Help! Error booting into Win ME

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:52 pm

My old computer is a Win2k/WinME dual boot. WinME is strictly for playing older games that don't seem to work in Win2k or WinME. Win2k is for sanity if I want to use the computer for some "office" when my other computer is crunching away on something.

I recently went into WinME and put a Norton Systemworks 2004 in there so that I had an up to date virus scanner, as well as installing a few MS security updates. In that process I needed to reboot the machine about 5 times and it all seemed to work fine.

Last night I wanted to go into WinME to play some games and it wouldn't boot. I'm getting an error:

"Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key"

When I go into Win2k I can see all files in the WinME partition just fine. Any idea what the problem could be? I've tried looking for a few resolutions, one I have heard is to do a FDISK /mbr....but I'm not so sure I want to do that because I've got the same physical disk partitioned in half to have my dual boot here.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

DKin6slay3r · Post by **DKin6slay3r** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:17 pm

Win/ME is probably the worst OS anyone could use. I recommend if you want an older OS for such needs use 98SE.

Ive always been taught to install the oldest OS first on a dual boot. Maybe having your WIN/ME after you installed 2k might be causing some conflict?

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:39 pm

While in 2k can you run chkdsk?

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 9:11 pm

One thing to try is to open msconfig and click on the tab entitled BOOT.INI, and click on the button that says Check All Boot Paths. That is of course after you download the windows xp version of msconfig from here. It will work in 2k. Have you tried using the windows 2k compatibility mode to play your old games.
Compatibility Mode

This is a function built into Windows® XP, and added to
Windows® 2000 as of service pack 2.

(To enable it on Windows® 2000, execute the command
''regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll''
from the Run prompt or a command console(without the quotes). You will need
Administrator privileges to enable this. Service Pack 2 or higher must be
installed. This will add a tab to execution shortcuts called 'Compatibility'.
You may want to check first to see if compatibility mode is already available.
Do not do this in Windows® XP -- you already have it active by default.)

regsvr32 c:\winnt\apppatch\slayerui.dll

I agree with |D|Kin6slay3r, ME is probably not the best OS to play old games on. It was Microsoft's first attempt at getting ride of dos. It's hidden and crippled. My vote goes for 98se also. I dual booted it with 2k pro for quit a while. Using compatibility mode I can play everything except a true dos game. I don't dual boot anymore.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 9:46 pm

Hmm, looks like running msconfig will only tell you if the boot paths are good. It won't actually fix it. I should have done a little more googling before I posted, sorry.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 10:30 pm

Sounds like the system files are corrupt or missing on the ME partition. Try booting from the me disk and in dos give it a

sys x: y:

where x: is the cdrom and y: is the me partition.

Norm could help you better with this.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 1:03 am

The only Windows OS I have very little time with is ME, so I can only take a few guesses at this.
When the error ""Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key" came up in the past it was usually a floppy left in while booting. If not, then it meant that the boot files were missing from the root of the boot drive.

If you installed WinMe first, and it is on drive C: then..
Boot into a WinMe bootdisk and type

sys c:

Doing this may effect the Win2K boot configuration, so here's what you do first.....
Copy boot.ini,ntdetect, and ntldr from the root directory ie c:\ to a safe easily accessible place, and then copy them back after doing the "sys c:"

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 2:41 am

|D|Kin6slay3r wrote:Win/ME is probably the worst OS anyone could use. I recommend if you want an older OS for such needs use 98SE.

Ive always been taught to install the oldest OS first on a dual boot. Maybe having your WIN/ME after you installed 2k might be causing some conflict?

Maybe I didn't explicitly say this but I think it's implied that you must install the Win9x based OS first.....or so I was told once and believed it. That is part of my motivation to fix it rather than re-install 2 OS's.

Everyone always says this, that 98SE is better than WinME. I saw that on my friend's machine but on mine it's the total opposite (they key thing being that you turn off System Restore). 98SE takes about 3 minutes to boot, and if I installed either an FTP Server, Oracle, or Cold Fusion developer I'd have to reboot my machine every hour due to instability in 98SE. Anyway, this debate isn't helping my cause so lets move on.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 2:49 am

Norm wrote:The only Windows OS I have very little time with is ME, so I can only take a few guesses at this.
When the error ""Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key" came up in the past it was usually a floppy left in while booting. If not, then it meant that the boot files were missing from the root of the boot drive.

If you installed WinMe first, and it is on drive C: then..
Boot into a WinMe bootdisk and type

sys c:

Doing this may effect the Win2K boot configuration, so here's what you do first.....
Copy boot.ini,ntdetect, and ntldr from the root directory ie c:\ to a safe easily accessible place, and then copy them back after doing the "sys c:"

Okay I'll give this a shot tomorrow morning. I'm wondering if I should backup all files in case I toast my Win2k as well. Anyway, at least this gives me some ideas of what to do once I stick that boot disk in there, I tried it already and did a regscan but otherwise was thinking "I've got a boot disk, what do I do with it!".

A possible complication to all of this is that I'm using a Promise ATA100 controller (ie PCI card) which makes the entries in the boot.ini quite strange. For the slight increase in burst speed I get over my onboard DMA33 it's not worth the hassle when it comes to installing OS's.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:08 pm

Despite the fact that I copied those boot.ini, btldr and ntdetect now I have got my WinME working and my Win2k will not boot when I did the sys c:. The main problem being that I cannot even get the boot menu to appear (yes even with those files in the C root backed up and restored there).

I believe the issue is related somewhere in the following area:
-My first physical disk is partitioned into 2 parts, and a 2nd physical disk as 1 partition
-In WinME it sees the 1st of 2 partitions as C, then the 2nd physical disk partition as D, and the 2nd of 2 partitions as E (this contains Win2k)
-When Win2k was working the partitions were ordered as C contains WinME, D contains Win2k, E is for files (much more logical than the way WinME was straddling the 1st and 2nd partitions of the first physical disk with the 2nd physical disk straddled in the middle.

I think it's some kind of game as to which OS gets to order the partitions. Now that WinME was restored the boot.ini is pointing to the E drive rather than to D. I'm sorry, this is very hard to communicate and I'm sure this post is already too long for most to read.

My solution is going to be to attempt to install Win2k again to the D drive from scratch, hopefully getting that menu to appear again and see the 2nd partition of the 1st drive properly. Once that works I'll take my Norton Ghost image and replace it over top of my new Win2k install. Again, my only goal is to fool the damned computer into making a menu, using the menu and pointing the menu entry to the correct spot.

One of the variables is that I'm using a PCI card Promise IDE controller and this probably aids in the drives losing themselves.

Unless somebody responds to this mighty quick with another idea to try I'll be carrying on.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:50 pm

When you did the sys C: you wiped out the win 2k bootloader and replaced it with the windows me boot files, io.sys, msdos.sys, etc. It's not what files are there but where they are physically that determines which os boots up. The sys command puts them in the boot sector of the hard drive. When you install the second OS, win 2k, it will move the ME boot files and place it's own files in the boot sector for the bios to load. It also sets up the bootloader (menu) for the dual boot. Maybe this will work for you know.
Dual Boot After The Fact
I found this tip in an email I get from PC Magazine and thought it might be useful to you.

I want to run both Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98 SE on my computer.
When I bought a new hard drive, I installed Windows 2000 on it first.
But my subsequent research seems to indicate that I should have installed Windows 98 SE first and then Windows 2000 on a separate partition.
How do I remove Windows 2000 from the drive so I can partition it and then install Windows 98 SE first and reinstall Windows 2000?

You don't have to remove Windows 2000.
Start by installing Windows 98 SE in a different partition.
When you're done, insert the Windows 2000 CD and reboot to start Windows 2000 setup.
On the Welcome to Setup page, press R (for Repair).
When you reach the Windows 2000 Repair Options page, press R again.

You'll then be prompted to select a repair option.
Press M for Manual. Then press the Up Arrow until Verify Windows 2000 system files is highlighted; press Enter to clear this selection.
Press the Down Arrow to select Continue (perform selected tasks), and then press Enter.

The system will ask whether you have an emergency repair disk.
Press L, indicating it should Locate your existing installation.
Once it does so, press Enter to complete the repairs.
This will establish dual boot for you. (This procedure also works for Windows XP.)

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:10 pm

[quote="The Dude"]When you did the sys C: you wiped out the win 2k bootloader and replaced it with the windows me boot files, io.sys, msdos.sys, etc. It's not what files are there but where they are physically that determines which os boots up. The sys command puts them in the boot sector of the hard drive. When you install the second OS, win 2k, it will move the ME boot files and place it's own files in the boot sector for the bios to load. It also sets up the bootloader (menu) for the dual boot. Maybe this will work for you know.
Dual Boot After The Fact
I found this tip in an email I get from PC Magazine and thought it might be useful to you.

I want to run both Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98 SE on my computer.
When I bought a new hard drive, I installed Windows 2000 on it first.
But my subsequent research seems to indicate that I should have installed Windows 98 SE first and then Windows 2000 on a separate partition.
How do I remove Windows 2000 from the drive so I can partition it and then install Windows 98 SE first and reinstall Windows 2000?

You don't have to remove Windows 2000.
Start by installing Windows 98 SE in a different partition.
When you're done, insert the Windows 2000 CD and reboot to start Windows 2000 setup.
On the Welcome to Setup page, press R (for Repair).
When you reach the Windows 2000 Repair Options page, press R again.

You'll then be prompted to select a repair option.
Press M for Manual. Then press the Up Arrow until Verify Windows 2000 system files is highlighted]

F**KING wicked timing dude, I got to that repair screen and did a refresh on the speedguide forums to see if anyone had words of wisdom before I blitzed my OS and relied on my Ghost Image that was 2 weeks old (only thing I'd lose is a few emails on one account).

We'll see how it goes, it appeared to see my WINNT on drive E which is what I was talking about.....how according to WinME this partition is the "3rd partition" whereas anyone logical would take the 2nd partition of the 1st disk and count it as the 2nd partition and assign it drive letter D. Microsoft drives me absolutely nuts sometimes with stuff like this (believe me their lack of security and other stuff is bad too, but these other inconsistencies leads me to believe they can't even hire somewhat organized programmers if their lives depended on it).

Ha and in the time it took to write this email it's rebooted into Win2k and appears to be working.

Now shall I see if I can reboot into WinME!

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:58 pm

Hang on comedy, I'm still reading

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 10:05 pm

OK, send us the boot.ini file! Make sure that all of the system files for ME and the boot files for 2K are on the root of c: , the dude kind of confused me for a min. You might need to go into recovery console and give it the fixmbr command then just point the boot.ini file to where the OS's are.

First things first, lets take a look at the boot.ini file

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 8:59 am

I would just like to mention that I have never tried the "Dual boot after the fact" fix. It's just something I found and saved for later use.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:19 pm

[quote="The Dude"]I would just like to mention that I have never tried the "Dual boot after the fact" fix. It's just something I found and saved for later use. ]

It worked but the problem is I don't understand why. Even if the drives switch letters I should theoretically be able to change the partition number in boot.ini to 2 or 3 and have it work.

As mentioned above, it's related to the master boot sector or something....and it seems like when Win9x/ME is the last one to have it's hand on the master boot sector it screws things up for Win2k. Seeing as I cannot visualize what this master boot sector looks like I actually feel quite helpless. This fix is a workaround for doing things in the "wrong order", which to me is dumb because I can't see why the order should matter. My computer appears to be getting bogged down by drive letter problems, but the system should be looking at hardware indexes (eg. Primary IDE, Master drive) etc. If you go to the hardware you will get the right drive and avoid confusion as long as the hardware hasn't crashed or something.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:53 pm

Read and digest the following page, and you'll understand how it works.
http://www.mossywell.com/boot-sequence/

Don't quit half way, read the whole thing.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:46 pm

Until you did the fix your PC wasn't even looking at the boot.ini, so editing it would have no effect. As far as your PC was concerned there was only one OS windows ME. None of the windows 2k system files were being accessed. The sys c: command took them out of the loop.