Hi all... Can someone please give me a clue here. I have a dual boot with ME/XP. ME is on C (Primary) and XP is on E(Logical). Both partitions are on Master HDD. Slave HDD contains D and E. My question is: when (not if) ME crashes it takes out the boot option for XP. How do I access XP then? It will simplify things no end if I could get into XP. P.S: Boot management is currently the default one loaded with XP at installation. Thanks in advance for any help deek

You may be able to access XP if you copy all files needed to a floppy disk. The boot.ini will tell the boot loader where to look for the system files.

hello deek you can d/l from microsucks the 6 recovery consel floppys and use recover consels repair boot record function. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307654 SUMMARY The Windows Recovery console is designed to help you recover when your Windows-Based computer does not start properly or does not start at all. If Safe mode and other startup options do not work, you can consider using the Recovery Console. This method is recommended only if you are an advanced user who can use basic commands to identify and locate problem drivers and files. In addition, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console. back to the top Installing the Recovery Console You can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available in case you are unable to restart Windows. You can then select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems on startup. It is wise to install the Recovery Console on important servers, and on the workstations of IT personnel. This article describes how you can install the Recovery Console to your Windows XP computer. To install the Recovery Console, you must have administrative rights on the computer. Although you can run the Recovery console by booting directly from the Windows XP CD, it's much more convenient to set it up as a startup option on your boot menu. To run directly by booting from the CD see the "Using the Recovery Console" section later in this article. To install the Recovery Console, perform the following steps: Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive. Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive. A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears, which describes the Recovery Console option. The system prompts you to confirm installation. Click Yes to start the installation procedure. Restart the computer. The next time you start your computer, you will see a "Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" entry on the boot menu. NOTE: Alternatively, you can use a UNC to install the Recovery Console from a network share point. back to the top Using the Recovery Console You can enable and disable services, format drives, read and write data on a local drive (including drives that are formatted to use the NT File System (NTFS), and perform many other administrative tasks. The Recovery Console is particularly useful if you need to repair your computer by copying a file from a disk or CD-ROM to your hard disk, or if you need to reconfigure a service that is preventing your computer from starting properly. If you cannot start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from the Microsoft Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM. This article describes how to perform this task. After Windows XP is installed on your computer, to start the computer and use the Recovery Console you need the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM. For additional information about how to create Startup disks for Windows XP (they are not included with Windows XP), click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 310994 Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks NOTE: To start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, you need to configure the basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer to boot from your CD-ROM drive. To run the Recovery Console from the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM, use the following steps: Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer. Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER. At the command prompt, type the appropriate commands to diagnose and repair your Windows XP installation. For a list of commands that are available in Recovery Console, type recovery console commands or help at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. For information about a specific command, type help commandname at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. back to the top Using the Recovery Console Command Prompt When you use the Recovery Console, you are working at a special command prompt rather than the usual Windows command prompt. The Recovery Console has its own command interpreter. To enter this command interpreter, you are prompted by Recovery Console to type the Administrator password (the local Administrator, not a domain Administrator). When the Recovery Console starts, you have the opportunity to press F6 to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver, in case you need such a driver to access the hard disk. This prompt works the same as it does during installation of the operating system. The Recovery Console takes a few seconds to start. When the Recovery Console menu is displayed, a numbered list of the Windows installations on the computer is displayed (usually only one entry-c:\Windows-exists). Press a number before you press ENTER, even when only one entry appears. If you press ENTER without choosing a number, the computer restarts and begins the process again. When you see the prompt for %SystemRoot% (usually C:\Windows), you can begin using the available commands for the Recovery Console. back to the top Command Actions The following list describes the available commands for the Recovery Console: Attrib changes attributes on one file or subdirectory. Batch executes commands that you specify in the text file, Inputfile; Outputfile holds the output of the commands. If you omit the Outputfile parameter, output is displayed on the screen. Bootcfg is used to manipulate the Boot.ini for boot configuration and recovery. CD (Chdir) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. Chkdsk The /p switch runs Chkdsk even if the drive is not flagged as dirty. The /r switch locates bad sectors and recovers readable information; this switch implies /p. Chkdsk requires Autochk. Chkdsk automatically looks for Autochk.exe in the startup (or boot) folder. If Chkdsk cannot find the file in the startup folder, it looks for the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM. If Chkdsk cannot find the installation CD-ROM, it prompts the user for the location of Autochk.exe. Cls clears the screen. Copy copies one file to a target location. By default, the target cannot be removable media and you cannot use wildcards. Copying a compressed file from the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM automatically decompresses the file. Del (Delete) deletes one file. Operates within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. You cannot use wildcards by default. Dir displays a list of all files, including hidden and system files. Disable disables a Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of the service or driver that you want to disable. When you use this command to disable a service, it displays the service's original startup type before changing the type to SERVICE_DISABLED. You should note the original startup type so that you can use the enable command to restart the service. Diskpart manages partitions on hard disk volumes. The /add option creates a new partition; the /delete option deletes an existing partition. The variable device is the device name for a new partition (such as \device\harddisk0). The variable drive is the drive letter for a partition that you are deleting (for example, D); partition is the partition-based name for a partition that you are deleting, (for example: \device\harddisk0\partition1) and can be used in place of the drive variable. The variable size is the size, in megabytes, of a new partition. Enable enables a Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of the service or driver that you want to enable, and start_type is the startup type for an enabled service. The startup type uses one of the following formats: SERVICE_BOOT_START SERVICE_SYSTEM_START SERVICE_AUTO_START SERVICE_DEMAND_START Exit quits the Recovery Console, and then restarts the computer. Expand expands a compressed file. The variable source is the file that you want to expand; you cannot use wildcard characters by default. The variable destination is the directory for the new file; by default, the destination cannot be removable media and cannot be read-only; you can use the attrib command to remove the read-only attribute from the destination directory. The option /f:filespec is required if the source contains more than one file; this option permits wildcards. The /y switch disables the overwrite confirmation prompt. The /d switch specifies that the files should not be expanded and displays a directory of the files in the source. Fixboot writes a new boot sector on the system partition. Fixmbr repairs the boot partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that specifies the device that needs a new MBR; omit this variable when the target is the boot device. Format formats a disk. The /q switch performs a quick format; the /fs switch specifies the file system. Help If you do not use the command variable to specify a command, help lists all the commands that the Recovery Console supports. Listsvc displays all available services and drivers on the computer. Logon displays detected installations of Windows and requests the local Administrator password for those installations. Use this command to move to another installation or subdirectory. Map displays currently active device mappings. Include the arc option to specify the use of Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) paths (the format for Boot.ini) instead of Windows device paths. MD (Mkdir) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. More/Type displays the specified text file (such as, filename) on screen. Net Use connects to a remote share for the Windows XP Recovery Console. The following text describes the syntax for this command: NET USE [devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]] [/USER:[domainname\]username] [/USER:[dotted domain name\]username] [/USER:[username@dotted domain name] [/SMARTCARD] [/SAVECRED] [[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]] NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}] Rd (Rmdir) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. Ren (Rename) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. You cannot specify a new drive or path as the target. Set displays and sets the Recovery Console environment variables. Systemroot sets the current directory to %SystemRoot%. back to the top Recovery Console Rules Several environment rules are in effect while you are working in the Recovery Console. Type set to see the current environment. By default, these are the rules: AllowAllPaths = FALSE, which prevents access to directories and subdirectories outside the system installation that you selected when you entered the Recovery Console. AllowRemovableMedia = FALSE, which prevents access to removable media as a target for copied files. AllowWildCards = FALSE, which prevents wildcard support for commands such as copy and del. NoCopyPrompt = FALSE, which means that you are prompted by the Recovery Console for confirmation when overwriting an existing file. back to the top Deleting the Recovery Console To delete the Recovery Console: Restart your computer, click Start, click My Computer, and then double-click the hard disk on which you installed the Recovery Console. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab. Click Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, and then click OK. At the root folder, delete the Cmdcons folder and the Cmldr file. At the root folder, right-click the Boot.ini file, and then click Properties. Click to clear the Read-only check box, and then click OK. WARNING: Modifying the Boot.ini file incorrectly may prevent your computer from restarting. Be sure to delete only the entry for the Recovery Console. Also, it is recommended that you change the attribute for the Boot.ini file back to a read-only state after you complete this procedure. Open the Boot.ini file in Microsoft Windows Notepad, and remove the entry for the Recovery Console. It looks similar to this: C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons Save the file and close it. back to the top Installing Recovery Console During an Unattended Install In order to install the Recovery Console during the unattended installation of Windows, it is necessary to use the [GuiRunOnce] section of the unattend.txt file. Command1="path\winnt32 /cmdcons /unattend" For more information about how to use the Unattend.txt file, see the Deployment Planning Guide of the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit. back to the top REFERENCES You can use Group Policies to change the rules and expand the power that you have in the Recovery Console. For additional information about how to do this, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 310497 How to use Group Policies to add more power to the Recovery Console How To Format using the Recovery Console format drive : /Q /FS:file-system Use the above command (where /Q performs a quick format of the drive, drive is the drive letter of the partition to format /FS:file-system specifies the type of file system to use [FAT, FAT32, or NTFS]) to format the specified drive to the specified file system. For example the following quick formats C partition as NTFS FORMAT C: /Q /FS:NTFS the following will do a full format of C as FAT32 FORMAT C: /FS:FAT32 *** Note: If a file system is not specified, then the existing file system format is retained. How to Repair Install: Sometimes the only way to repair XP is to reinstall. You do not have to wipe your partition and start over. Just as with previous versions of Windows you can install over top of an existing setup. This has the advantage of retaining your installed applications, data and settings. It is always prudent to backup important data before you make changes to XP. and heres some more info deek for fixing duel boot record in m.e-xp When you reinstalled ME you rewrote the Master Boot Record. Now your system only recognizes that ME is installed. To get your dual boot system back you will need to boot to the XP cd and enter the recovery console (you will need the administrator password to do this). When you get to a command prompt in the Recovery Console type: fixboot c: and hit enter. This should rewrite the bootloader and your system will recognize the XP partition. The MSKB is being "revamped" and "upgraded" right now... but I did find this article about the Recovery console that may be of use to you if you are not familiar with it: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q307654 I have dual boot systems of ME & XP. I had to reinstall ME & have lost that operating system choice window for booting ME or XP, & now ME boots up as a single operating system... I thought that one day this may happen, so I did back-up my BOOT.INI file prior to the reinstall... ***Is there a way to use the backed-up BOOT.INI file to repair the dual-boot? (tried putting it back under C:/BOOT.INI, but didn't work...) thanks for any advice! Report Offensive Message For Removal Response Number 1 Name: §øù£§tãçè Date: November 09, 2002 at 08:05:59 Pacific Subject: Lost dual-boot window. Reply: Make sure the file is not read-only. Go to C:\ and in folder options check "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide Protected OS files". Then right-click on boot.ini and go to properties. Make sure the read-only box is unchecked. Restore boot.ini to its previous state. If it still doesn't work, you may have to reinstall XP. Someone else may know an easier method however... from 2000 forum Go to Command Prompt (Win2k) or DOS Prompt (Win9x) type in root directory: attrib boot.ini -r -h -s now you can edit the file BUT, if you're unsure, try not to play with these settings, you're better off using the properties sheet from "My Computer". If you make a mistake in boot.ini file, you can actually stop your computer from booting, both to Win9x and Win2k Multibooting with Windows XP http://windows.about.com/gi/dynamic...2Fmultiboot.asp http://www.ultratech-llc.com/KB/?File=BootMgr.TXT http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...d/multiboot.asp http://www.pcclubaid.net/reviews/ar...xpdualboot.html ------ Selecting Operating System dual booting XP . keys/Advanced tab , in the "Startup and Recovery" section click on the button then select the Default operating system . ------ How do I install Windows® 98/Me after I've installed XP? (without 3rd party software) http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/wxppasr.htm courtesy of Jo Helmig at: http://www.wown.com aka http://www.helmig.com http://www.pcqanda.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=50280&forum=computer http://www.pcqanda.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=49677&forum=computer The question is, can you still access that partition? If you are using FAT32, then you should be able to access the partition that Windows XP is on from within WinME. If NTFS, it won't be assigned a drive letter. I'd be leery of letting Norton fix it, if you can still access the partition. If you cannot, then you probably have little to lose by trying. If the partition is NTFS, I would just attempt to repair Windows XP. Boot with the Windows XP CD, and start the recovery console and use the fixboot command. Your boot files should still be intact, in the root of drive C: so if it's just the bootsector that has been overwritten and the Windows XP partition is still accessible, then the fixboot command should do the trick. http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm If you need to start the recovery console, download the Windows XP setup boot disk creating executable from Microsoft. Run it to make the Windows XP setup boot disk set. I think you'll need 7 floppies if I recall. If you boot with this set, you can start the recovery console in the same manner. Q310944 - Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks You've lost more than your dual boot, your hard disk has suddenly become unbootable. First of all, see if the hard disk is still being recognized by the bios. Enter your bios setup, and see if it is still being listed (may be set to "auto" in which case you should be seeing it detected as the PC boots up). It might be just as easy to boot up with a WinME startup disk, and see if you can access the C: partition (note: if you can't... WinME startup disk will assign C: to the Ramdrive) Oops, it's a Compaq. Entering the bios setup may not tell you anything... I've yet to see a Compaq that has any configuration options for hard disks. They either autodetect or they don't. Your compaq computer would likely be giving you a message if the hard disk was not present during initialization. If you can access the hard disk, boot with the Windows XP CD and start the recovery console. Run chkdsk. Use the fixmbr command and then the fixboot command. If your boot files are still intact, that should make the hard disk bootable again. If you cannot access the hard disk, or it's not being seen by the bios, open up the case and check the data ribbon connections on both ends, and check the power connector to see that it hasn't come loose (unlikely). It is entirely possible that your hard disk has failed, but it is too soon to say anything like that. P.S. If you've forgotten the details of how to use the WinXP recovery console... http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm How to Repair the Boot Sector: If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files. To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C: COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C: To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y" How to Repair the Boot Sector: If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files. To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C: COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C: To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y" How to access the Recovery Console: The Recovery Console is a set of tools which run from a Command prompt. If your system is formatted as NTFS then these tools can help you manage the partition. You can learn more about the Recovery Console through Help and Support or Click here for information about the different commands and their functions . The Recovery Console can be run from a Command Prompt by going to Start->Run and enter "CMD" to open a command window. Type HELP for a list of functions. To run the Recovery Console from CD boot with the Windows XP CD (or with the optional 6 floppy disk set) and select "R" at the Welcome Screen. and for your line in .ini it should look something like this but it will say xp pro rather than xp home you probley know where i got that. [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect C:\="Microsoft Windows" good luck deek take care ay

Thanks for the info guys, my eyes are still watering from reading it all. Would it be simpler to convert my logical drive with XP on it to a primary and install a boot loader i.e Boot Magic. Or would this have consequences of its own??? Sorry to be a punish.

Deek,this is what I had to do; Start the PC with an ME bootdisk.Use the sys C: command This will destroy your XP boot loader files. Then go here,and get the XP setup bootdisks here; Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks Then,using the Recovery Console,(you do not need the XP CD),run the "fixboot" command. Here is a good link for details on that; http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm You also might have to follow the "Repairing the Windows® XP Boot Loader" at this link,(which I think wawadave gave as well) http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm E-mail me...