Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 21:49:12 +0100
From: Philip Nienhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] U105 Back UP!
Jose Tavares wrote:
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 01:46:57 -0300
From: Jose Tavares <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] U105 Back UP!
On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 20:27 -0800, Anthony Oresteen wrote:
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:25:53 -0500
From: "Anthony Oresteen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] U105 Back UP!
No, the XP partition was active. XP started to boot but hung on the
"Welcome to XP" blue screen. For some reason XP did not like the DOS
partion and would not complete it's boot.
Once I removed the DOS partition with PM but leaving the space as unused, XP
booted. I then use XP's disk manager to format the partion as FAT for DOS.
Everything now works ok.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Oresteen
W1AJO
Montverde, FL
hmmm, maybe something related to C: D: :)
Indeed...
on your second format, the XP install may have changed the paths in the
already installed OS ..
No it is sneakier.
WinXP (& NT, 2000....) maintain a list of partitions like
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)" (meaning the 3rd partition (count
starts at 0) on channel 0 of IDE controller 0 in this case), and in the
registry these can be "mounted" as a DOS drive letter.
Now if you insert a partition before a known partition outside WinXP's
disk manager service, the physical list shifts one up but Windows
doesn't know about it. Result: the mounting list is broken because
Windows mount points now refer to the wrong partitions.
If the new partition is before WinXP's boot partition, the system will
boot a little bit, until it has processed the mount points in the
registry: at that moment it gets confused (cause it can't find system
files on the new partition that it thinks to be the boot partition) and
XP refuses to boot further.
That's what happened to the OP.
Some fixes are:
- using mountvol.exe or editing the registry (both not for the weak of
heart)
- deleting the extra partition OUTSIDE WinXP disk manager (otherwise XP
will adapt the mount points and thus keep the wrong referrals), and then
use WinXP disk management to recreate it (easiest). That's what the OP did.
So, hints to keep in mind:
- You can shrink NTFS partitions outside XP's knowledge using
specialized SW, no problem;
BUT:
- Always create or delete partitions before WinXP's home/boot partition
INSIDE WinXP's disk manager
- the mount list lives in reg key HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, at the
bottom are the drive letters
If you happen to make a new partition after XP's boot partition outside
XP's knowledge (i.e., using PM for DOS or so), it will recreate the
complete mount list (usual symptoms: unresponsive OS, rattling HD, and
at the end a message "New devices have been installed. Reboot?"). Don't
reboot then but first use disk manager to check and re-assign the proper
drive letters.
Philip
