Hello,

so far I managed to solve boot problems on my own by using Google. But currently I'm stuck and need some help / advice. Does anyone here have a working multiple boot configuration which includes Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP x64 SP2?

My problem is that the ntldr / ntdect pair from WinXP64 SP1/SP2 does not support booting Win2k. After installation of WinXP 64 (ISO w/ SP1 included), booting Win2k fails with this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

When I replace the ntldr with the original SP4 one, Win2k boots up normally but WinXP boot fails. This holds true for the ntldr from WinXP x64 SP2 as well.

As a last resort, I would like to try the vanilla ntldr from the original WinXP x64 ISO (no service pack), but unfortunately I've thrown away the discs a couple of weeks ago. Could someone please upload the vanilla WinXP x64 ntldr file?

I'm pretty sure I just need the right ntldr file, but anyway, my configuration is

Drive C: 512MB FAT16 partition w/ Win98 <-- this has boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect
Drive D: 2GB FAT32 partition w/ Pagefile.sys and /tmp folder
Drive E: 8GB FAT32 partition w/ Win2k (in Folder WINNT)
Drive F: 8GB FAT32 partition w/ WinXP 64 (in Folder WINDOWS)

Regards

Easiest would be to keep just one of the two "triplets" NTLDR/NTDETECT.COM/BOOT.INI.
Add an entry like:

to BOOT.INI.
Add grldr and menu.lst from grub4dos:
use either 0.4.3 2008-05-14
http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome
http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome/grub4dos-...-2008-05-14.zip?
or latest 0.4.4 beta
http://nufans.net/grub4dos/
http://nufans.net/grub4dos/grub4dos-0.4.4-2008-12-28.zip

Make a floppy image similar to the one described here:
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm
and save it to root of hard disk, as, say, bootw2k.ima

Add to menu.lst an entry like:


The above is just an example, the lmit with grub4dos is often just your fantasy.

Guide:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5187
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm

Forum:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

jaclaz

Jaclaz, thank you very much. I manged to install Grub4dos within 5 minutes and can boot Win XP x64 now :-)
There is one issue left and I would be quite happy if you could give another hint. Please read below.

This is what I did:

1) I downloaded the latest 0.4.4 beta from the link above and copied grldr to the root of my C: drive
2) I copied the example menu.lst as well and modified it as shown below
3) I copied the ntldr from Windows XP Pro x64 SP2 to C:\ntldr64 so it can coexist with the Win2k ntldr

My boot.ini:


My menu.lst (just the relevant entries):


The last issue that I have is that I have to go through three boot screens to boot WinXP:

1. boot.ini --> Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (Grub4Dos)
2. menu.lst --> Microsoft Windows XP Pro x64 SP2 (hd0,4)
3. boot.ini --> Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Is there any way to load ntldr64 directly from the second menu, skipping the third step?

Not this way.

The "third step" is due to BOOT.INI.

Using the floppy image you can have your "own" BOOT.INI in the floppy image with just one entry and a short timeout.

If you want to keep everything on hd, you will need to hexedit ntldr64 to point INSTEAD of BOOT.INI to another file, say BO64.INI.

Cannot say if the XP64 version of ntldr has a checksum, like some SETUPLDR.BIN versions have:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=58410
if it has, you may be able to get away with it by using any of these names:

• OBOT.INI
• OOBT.INI
• TOOB.INI
• BOOI.INT

etc., etc.

jaclaz

You can always re-install using SyMon to multiboot: http://symon.ru/usr/eng/screens.shtml
I use it with great success, and it was real easy to just skip the boot.ini by making the other Win installs invisible during install of the next, if you know what I mean. That way you will also be capable of having a C drive as boot-driveletter in all your Windows OSs.

The problem describe in the initial post to this thread is not uncommon.

I often occurs due to the inability of NTLDR from operating systems with an NT version of 5.1 or greater to load greater than 16MB (most of which may be the SYSTEM registry hive) to boot the older NT-based operating systems.

The problem is a defect of design of NTLDR from Windows XP and newer.