K is on E:. W2K install put NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM - and maybe something else, I don't know - on C:. That means if C: gets damaged W2K can't boot. Is there an easy way to repair that? I went to Backup\Emergency Repair Disk but the resulting floppy complained it couldn't find NTLDR. This was just a test, C: is OK. Can NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM just be copied to C: or do they have to be "installed"? Does anything else have to be done to C:? TY Ray

Interesting......are you dual booting with DOS or something? I'm just curious because nobody uses FAT16 anymore..... How much data on the FAT16 partition? If not too much, you could make an image of it and have that as a backup. Personally, I recommend you convert that drive to NTFS and then make your ERD. If you can't because you are indeed dual booted with DOS, I highly recommend you go find a junker PC and run your DOS on it and dedicate your PC entirely to 2000. You could probably get an adequate DOS PC for free if you check around. A lot of businesses just toss out old computers as they aren't worth much when they're three or more years old. We've been forced to do that where I work since we can't even donate 800 to 1000 Mhz PC's to anybody anymore........LOL

Actually having a fat16 was one of the setups for easy system partition recovery. As fat16 a dos boot diskette containing the OS boot files can be booted and used to write those files to c: in the case of boot file corruption. You can even format the partition and put every thing back without effecting the OS on e:. You would have to run some extra steps to make it bootable or boot the OS from a floppy diskette. I don't believe the ntldr error had anything to do with the c: or fat16 but related to the format and files on the floppy. raydav yes you can just copy the files ntldr, ntdetect, bootsect [if it exists] and boot.ini from floppy diskette to the c:. That does not fix the master boot record or volume pointer. This is what I would do to recover the system partition. 1. boot the w2k cd and go into recovery console. Run chkdsk /r on c:. Run the utilites fixboot [fixes the volume pointer] and fixmbr [fixes the master boot record]. Another recovery option is to make a ghost image of the partition and place it on a bootable cd. Just understand that updates may change the boot files so you would need to update the image if the date stamps change on them. Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

Yep, way back when we used to use a FAT16 partition for multi-boot setups. Normally I made the partition just big enough to hold all the important boot files for all systems (at one time I had DOS/Linux/NT 4.0 all on one PC) However, once Win98 came out, I swapped to FAT32 since 2000/98 could both read the FAT32. That's why I was asking. FAT16 is a moot point unless you're actually using DOS or Win95 since nothing since 95 actually uses FAT16 anymore.

BOOT.INI NTLDR NTDETC.COM BOOTSECT.DOS Are on C:. I saved them to a directory on the W2K partition. So we shall see. The MBR is not an issue, the boot utility takes care of that. And serious boot utilities require files on the HDD and a C: FAT16 is still the best place for those. Should Backup\Emergency Repair Disk have gotten me a booyable floppy? As I said, it didn't boot. As to why the drive is like it is. I don't select an OS and then try to determine what functions it will perform. I select a app and run whatever OS it requires. Lately that has meant at least one version of DOS, Win and OS/2. And, I NEVER get rid of an OS until it's replacement is settled and has taken over the required functions. And I don't need to go find someones old computer. I have so many I am tripping over them - literaly. My primary machine gets a new MB about twice a year. I am a sucker for last month's hot item that they are now giving away. But I don't even need a different machine to dedicate it to an OS. All my HDDs are front panel plug-in. I could just plug in a different HDD. Actually, that is my backup scheme; I have clones of all my boot HDDs. I also keep copies of the partition tables for lessor problems. But there is no reason for different machines or even HDDs. A year or so ago I was doing a lot of OS transitioning and had nine OSs on one HDD; 3 DOS and 2 W9x on FAT16 C: primary, and 1 W2K, and 3 OS/2 on extended. I am now down to no more than five. TY Ray

I sure hope "NTDETC.COM" was a typo. File should be ntdetect.com. ERD is for recovery purposes not for booting. You use the W2K cd to boot and go into recovery console so that you can use the ERD. Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search