Ok, Lemme tell ya how my system is set up before i go into The problems. :) Normally i Run A Dual Boot System with Windows 2000 Pro and Red hat Linux 7.1. That works fine, i used lilo to choose which one to run. SO i get my copy of win xp, and i wanna try it out. So i resize my Win 2k Partition (Using Partition Magic) and make a new 6 Gig partition for Xp.. All is Fine. Here is how the System is partitioned.. I have a 55 Gig Drive. 40 Mg: /Boot sector (Linux Boot) [Linux ext2] 46 Gig: C: Windows 2k [FAT32] 6 Gig: E: Windows XP [FAT32] Within An Extended Partition: 196 Mg: (Linux Swapfile) [Linux Swap] 4 Gig: / (Linux Root) [Linux ext2] In That Order. So I figure that I can install Windows Xp, and then Win 2k will See it as a new OS and add it to the Windows NT Boot Manager. So i predicted that at startup i would have lilo ask me if i wanted to boot Windows Or linux. If i chose windows, it would send me to the Windows NT Boot manager to choose which Windows OS i wanted to run. (This assumption was true.) So running under that assumption I went ahead and installed Win XP. The install went seemlessly and when i reboot to logon to XP i get lilo, Choose windows, then i get the NT boot Manager, and i choose XP. Xp works fine, nothing wrong with it. But Here's the Catch. I reboot and try to enter win 2k. Which promptly Dosent work. it tries to boot up, but tells me: C:\WINNT\System32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt. Please reinstall and try again. (I paraphrased it, but that is what the message was trying to get across) SO i load up win xp and take a look at my c: drive and the file is there. SO i know it is not missing, therefore it is corrupt. So i load up the win 2k install CD and i try to repair it. When it scans the drive it tells me that it is corrupt and is unrepairable, Pretty much telling me that I can't fix it. So i go back to Xp and backup all of my information. (THANK GOD WINDOWS XP HAS A CD BURNER) So i get all my important information off the drives (In case all goes down the drain) I take a bold move and reinstall windows 2k. Win 2k's Install goes just like normal. After im done, sure enough i get Lilo, Select Windows, and then i get NT boot Manager, Select win 2k.. And it boots up. YAY! So im happy it works and i try to load up XP. Just as my luck would have it, It refuses to load, and gives me this error: Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEMd startup options for windows 2000 press F8. You Can attempt to repair this file by starting windows 2000 setup using the original setup Floppy, or CD-ROM. Select R at the First Screen to start repair. That is the EXACT Error Message. Now i see 2 Things wrong with it. First This is not the windows 2000 Partition, it is the win XP partition. I know this because of the \Windows... The second thing that i see is wrong is the line that tells me the corrupted file. It seems to be a mixture of 2 lines. See where it says \SYSTEMd startup options...... The small d is the last letter in advanced, which is the normal message at the bottom of the screen. But it does give me the pathname of the file.. SYSTEM is a file, not a folder. This is the point where i call for help. I could install XP again, and i would probably end up with Win 2k not working again. SO I call All you Guru's to help me with this, because my idea's are exhausted. All of my files are backed up so any suggestions (Even a Full Format) would be appreciated. Here are My System Specifications: Pentium 4 1.4 GHz 128 Mg RDRAM PC 600 55 Gig Maxor Hard Drive Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Model 64 (32 Mg) Sound Blaster Live! Value Samsung SAMTRON 95p Plus Monitor Thats Just about all i can think to tell you. I hope Anyone can help. If not, ill just have to give up either XP or 2k. (I like XP, i might give up 2k ^_^) Thanks In Advance ;) -Kevin

WELL, Looks like i fixed it on my own. If you Want To Know What Was Wrong, I had named both Operating Systems the same computername. And They were clashing with each other. Soi reinstalled Xp and gave it a new computer name. And Now It All works Flawlessly. Sorry for making such a long post only to solve it myself ;) Hope this string helps someone else someday. -Kevin

Hi, I had similar problems like yours. I run W2K in C: Tried to install XP on another partition on a second disk. My problem was that when I installed XP, I booted up with no problem, but when tried to get in back to w2k, ntldr was f---ed up, and when doing a repair install, I wasn't able to get back in into XP.... My solution was to copy ntdetect.com, ntldr and boot.ini from my originila w2k install into a floppy, and boot up from there. As I see it, XP changes the ntldr and ntdetect.com files (they are bigger) and puts them in C:\ (at the root). As it is now, everything works, but I have to boot from the damn floppy to get in to w2k. Has anybody another way of doing this? Thanks CalleBalle

Yeh Use a bootable DOS partition and a good ol' DOS front end boot menu. They were in use years ago when users moved from DOS toward Windows 3.0 and 3.1. The recent boot managers do much the same thing but are mostly used for non-DOS (FAT) filesystems. (Boot Magic needs a FAT partition). The machine boots from BIOS to C:\command.com and the Autoexec.bat file then directs it to the menu; which, after selection, in turn directs it to the initiation file for the desired OS. This can be, for example, NTFS on D: or ext2fs for Linux on E: The effect is similar to booting from a floppy but quicker and avoids messing with the MBR. This is also a solution for those who like running DOS games etc and can't do it in W2K or XP. Another advantage of having a DOS partition up front is that, provided it is big enough, it can be used for storing date which is comonly accessible to any other operating systems on the machine. W

I am having similar problems. I was running 4 MS OSs for a while ( WinME Thai Edition ), Win2K Pro, Win2K Adv Server and Win XP. I installed in the following order.. 1) WinME 2) Win2K Pro 3) Win2K Adv Server ( wanted to play with .Net and SQL Server ) 4) WinXP Everything was fine, until I started having problems with Win2K ( found out it was a memory, DIMM, issue ) when it was trying to detect or loaded a driver for my CD-R I would get a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA blue screen of death. I wasn't sure what this was at first, but found out it was a memory issue. In the process of trying to Win2K to work again, I did a repair, which I finally got to work, but now I get the same message that WinXP can't load because Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEMd startup options for windows 2000 press F8. As mentioned above, it appears that the boot loader for Win2K will not handle WinXP. I have seen several postings of this problem. I wonder if using System Commander 2000 will solve this problem?? M---

I had the same error when trying to dual boot XP/2000 on a brand new, clean machine that i just built : "Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEMd startup options for windows 2000 press F8." I installed XP first to C: and then Win2000 to D: afterwards (they both had different machine names). Once i'd installed 2000 i couldnt boot back into XP and got the above error. I also have another machine has pretty much everything on it (ME, 2000, 2000Serv and XP)and i didnt have any of this trauma but XP was the last to be installed. I then ran XP setup again and repaired the XP installation and everything now works like a charm so my theory is to install XP last, though im not sure why. Good Ol' Microsoft

here's my lovely problem: i installed in the following order before the XP install: win ME win 2000 pro win 2000 server win 2000 adv server I then formatted c: to remove win ME, then installed XP pro. XP works great but no boot up option. what to do??? any suggestions anybody. i desperatly need 2000 adv server up and running. thanx