Booting options in XP

[FasTrack]

How can i access the various booting options ( if present ) in win - XP

Can i boot into DOS mode.

How do i format the drive having win xp, normally i used to goto dos prompt ( in win 98se) and then use format command.

I'VE GOT SASSER VIRUS IN MY SYSTEM, BY FORMATTING THE DRIVE IN WHICH THE VIRUS IS PRESENT CAN I REMOVE THE VIRUS ??????

Kindly help

[alib_i]

1. yup, formatting the drive will remove sasser worm
2. if you want to format the drive then you dont need to go to DOS
just enter the windowsxp cd in drive
change the boot order in bios to -- 1st-cd, 2nd-harddrive
let the system boot to cd
after then follow the instructions on cd

[enoonmai]

Dude, why do you want to format your comp for removing the worm? Use the Sasser Removal Tool here. You can even get the removal tool from Microsoft (KB841720)
There is no pure DOS prompt to boot into in Windows XP. If your partitions are FAT based, you can boot the computer using your normal Windows 9x/ME boot disks and then run the format command as usual. However, if you use NTFS, the best thing to do is boot the comp off the WinXP CD, choose R at the setup screen to get to the Recovery Console, select the OS to boot into, enter the admin password and then run the format command. And dude, do yourself a favor and get a good antivirus, firewall and SP2. I suggest McAfee or Norton and ZoneAlarm Pro.

[theraven]

no matter if u format or no
u need to install a patch to make sure u dun get infected again
use the remove tool and get all the updates from microsoft till date
or download autopatcher XP here

[Jatin_T]

I know i m going outa topic a bit-but i have to install Windows 2000 in me friends pc from a non bootable cd-he currently has xp and me-how the hell do i start up in DOS????
pls-i searched for dos using search and think this topic wud be best to ask my question...
Also-we wanna format all his drives before installing win2000-and removing ME and XP-a little help here-pls pls...

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by Jatin_T

I know i m going outa topic a bit-but i have to install Windows 2000 in me friends pc from a non bootable cd-he currently has xp and me-how the hell do i start up in DOS????
pls-i searched for dos using search and think this topic wud be best to ask my question...
Also-we wanna format all his drives before installing win2000-and removing ME and XP-a little help here-pls pls...

Technically, you can't get into a pure DOS mode from any of those OSes. But cheer up, what you can do is run the WINNT32.EXE file on the Windows 2000 CD's I386 folder. This will launch the Windows 2000 setup, make sure you select a "Clean Install" and not the Upgrade option. Then on the Setup options screen, click the Advanced options button and check the "Copy all setup files to hard drive" and "I want to select the partition during installation" boxes and then proceed normally with the install. If you do this, when all files have been copied to the HDD and the system restarts for beginning the Windows 2000 setup, you will be taken to a screen that asks you to select the partition for installing Windows 2000. If you want just Windows 2000 on the machine, select C:, hit Enter, and select the "Format the partition using the NTFS file system" option. After this, setup will proceed normally. Once setup is complete, you can log into Windows 2000 and then run the format command on the remaining drives to wipe them out. You just have to wipe out C: before the install, you can do the rest after the install, no problem. Hope this helped.

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by FasTrack

How can i access the various booting options ( if present ) in win - XP

I forgot to answer that, sorry. Its the same as in any other Windows OS. Keep tapping the F8 key at startup after the BIOS POST and before the Windows logo comes up.

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by theraven

no matter if u format or no
u need to install a patch to make sure u dun get infected again
use the remove tool and get all the updates from microsoft till date
or download autopatcher XP here

Good one, buddy. I completely forgot about fixing the hole in the first place. It's like changing the locks on a door with no hinges.

[Jatin_T]

Thnx for the help...but the cd was corrupted-all the...like we say in hindi
KHODA PAHAD_NIKLI CORRUPT CD

[enoonmai]

Thats seriously screwed up man, so sorry. What are you gonna do now? Get a CD from someone else and use your product key?

[zenblue]

@.."theraven"....i wanna try autopatcher...tell me little bit about it pls..is it like windows update? i normally use windowsupdate..is autopatcher better then windowsupdate?...i went to website and there are about 4-5 different versions for XP...Full, update, Lite, ultralite, tweak...which one shall i download??...

[it_waaznt_me]

Hmmm.. I personally dont prefer AutopatcherXP ... You should install SP2 ...

[hard_rock]

Hey guyz,I have Windows XP Home SP2,Fedora Core1, Win98se on my AMD Athlon Xp 2800+ PC.
I recently installed fedora n didn't get GRUB bootloader..........so I reinstalled grub into MBR............thn boot.ini get corrupted n on next booting it showed "Disk error".......Grub worked fine but in tht windows did'nt came up. So I formatted drive C: which contained WinXPhome n reinstalled XP without harming D: which contains Win98se. While using scandisk it showed an error in D: tht it can free up space which some files has occupied earlier which are now not present......I fixed it........
this is what happened.......now my prob is bootloader Boot.ini is not detecting Win98se.I don't want to reinstall it.How to recover it.
Offcourse I added the line indicating the partition containing Win98se.It showed during booting.On entering Win98se it showed Windows can't be detected.Hal.dll is missing.How to recover 98?

[zenblue]

@ "it_waaznt_me"...i already have sp2 installed...i recently did a slipstream with sp2 and installed xpsp2 clean install...well, thanks for the advice...i ll stick to windows update then...

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by hard_rock

Offcourse I added the line indicating the partition containing Win98se.It showed during booting.On entering Win98se it showed Windows can't be detected.Hal.dll is missing.How to recover 98?

Hal.dll (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is used by WinXP and not by 98. I read somewhere that moving the HAL or any other critical boot file to a point past 8GB on the disk using some 3rd party defragmenter, PartitionMagic or manually editing the file, can cause this error. Go here or here to try and fix the problem, or boot the computer using the bootable WinXP CD, and use the Recovery Console to repair the boot partition. Of course, you can try something as simple as getting the file from here and putting it in the necessary directory, although I doubt that will work in your case. You're welcome to try though. But do let us know what happens.

[Jatin_T]

Originally Posted by enoonmai

Thats seriously screwed up man, so sorry. What are you gonna do now? Get a CD from someone else and use your product key?

It was my cd but i have XP now..so no worries..
Abt my frinds PC-i dont know wht but he has the worst luck ever..every time we try to make it better-it completely hampers wht we r trying to do...
like for example-i installed pc cillin in his pc-and his modem stopped working tht very day-so he cant register it..till now the modems in repair
And the time we we just uninstalled NT and put in XP-his boot.ini file went missing..
Also now wen i tried to install NT over ME-windows cant determine his current version of windows!!
Think his pc needs serious help..which i cant give!

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by Jatin_T

Think his pc needs serious help..which i cant give!

Actually, I think you can. Just unplug it, take it to the terrace, say a few kind words to it and drop it and end the poor thing's misery.

[swatkat]

If u want to change/remove Boot order of multiple WINDOWS OS then u can edit boot.ini in C:\.

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by swatkat

If u want to change/remove Boot order of multiple WINDOWS OS then u can edit boot.ini in C:\

Dude, check out hardrock's post on the previous page to get an itty bitty sample of the billion and one things that can go wrong if something screws up with the boot.ini file edit.

[theraven]

@zenblie ...
many ppl dun prefer autopatcher
the thing abt windows update is that i dun like waiting for everything to download one by one .. and then installin
so i get autopatcher ... i click whatever i want on it .. and upgrade ...
with a one time downloaded file
and i have a backup of all the updates i need
ofcourse there are other ways to backup updates
anyways the latest version of autopatcher supports sp2
for that ... once u download it ... run the "tweak" version if u have sp2 installed
for windows media 10 ... just run the full version ... and deselect all other updates except wm10 ... and u have it all
its just a matter of choice m8 ... u can try it once .. it wont give u any problems that i know off
no offence to batty ofcourse

[zenblue]

thanks for the info 'theraven'....i may try it next time i need to update...for now my system is updates as of today...and i have already downloaded mediaplayer 10 separately...anyways...thanks so much...

[hard_rock]

enoonmai: I think u misunderstood the problem..........my XP is working correctly even after I edited boot.ini..........but the matter is bootloader is not detecting Win98.The filesystem of windows 98 has not been changed.Thn also it's not detecting it.When I selected Win98 in bootloader after editing boot.ini and pressed enter then it showed error:HAL.dll missing.......ya it's only 4 Winxp(Hal.dll)...........but my question is how to make Win98 drive that is D: drive bootable.......
I think this prob. occurred bcoz I tried fixmbr n fixboot cmds from Winxp bootable CD when Grub wasn't detecting my WINDOWS........thn I wanted to restore boot.ini........

[hard_rock]

Dude, check out hardrock's post on the previous page to get an itty bitty sample of the billion and one things that can go wrong if something screws up with the boot.ini file edit.

enoonmai: I think u misunderstood the problem..........my XP is working correctly even after I edited boot.ini..........but the matter is bootloader is not detecting Win98.The filesystem of windows 98 has not been changed.Thn also it's not detecting it.When I selected Win98 in bootloader after editing boot.ini and pressed enter then it showed error:HAL.dll missing.......ya it's only 4 Winxp(Hal.dll)...........but my question is how to make Win98 drive that is D: drive bootable.......
I think this prob. occurred bcoz I tried fixmbr n fixboot cmds from Winxp bootable CD when Grub wasn't detecting my WINDOWS........thn I wanted to restore boot.ini........

[enoonmai]

Originally Posted by hard_rock

enoonmai: I think u misunderstood the problem..........but my question is how to make Win98 drive that is D: drive bootable.......

Hmm, you're right there, buddy. I DID misunderstand. Did you try using XOSL? Probably that might help. I'm stumped for the moment, if something comes up in that small brain of mine, I'll post it here.

[hard_rock]

Hmm, you're right there, buddy. I DID misunderstand. Did you try using XOSL? Probably that might help. I'm stumped for the moment, if something comes up in that small brain of mine, I'll post it here.

I tried XOSL..................thx man........U solved my 1 problem........i.e, Fedora booting.........it boots neatly without a problem........but when I chose win 98 in XOSL it didn't boot........what do u think the boot files in tht drive r missin or what? Previously when I used fixmbr,fixboot options n tried to reinstall XP .......then in Scandisk it showed an error tht some amount 101MB is wasted by files which are not used........do u want to fix this............I fixed tht...................does this has something to do with the corruption of D: where 98 is stored.In 1 sentence my question is........
How to make drive containing win98se bootable

[ShekharPalash]

Check out a copy of BOOT.INI REFERENCE GUIDE by Mark Russinovich.

[hard_rock]

Hey guyz,I have Windows XP Home SP2,Fedora Core1, Win98se on my AMD Athlon Xp 2800+ PC.
I recently installed fedora n didn't get GRUB bootloader..........so I reinstalled grub into MBR............thn boot.ini get corrupted n on next booting it showed "Disk error".......Grub worked fine but in tht windows did'nt came up. So I formatted drive C: which contained WinXPhome n reinstalled XP without harming D: which contains Win98se. While using scandisk it showed an error in D: tht it can free up space which some files has occupied earlier which are now not present......I fixed it........
this is what happened.......now my prob is bootloader Boot.ini is not detecting Win98se.I don't want to reinstall it.How to recover it.
Offcourse I added the line indicating the partition containing Win98se.It showed during booting.On entering Win98se it showed Windows can't be detected.Hal.dll is missing.How to recover 98?

Hey Shekhar......I have added the win 98 se in boot.ini....my prob is as explained above with further clear cut picture in this page...........
I think some files required 4 win98 are missing in D: where win98 are missing......what are they......? what might be the reason 4 this problem? is copying system files to the drive D: makes it bootable..........what is the Solution 4 this........

[swatkat]

For all your Boot.ini queries visit this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q289022
If u want to retain Win bootloader after linux installation visit this link:
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

[hard_rock]

For all your Boot.ini queries visit this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q289022
If u want to retain Win bootloader after linux installation visit this link:
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

Hey Swatkat.........u sent the links thru PM to me n thx 4 tht.......now adding to boot.ini is not a problem.........but D: is not bootable........i.e, I added windows 98 partition details to boot.ini it didn't not worked.........even tried XOSL it didn't considered drive D: as bootable........I mean a drive with an OS.So how to make it recognize as OS.Is the OS corrupt.......If yes what are the files missingg.....Does any change in the MBR effects the consideration of some drive as not containing OS.i.e, I made some changes in MBR.thn does it effects the partition table stored in it n the information abt drive D: as bootable is corrupted...ya, this is really a weird prob.