OT: W2K problems

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

> > NT Loader Can't Find or Boot it Anymore
>
> Sounds like boot.ini is messed up. 99 times out of 100, if NTLDR can't find
> the OS, it's because of boot.ini. boot.ini is a very simple text file, with a
> widely published syntax. Usually a partition number is wrong.

Hi Robert,

Yes, I'm well acquainted with that particular variety of glitch, and know
how to deal with it. What I'm referring to is *after* that has been corrected,
and you _still_ get a "Missing or Corrupt NTOSKRNL" message. My wild
guess is that there is some kind of absolute sector value for its exact location
that is hard-coded somewhere, and this is one of the things that does not
survive the Image Restore intact.  *Then* you have no choice but to run
SETUP | Repair. This may re-synch things for the loader, but then the hammer
comes down on what had been one's Password (if one has made the apparent
mistake of having the Pswd. in the first place), leaving one Locked Out at bootup.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this is also hard-coded somewhere -- maybe
somewhere _else_ that has to match -- and that this also fails to come through the
Image Restore intact. This may have something to do with my use of Drive Image
for the partition imaging. The versions that I have worked for this all through
the
NT-4 days, but probably did not keep pace with the MS changes to NTFS.

> For example, suppose Boot Manager got trashed (I believe you said that it did?).

> That would kill (or unallocate) one (very small) partition prior to all other
> partitions.

> Also, some imaging software won't restore correctly to the same drive or
> partition. Depends what you're using. If you have DFSEE, it shows right away
> what the actual partition numbers are.

DFSEE now has a function that is supposed to innoculate Boot Mgr. against getting
trashed by Windows. It also has different methods for imaging and restoring
images,
which seem to work at such a low level that changes to NTFS -- or most any other
monkey wrench that MS throws in there -- won't be a factor. I have just begun to
learn how to use the program, and to make use of DFSEE for this purpose. It's a
rather good program that is continuing to get better. For someone like you, it's
probably
simple stuff. For someone more like me, I'd say that the ongoing improvements to
the
user interface and the docs will be most welcome.

> > By the way, I have a URL for you about various bad things that rode
> > in on SP-4, written by some techie type users.
>
> I'd like to see that.

Here it is:

http://www.w2knews.com/anecdotes.htm

I think this site has something to do with Sunbelt Software, which puts out
a commercial suite along the lines of the Systernals one. So, they may have
some incentive to point out problems. Maybe some of this stuff is esoteric,
and won't affect most users. I dunno.

> Some good things also rode in on SP4, such as much
> better control of cursor movement in DOS boxes.

No doubt.

> I upgraded all my W2K machines
> to SP4 without a hitch. All are multi-OS; all have Boot Manager.

Glad it worked out for you. But I'm gonna take a close look at the
SVISTA emulator, once it becomes available.


Jordan