Partitioning and formatting for Win2k, help needed

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Oct 22, 2001
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Ok, here we go. I recently downloaded Win2k service pack 2 and IE 6. Somehow they messed up Win2k, as many things that previously worked fine would simply crash the computer. But nevermind that for now. I got a new HD, and stuck it in with my old one. I've had plenty of experience formatting and partitioning in Fdisk, but I'm still not sure how to do it properly with Win2k since I want to format using NTFS.

I used the Win2k installation program to partition the new drive, but the only way I could figure out how to format it was to start the Win2k installation. The result was that I had 3 installs of Win2k on 3 different drives. Upon booting I would get a choice as to which one to start. Using the install of Win2k that was crashing (I didn't format this drive), I re-formatted both partitions on the new HD, getting rid of the 2 Win2k installs. However they still showed up as selectable operating systems. I thought that if I used the Win2k setup to delete the partitions where my C: drive was located (including the install of Win2k that was crashing), it would completely wipe everything and get rid of the mulitple OS choice that I don't want.

So I did that, and installed Win2k to a new C: partition on my old drive. It's working fine now, with SP2 and IE 6 installed and all that. However I still get the annoying choice of operating systems, and my drives are not labelled correctly. I have C:, D:, E:, and H:.

On with the actual questions. Howcome the choice of operating system is still there even though I deleted the C: drive? Is it something to do with the boot record? Does the boot record not get erased when one formats? Also, if I delete ALL partitions on both of my drives, then re-create them in the proper order, will my drives be labelled C:, D:, E: and F: and I want them to be?

Hope someone can help me out. Thanks!
 
It's a bug? i have the same problem to, you need to do a search for boot.ini and open that up with notepad and modify the boot.ini file so it will only read boot from one os. My boot.ini file looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Recovery Console" /cmdcons
You need to look for a line that looks like your first line and delete it, but make a backup of it before playing with it.
For more info. go to <A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com" target="_new"> Microsoft Support Site</A> do a search for Article ID: Q141188
Good Luck!


😎 <font color=blue> I know nothing that is why i am here at THG!</font color=blue>
 
Thanks, I will give that a shot. Would using "fdisk /mbr" before re-partitioning the drive also work? Is re-partitioning my drives the only way to solve the drive letter problem as well?

Thanks again.
 
You can change your drive letters in windows 2k using the Computer Management Console. Right mouse click your computer on your desktop and click on Manage. Click on Desk Management and should show you a list on Disk on your system. Right click on the partition that you want to change the drive letter for and change it. On the fdisk/mbr I have not tried this. My fix is after you loaded the OS.

😎 <font color=blue> I know nothing that is why i am here at THG!</font color=blue>
 
Ok thanks! The reason I have a problem with my drive letters as they are now is that partitions C: and E: are on one hard disk, while partitions D: and H: are on another. But I will try renaming the drives and see how that works out. Thanks again for the boot.ini suggestion as well.
 
In that case you need to delete the partition that you do not want and create one big one after you do that. Make sure your data off that you want to keep somewhere else. Or you can find and use a program that will allow you to resize your partition like Partition Magic.

😎 <font color=blue> I know nothing that is why i am here at THG!</font color=blue>
 
I was just thinking of renaming current D: to L:, then E: to D:, then H: to F:, then L: to E:. I should end up with C: and D: being from one disk, E: and F: from the other. Would this work?
 
You already have the OS installed?

😎 <font color=blue> I know nothing that is why i am here at THG!</font color=blue>
 
Yes I do, I just re-installed it yesterday. Everything is working fine except for the boot choices and the drive letters (which are really just bugging me).
 
Why do you need so many partitions?
If you formatted the the drive during installation there should be no choice to boot to a previous OS, so that by itself makes no sense. I always disable seeing the boot choices anyway by going to the "startup and recovery" button on the "advanced" tab of the system control panel. Uncheck "display list of..." and select the correct OS choice out of the pull down menu. I assume you only have one OS? As for drive letters.. what's the problem exactly? Windows generally names them in the order of: c=primary partition on master, d=primary partition on slave, e & on=logical parts on master, then logicals on slave, in that order.

>I was just thinking of renaming current D: to L:, then E:
>to D:, then H: to F:, then L: to E:. I should end up with
>C: and D: being from one disk, E: and F: from the other. >Would this work?

That should work. You can also use a program like Partition Magic to force them to other drive letters...
 
Sticking my nose in here.

I can think of a good reason to have more than one partition per drive. If a drive develops bad sectors, or begins to fail, there's a slim chance of saving some of your files with XCOPY from the extended partition onto another disk. But if the drive is formatted as one big partition ... you can basically forget that option.

Thought I'd throw that one in the thread, just for the heck of it.

Toejam31

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
____________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely! ... Robert A. Heinlein"</font color=purple>
 
My reason for having two partitions on each drive is more for organization than for safety (although it's also a good reason to partition).

I've fixed everything, so it's running fine now. I re-partitioned the drives in the proper order using the Win2k setup. The multiple boot choices were still there, so I edited the "boot.ini' file. It worked out perfectly (so far!).

Thanks for all the help everyone!
 
Glad that your machine is now functioning normally! RAH!

While I'm thinking about it ... I've set up several machines with I.E. 6 and SP2. That particular combination has yet to give me a problem. So ... perhaps you should be looking in other areas to discover what initially screwed up your previous installation.

Heck ... that's what I'm using right now.

Were you running some kind of AntiVirus or Utilities package? For instance, Norton 2001 can do strange things to Win2K, including causing problems when installing programs.

Just wanted to toss that out there, too.

Toejam31

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
____________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely! ... Robert A. Heinlein"</font color=purple>
 
I'll be monitoring everything as I continue to install stuff. I've already installed Norton 2000, which is working fine. It might have just been some problem with installing IE 6 and SP2 after the fact, since it seems to be working out now that they were the first to get on there. I'll have to wait and see.
 
I could see that reason. I've always got old spare drives hanging around though, so haven't had a need to do that. I've got my 80gigger as one big drive right now. :)
I support about 60 win2k boxes right now in our call center, and I've got IE6 and SP2 + all critical updates on all of them. No problems yet. We also run norton corporate edition. I think his problem was elsewhere as well.
 
If you happen to see this error after installing Norton, when attempting to install other programs, (especially games):

16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem
drive:\program path
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers. VDD. Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

This means you have a corrupted Registry key at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers\VDD

To fix the problem, using Regedit.exe, delete the VDD value name. Or, with Regedt32.exe, on the Edit menu, add Value name VDD as a REG_MULTI_SZ data type. Don't enter any data in the Multi-String Editor. Press OK and exit Regedt32.

I've had to delete or alter this key on a couple of machines that were running Norton Systemworks 2001 <i>before</i> SP2 was installed.

This probably isn't applicable to your situation, but I didn't think it could hurt to mention the problem ... and the fix. You never know when a tidbit like this can come in handy ...

Toejam31

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
____________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely! ... Robert A. Heinlein"</font color=purple>
 
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