Windows NT
(incl Dual-booting)
I tried to create a repair disk using a 3.1/2 in floppy but it reports that the Repair Disk is full. What are these files and how can I back them up in a way that I can recover the information if NT gets itself into a non-bootable state? Are these the files used if the 'last known state' option is used?
This occurs when the size of the files in the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder exceeds the capacity of one floppy disk. This is a very common problem, caused by the pitiful size of the standard floppy disk drive, which has been stuck at 1.44MB since the last century. One way round this is to install an ATAPI LS-120 SuperDisk -with a capacity of 120MB, Windows NT will have its work cut out filling that! They cost about £60 ex VAT. Another way round this is to store the update of your repair information on your hard disk. In most cases you can use the updated repair information on your hard disk when you repair your Windows NT installation. To do this, use the Update Repair Info option in the Rdisk.exe tool. Make a backup copy of the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder.
You could reduce the number of files copied -if you use RDISK /S -it copies the Sam._ and Security._ database files to your Emergency Rescue Disk (ERD). Simply don't use the /S switch! Check out this document, Q122857, on the Microsoft KnowledgeBase for details of using the RDISK /S and RDISK /S options. Remember: the ERD provides just enough recovery to restore your PC to a bootable state. It isn't a replacement for regular backups. Maintaining a current ERD is just as important as having a current system backup. Whenever system configuration changes are made you should update your ERD with the RDISK utility. You should also update the repair information and create a new ERD every time you change the system configuration in any significant way.
I've now formatted my hard disk twice, and even let the NT4 Installer format the hard disk as well, but no matter what I do I can't get the system to boot after installing NT4. The machine was bought second-hand, but I've seen it working. In fact it was running Linux before I had NT4 Setup delete the partition and create a new one that it formatted. The installation is fine, but it won’t reboot. It just hangs after testing one of the cards. I took all the non-essential cards out of the machine, but it still hangs in the same place -still in the black screen you get when a machine starts with the cursor flashing after the letters 'LI'. What is it trying to load?
I fell foul of this myself when I was given a second-hand hard disk to stick in a machine that I was going to use to test something and then wipe out later on. That disk too had Linux on it, and the clue is there. That 'LI' is part of the word LILO, the Linux boot loader, which sits in the boot record of the hard disk trying to load software that no longer exists since you formatted the disk. The cure is to boot into MS.DOS, and then run FDISK on the hard disk, thus' fdisk/mbr. That /mbr switch cleans up the master boot record, and once you've invoked it NT4 will load just fine after a reboot.
I have a copy of NT that I'm trying to install on the same machine as my resident Windows 98 SE, but on a different hard disk. Unfortunately, I don't have any floppy drivers with my software pack. I also wish to be able to boot both operating systems at the same time. Do I need a Boot Manager program to be able to do this, or is this program inherent in either Windows 98 SE or NT?
You don't always get floppy disks with the NT 4 software, but that doesn't matter as you can create them yourself: all you need are three blank disks. Place your NT4 CD in your CD-ROM drive and do the following: Go to the Start button, click on it, select the Programs menu option and then MS-DOS Prompt. Navigate to the drive with your CD in it, and change directory to the i386 folder, thus: cd\i386 (press Enter). Type the following at the command prompt: winnt /ox
Once you've done that, follow the instructions for creating the three boot floppies.
Its possible to dual-boot Windows 98 and NT4. The key things to remember are that both operating systems must be on different partitions, and that you should install Windows 98 first. I suggest that you read Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q243896 to help you on your way. There's no need for a thirdparty boot manager - as you'll discover, once the two operating systems are set up, you'll get the option to pick the one you want when you start up your machine.
I have a dual-boot system with Windows 95 and NT4 Workstation arranged in the following partitions on one disk. Windows 95 on C (FAT 16); data on D (FAT16); Windows NT4 on E (NTFS). I'd like to remove Windows 95 completely and reuse the space for NT4. I want to keep my NT4 unchanged, as I don't want to re-install it and all my applications. How do I go about removing Windows 95 from the C drive and from the NT4 boot menu? If everything goes well, I intend to use PartitionMagic to rearrange the partitions so that NT4 has most of the disk space on the E drive, while the C and D drives can be made into very small partitions.
There's no need to bring PartitionMagic into the fray unless you have a burning ambition to change the size of the C and D partitions. The simplest solution to your problem is to delete the Windows folder on the C drive, along with Program Files on the same drive, and hey presto you've got rid of Windows 95. All you then have to do is modify the BOOT.INI file, which is located in the root of your C drive. You might have to unhide it if, like the one on my NT4 server, it isn't visible, and you'll definitely need to make it read/write before you can edit it. Then just delete the line that points to Windows 95. Next time you start up your system it should just offer you the NT4 choices, thus:
Windows NT Workstation 4
Windows NT Workstation 4 (VGA Mode)
Once you've done that, use the NT4 Disk Administrator tool to convert (not format) the C and D partitions to NTFS, and you'll have a working NT4 solution achieved with the minimum of effort. This is what you might expect to see when you open the BO0T.INI file in Notepad.
[boot loader] timeout=30
defau1t=multi(0)disk(0)disk(0)partition(1) \WINNT [operating systems]
mu1ti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0"
mu1ti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0 [VGA mode] "
/basevideo/sos
C:\="Windows 95"
Simply delete the C:\ = "Windows 95" entry to leave your BOOT.INI file only displaying the NT4 entries. To edit the BOOT.INI file, the easiest way is: Fire up Windows Explorer, go to the root of your C drive and look for the BOOT.INI file. Right-click on it when you find it and select the Properties menu item from the pop-up menu. Look at the bottom of the dialog and you'll see the Attributes section. Click in the Read-only checkbox to clear it. Once you've done that, close the Properties dialog and then double-click on the file to open it into Notepad. Delete the C:\ = "Windows 95" line, then save and close the file. Right-click on the file again to select it and follow steps one to three above, this time setting the Read-only property to true. You should now find that your system will only boot into NT4 and you'll have removed Windows 95 from the system with very little effort. Do check the contents of the Windows 95 Programs Files and any other folder on the C drive that you intend to get rid of before you actually delete it. Just in case there's some data there you need to keep.