Hello, my pc has a 20 scsi drive in it that had win2k pro installed on it. I also have an 80gb ide drive on the system as a secondary drive for more room. I bought a copy of XP pro to install on the system, with a dual boot setting. I followed the instructions, and installed XP on the IDE drive as follows My SCSI drive was C: and had Win2k Pro. I installed XP onto what was drive I: at the time. (30gb primary partion of the 80gb IDE drive) After the installation was completed, the computer restarted and the dual boot option wasnt included. I checked the system, and my SCSI drive was renamed to D: from C;, and the I: drive that has XP on it is now C: More importantly, the SCSI drive still has all the WIN2k system files on it, but when the system loads it automatically starts in XP with no option to start in Win2k as it is supposed to. Most of my documents and such are still on the Win2k drive, and I normally operate there. I tried going to the XP Control Panel to change the system to dual boot using the system/advanced tab and the Win2k OS wasnt listed in the OS list. I looked at the boot.ini file, and didnt see it listed there either. Can someone tell me how to edit the boot.ini file so that I can load the other system as well? I dont want to mess up the ini file. I also want to know if having the Win2K Pro on the SCSI drive, and the XP on the IDE drive is causing this issue of not recognizing the older OS in the loader. Any advice is appreciated, and is urgently needed. Cheers Ron J

Check this out http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;289022 He who sh_ts on the path, Will meet flies on the way back..

OK, while I was waiting I tried to edit my boot.ini file. Since my D; drive (which used to be C: when win2K was the only OS on the system) is SCSI, I added the following line, SCSI(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect I shut the system down and restarted and was given the option of choosing Win2K when I chose the option, I got the following message: Windows Could Not Start Becuase of a Computer Disk Hardware Configuration Problem Could not read from the selected boot disk Check boot path and disk hardware. I am not sure what to do next. The system sees the D: drive, and it has the Win2K system on it, so the SCSI bios is working (see it load during startup) I tried searching for the boot.ini file on the D: drive to see if I could find the old entry and it isnt found.. So I dont know whats up there. I am guessing that I have to know exactly how to edit the boot.ini file so that it will load the Win2K off the SCSI drive. I am still unsure if the change in drive letter will cause problems for Win2k to run when I get it started, but that is another issue I will have to contend with. Thanks Ron AKA Otatsu

Hye Grasshopper, thanks for the tip, I already looked there. Got some valuable info.. My issue is that the boot.ini file has to be edited to use the scsi drive as well as the IDE drive. C: is the main partition of the IDE drive Running XP Pro D: is the SCSI drive (previously C:) running Win2K pro I need to edit the entry line, and I think its a bit complicated considering the 2 types of drives.

I tried changing my boot.ini file again (the last line is my addition) [boot loader] timeout=40 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect And it still doesnt recognize the OS. the file system for WIn2k is intact on the SCSI drive D: (previously C: ) and it can be looked thru using the explore option in XP, but I cant get the OS started. That last edit on the Boot.ini file gave me the following error when I chose the Win2K option The following file was missing or corrupt: Windows root System32\hal.dll I searched the SCSI Drive with the Win2k installation (D:) and the file was there in the right spot.. So I am obviously not writing the entry correctly in the boot.ini file.. and its not going to the right hard drive. Can anyone tell me what the entry should look like? Again my system is configured as follows 20 GB scsi drive (was C: and now is D:) 80 GB IDE drive in 3 partitions 1 30gb and 2 20 gb partitions.. Originally the system was like this . C: (scsi drive) with Win2k Pro D: CDR E: DVDR F: Image Recorder G: Removable Disk I: IDE partition 30GB J: IDE Partition 20GB K: IDE Partition 20GB Now its C: IDE 30 GB Partition WinXP Pro D: SCSI 20 GB Drive Win2k E: 20GB IDE Partition F: 20GB IDE Partition G: CDR H: DVDR The SCSI drive ID info is : Bus# 0 Target ID 1 LUN 0 The IDE drive info is only listed as: Location 1 (1) How do I write the boot.ini entry to use the OS (Win2k)on D drive? Thanks Ron J Otatsu

Problem solved., I overlooked a part of the entry in my boot.ini file for WIN2k that I added. I had WINNT as the folder instead of WINDOWS.. so the system couldnt find the right files.. I renamed it and my boot record now looks like this: [boot loader] timeout=40 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect Thanks to some previous posts on this forum, plus the microsoft info on thier site regarding boot.ini records.. I troubleshot my way thru it, and now my system works well again Cheers Ron J Otatsu

Glad to read you are sorted. To all interested, you may want to hold onto this for future reference. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.