Hello, I have a self built machine for pro audio with a KT-400 mb and AMD 2600+ and 1gig of RAM. System drive is SCSI Cheeta 18 gig and two WD 60 gig 7200 rpm drives for audio set as master and slave. I originally (before I got the two audio drives) partitioned the SCSI into two drives, one 3gig part. for Win XP system and 15gig part for audio files. I soon found that 3 gigs were not enough so I got the two audio drives and did a clean install on the 15gig partition with Win XP. I activated this install which made the OS on the 3gig part. no good with the "no ntldr" message. This was fine as I always had the option to choose which install to use at boot up, the invalid one or the good one. I've been going for thrae months now without a glitch until I decided that I needed to use the space on the 3gig partition so I did an "fdisk" from a "98" boot disk and deleted the primary dos partition which was the 3gig partition thinking that the boot process would skip the dead partition and see the good OS on the 15gig partition. No boot up, so I set the dead part to the primary dos part, set it active and reformatted it. No ntldr found. So I re installed "98", then upgraged to Win XP on the new 3gig part still thinking that this would bring me back to having to choose which install to boot but now it simply goes strait to the new install. The 15gig part shows as a second drive now and all files are intact but I need it to boot to this 15gig partition. I have not activated the new install but the one I want to boot is registered and activated. I have the Win XP upgrade disk. I hope someone can understand what I need to do and can show me how to get back to the original OS...it has to still be there. thanks, Jim

It is very simple. You need to add the entry in the boot.ini for the original install. This is an example of you having to be smarter then the machine. use fdisk to id the drive that has the original XP install. copy the line in the boot.ini that deals with the present boot. change the drive number to gain access to your old XP

Fixing Windows 2000/XP BOOT.INI Files http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q289/0/22.asp&NoWebContent=1 http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/editbini.htm HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q289/0/22.asp&NoWebContent=1 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314081 The information in this article applies to: * Microsoft Windows XP Professional * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Repairing Corrupted or Missing Boot.ini Files http://sft-cyber.com/Bootini.htm http://sft-cyber.com/Re%20Boot.htm If WinXP will not start, it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files. To replace, access the recovery console and enter: 1. Copy X:\i386\NTLDR C: (X is your CD ROM drive letter) 2. Copy X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C: Try using the FIXBOOT command from the Windows XP Recovery Console to write a new boot sector on the system partition, and then use the FIXMBR command to repair the master boot record. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/bootcons_fixboot.asp http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/bootcons_fixmbr.asp http://sft-cyber.com/stoperrors.htm 10. Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE---WinXP can not locate the system partition or boot volume. This error may occur after repartition or upgrading of the disk controller. The boot.ini file may no longer point to the correct partitions or the hardware may not be configured properly. Try the Recovery Console and use the Boofdfg command to repair the Boot.ini file.