Screwed Up Dual Booting Need Help

[itzbinnice]

Although some say I'm beyond help.

Heres my situation, running XP Pro, on a 60 Gig, have second 13 gig. as the slave. Originally had it set up running XP on both drives as the 13 gig as a backup. Added an additional line to the boot.ini on the 60 gig to indicate the second drive with the WinXP operating system. All worked well.

Now the nightmare begins, my old CDRW would not work with the Roxio Platinum software even though I had the latest drivers and followed all instructions, both from Roxio and posts on this board. I say screw it, go out and buy a TDK 10x24x40 drive with Nero burn and Incd packet writing software. The nero burn works fine but InCD doesn't work, can't write to the drive. I take out the drive and move it to another computer I have running Win ME. All works well, both the Roxio and Nero software. I say screw it, and reformat the 13 gig and install Win ME. I did disconnect the power line to the 60 gig since I was afraid something would write to it.

After installation I put on the Roxio software, no good won't recognize the drive again. Figure maybe ME can't handle the new Asus 478 socket MB. I uninstall the Roxio and install the Nero, everything works now. I figure I'll buy time until Roxio and Microsoft straighten these problems out I can always use ME when I need to burn.

Really weird, the direct CD works fine in XP but can't burn. The nero burn works fine in XP but the InCD doesn't work. My plans are to use direct CD only on the 60 Gig, and when I need to burn boot to the 13 Gig with the fully functional Nero and InCD software and I'll be OK.

Now is where the major problem comes in. I can no longer use the menu in XP to boot even though I substitued the second line of the boot.ini to show windows ME. I knew this would happen but did it out of desperation.

By merely changing the line is not a solution since when XP Pro was installed it configured itself to recognize the second 13 gig drive as having XP, not ME.

I receive the following message,"Windows could not start beacuse the following file is missing or corrupt.

<windows root>system32hal.dll.

I would assume it is corrupt, the file is there but obviously with the incorrect information indicating the XP operating system. I don't know how to edit a dll file so I'm in a jam. I'm afraid to try a re-install of XP since it will probably screw up all my previous settings as well as the 8 upgrades that are installed.

Don't want use aftermarket boot programs such as System Commander 7, they will probably cause more problems.

Could somebody please offer some advice on how to correct my problem.

I was on my way out to the shed to get the sledge hammer, but regained my composure to type this message. Sorry for the lengthy message but wanted to give all the facts.

[XPerties]

Get the sledgehammer....Sorry even your post confused me. I remeber us talking before but it seems to me with all the install and uninstall of roxio and nero and swapping drives you just may have alot of issues.

-XPerties

[itzbinnice]

Hows it going Experties, yeah we spoken before and always appreciate your help. I've become a madman and been rambling on in my post.

I'll try to make it short and to the point.

Have 2 drives, 60 gig master, with WinXP Pro and NTFS. Second 13 gig is slave and Fat 32 with WinXP Pro (wanted backup drive). Originally installed 13 gig with fat 32 and Win XP Pro. Then installed the 60 gig with ntfs with Win XP Pro. Added second line to boot ini. to recognize the 13 gig with the XP operating system.

Everything worked fine except the CDRW software.

To compensate I reformated the 13 gig and install Win ME (32 Fat),

Problem now is I can't reboot to this drive using the boot menu since the 60 gig still thinks the 13 gig has WinXP. Changed second line to read ME operating system but doesn't work. Below is boot.ini.

[boot loader]

timeout=10

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="Microsoft windows ME" /fastdetect

Aside from re-installing XP what can I do to boot from the 13 gig with Win ME. Thanks for any suggestions, that sledge hammer really looks tempting.

[Reverend]

Have you tried switching the lines in the boot.ini so that ME boots first?

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft windows ME" /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

[itzbinnice]

Reverend

No haven't tryed that, but what the hell (no pun intended) I'll give it a try but really don't want the ME on the top line which is default. When I get this puppy rolling I'm setting the boot delay to 0 for a faster bootup. Be back in a few minutes with the results.

[Drewdatrip]

Ok, i understand now....Fist off dont use Roxio..i know many people say it works, but in my xperience of this forum i have seen way too many peoples computers geting f***ed over their software, just use the most recent version of Nero and be done with it.In my opinion its a better program any way. The reason that you cannot boot to me, is becasue haveing a NTFS drive as the C: terminates the posability of having 98 on another partition. If you want Me/98 and Xp...Me/98 must be on the c drive, its that simple.

goodluck

:beer

-drew

[itzbinnice]

Reverend,

Changing the lines doesn't work, thats all it did was move the lines and WinXP is still highlited as the default even on the second line. When I click on the ME operating sytemI still get the same meassge.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Drewdatrip

Only the Nero burn program works in XP, no the INCD, I constantly write to CDRW so I need this feature. Direct CD was so easy to use and fast.You say ME and XP must be on the on the same drive for it to work, I'm not convinced this is a fact. I'm certain there is a way to do it, but how is the question. I do know that if they were both Fat 32's that may be a problem, but I have NTFS and fat32. Thanks for your advice.

[XPerties]

[b:c04d0741a2]itzbinnice[/b:c04d0741a2] - hey bud...Listen, we have had alot of poeple run into this sitution before where they had install another OS after XP as you did with ME. We have assisted them with the boot.ini file and no matter what we have done (including myself at home) have nevere gotten it back to dual booting. The final verdoct has always been refoprmatting install the OS and XP last. Dont know why but it alwasy turns out that way.

-Xperties

P.S. You said you wanted to use that for storage, any reason why you have to keep another OS on it? I was a king at triple if not 4 dual booting systems, final just running one and have all the storage space on the other drives.

[itzbinnice]

Xperties,

The primary reason I have the second drive was for a backup system but now it has turned out to be a neccessity since ME is the only way I can get both burning a CD and rewritting to it to work.

Here is the scenario, I can get Nero Burn to work on XP but not InCD packet writting. I can use the Roxio Platinum 5.0 on Win XP but only Direct CD works, not CD burning, can't recognize my burner even though Roxio says it works in XP with 5.0B, tried 5.0B 5.0C and 5.0D same results, doesn't work.

Tried mixing the software, Nero Burn and Roxio Direct CD elements only, Direct CD works, but Nero Burn maximum write speed goes from 24x to 4X.

In ME both NERO Burn and INCD work. Made numerous calls to TDK support and they say I have everything right and I should call Nero on my dime in California for support since it's their software.

Hello, what good is the f***ing drive I just bought from you without supportive software. Sorry the sledgehammer still om my mind.

Even though the two operating systems are on two separate physical drives, you say I have to do a fresh installation on the 60 gig with XP? Thats a real bummer really have no energy left to do that.