Question still remains, which are Primary partitions If you did not install a 3rd party bootmanager and cannot find boot.ini, where did you get the information below
And - note the information ( as expected) does not give partition letters, it gives locations - as in your default process is to boot from the partition 0,0,0,4 and the comment on the entry for 0,0,0,4 is XP Pro) as is the comment on 0,0,0,3 then note the final entry which has no partition indication, just a directory So - the 3 options you have are root directory of 0,0,0,4 root directory of 0,0,0,3 and directory C:\ of the partition from which you are currently running (note that at this time, but not neccessarily later in the boot process) the process that loaded this boot manager assigned letter C to the partition it loaded it from, (I would assume that was the first partition on the drive) However - which partitions are primary ones, and which are within an extended partition (XP Manage Storage Disc Management from right-click on the desktop 'My Computer' icon should get you to a place where you can find those details) You will need to look at the graphic representation to determine the partition sequence numbers IDE drive - is this what the BIOS is set to boot from? note that this is a drive type, not a connection mode such as P-ATA, S-ATA, USB, FIREWIRE etc. and the 0,0,0,4 etc in the boot.ini? indicates the drive is connected to the primary IDE port as 'Master' It's partition type (Primary, secondary, etc.) that we need to know More question? - where is the 2003 server boot option Have you set Windows explorer to show all files, including hidden and system Are you logging in with 'administrator' authority Sorry if this seems to be complex and obstructive, but while the simple option would normally be to just remove the unwanted directories - you need to make sure the boot process isn't trying to use them or you could end up with a system that doesn't get as far as letting you select an OS to start Then again do you have a booting CD or floppy set, etc. that will access all 4 partitions, and let you fix anything that needs restoring? JimB ----- Original Message ----- From: "Al Christie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2005 8:11 AM Subject: Fw: Software: Removing Windows 2003 server dual-boot system with Windows XP Pro > James > The following is a copy of the boot.ini. I think it should answer some of your questions. (Not sure which drive has the boot.ini as a Search can't seem to find it.) > > There is one drive with 4 10gig partitions. C and F are Fat32, whereas D and E are NTFS. This was originally a W98SE system. Then a couple of XP Pro's got added on D and E respectively. > > The boot manager is the default that came with XP Pro as far as I can > determine. > > [boot loader] > timeout=15 > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS > [operating systems] > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP > Professional" /fastdetect > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP > Professional" /fastdetect > C:\="Microsoft Windows" > > Most utilities and apps are loaded in the Program Files folders on the drive where they were loaded. (eg. pmail.exe is on D because D was the system running when Pegasus was downloaded and installed.... More recent apps such as Firefox, Spybot, etc. are on E because that's the drive used almost exclusively now. > > IDE drive. > -- ---------------------------------------- To Change your email Address for this list, send the following message: CHANGE WIN-HOME your_old_address your_new_address to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Note carefully that both old and new addresses are required.
