Question Windows NT 4.0 not booting after disk cloning due to "Inaccessible_Boot_Device" ?

[Bubu93]

Hi, I'm in a quite desperate situation, I feel like the problem is stupid and quite simple but it's such a mess considering the old hardware and the fact that I'm not sure it's possible to format and reinstall Windows 4.0 from scratch).

I've tried to backup an HDD from a very old PC (a '98 Dell with Windows NT 4.0).
The main HDD is a simple Seagate IDE, so I've connected it to another PC, created an image with Macrium, copied the image to a new drive, and tested it.

Well, the new drive didn't work (gave me an error screen), so I've plugged back the original drive, but the problem is that now the original drive also gives the the same error.

Both drives appear to be working since they behave the same way, they reach the bootloader screen which gives me the option of booting NT 4.0 or NT 4.0 in VGA mode, but after it shows the processor and the RAM available it shows the this error message.

What could be the cause? I'm lost, I did absolutely nothing that I'm aware of to the original drive.

https://imgur.com/l2wDqmE

View: https://i.imgur.com/l2wDqmE.png


As I've said, I'm not sure if reinstalling Windows NT 4.0 is an option since I don't know if particualr drivers are needed and because it ran some old software which is definitely impossible to find today.

 

[KingLoki]

So, did you put the windows working drive into another pc with different hardware components?
If so, that could be your problem. When you take a working hard drive from one system to another, the OS installs or attempts to install files and drivers etc. to run with the new system. It changes the Windows hardware/driver configuration. The big problem is it can have many problems and incompatabilities etc. and may crash or not boot up correctly. If you take that drive out and put it back in the original pc and you have the altered OS to deal with. It may crash or not boot on the original pc anymore. That's where a full backup/restore can come in to fix it if one was made in the beginning. If no backup then it makes it much harder, possibly even a full re-install to get it working again.

 

[BFG-9000]

The first thing to check is if either disk is actually still C: or changed to something else. If it's now D: or something, you use your handy Win98/ME boot floppy (yes, really) and do a FDISK/MBR. No, Win9x FDISK does not read NTFS but can still reset an MBR.

If it still doesn't boot, the next thing to try is your handy Windows NT boot disk floppy. If you can start NT using the floppy, then the damage is limited to the master boot record (MBR) as above, boot sector, or the NTLDR file.

To repair the boot sector, run Windows NT Setup and choose the Repair option. Choose the Inspect Boot Sector and Restore Startup Environment options. If the boot sector on the boot drive is corrupted, this should repair it.

Lastly, to replace the NTLDR file located in the root of the system partition, use Attrib.exe or File Manager to remove the file attributes from the NTLDR file then copy a new NTLDR file from the i386 directory of the Windows NT disc to replace the existing one. Good luck

 

[Bubu93]

The first thing to check is if either disk is actually still C: or changed to something else. If it's now D: or something, you use your handy Win98/ME boot floppy (yes, really) and do a FDISK/MBR. No, Win9x FDISK does not read NTFS but can still reset an MBR.

If it still doesn't boot, the next thing to try is your handy Windows NT boot disk floppy. If you can start NT using the floppy, then the damage is limited to the master boot record (MBR) as above, boot sector, or the NTLDR file.

To repair the boot sector, run Windows NT Setup and choose the Repair option. Choose the Inspect Boot Sector and Restore Startup Environment options. If the boot sector on the boot drive is corrupted, this should repair it.

Lastly, to replace the NTLDR file located in the root of the system partition, use Attrib.exe or File Manager to remove the file attributes from the NTLDR file then copy a new NTLDR file from the i386 directory of the Windows NT disc to replace the existing one. Good luck

I've tried repairing the boot with a Windows NT4 CD, but it didn't work.
If I used the cloned HDD it wouldn't detect the system at all, with the original HDD it detects the system but the repair options don't work.

There are several NTLDR files, which one do you mean? They're located in:
"C:\WINNT\$NtServicePackUninstall$\ntldr"
"C:\I386\NTLDR"
"C:\SP5\I386\NTLDR"
"C:\BACKUP\NTLDR"
"C:\I386\$WIN_NT$.~BT\NTLDR"

 

[BFG-9000]

None of those are used to boot, only the hidden NTLDR file in the root directory is.

If you can't start NT with the NT boot floppy (which has its own NTLDR file), then it's usually quicker to reinstall NT. May as well try installing to the new drive as your clone is clearly no good anyway.

 

[kerberos_20]

0x7b error means in your case, that device you trying to boot from is not in the boot sequence.
Make sure the drive is on same storage controller and you have correct master/slave jumper set.
Alternatively you could open boot.ini and update drive signature and physical position on controller, which you would need to do anyway on cloned drive
that signature entry in boot.ini looks similar to this: signature(8b467c12)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(2)\winnt=description

now other thing that pops in mind is that when you plugged it into newer Windows edition, ntfs drive got updated to newer version which Windows NT 4.0 may not like.

 

[Bubu93]

None of those are used to boot, only the hidden NTLDR file in the root directory is.

If you can't start NT with the NT boot floppy (which has its own NTLDR file), then it's usually quicker to reinstall NT. May as well try installing to the new drive as your clone is clearly no good anyway.

I did a bit of research on the NT bootloader and now I understand, yes the specific files apparently are hidden by Windows 11/10 and I couldn't see them despite having "hidden files" enabled.
I'm not sure if they're present or not in the original copy I've made with Macrium tho, I have to find a way to check that.
That still wouldn't explain why the original drive stopped working, I can see why the copy wouldn't boot if those files are missing but having the copy and the og drive giving me the same error makes me thing that it was carryed from the og to the copy and that it happend before cloning.

Btw, I've tried repairing the system with an NT4 CD, it detected the installation on the OG drive (not in the cloned ones tho) and it said it was repaired, but nothing changed.

0x7b error means in your case, that device you trying to boot from is not in the boot sequence.
Make sure the drive is on same storage controller and you have correct master/slave jumper set.
Alternatively you could open boot.ini and update drive signature and physical position on controller, which you would need to do anyway on cloned drive
that signature entry in boot.ini looks similar to this: signature(8b467c12)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(2)\winnt=description

now other thing that pops in mind is that when you plugged it into newer Windows edition, ntfs drive got updated to newer version which Windows NT 4.0 may not like.

I now managed to bring the system back online complete with 2 partitions (one of 4Gb the other 60Gb) by:
- Clean wipe of the HDD with DISKPART on W11
- Created a single big NTFS partition that spanned the entire drive (this is a trick I discovered in order for the NT4 installer to see the entire drive instead of just 8GB).
- Attach the drive to the old pc aind insert the CD with NT 4 Workstation
- Delete the big partition (NT4 installer now shows the entire availables space).
- Create 2 partitions (4GB and 60GB)
- Format ONLY the first small partition to NTFS
- Install NT4
- Install Service Pack 5
- Format the 60GB partition to NTFS inside Windows NT4.
- Connect the drive to another PC, this time using an USB adapter I've just bought
- Delete all the content from the partitions (at least the visible files) and replacing it with the files from the Macrium image

System seems to boot fine and it all appears to be in working order, there is stuff I can't test yet because the computer is at home and not connected to the machinery controls, but so far so good.

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I never changed the controller of the drive, there are two possible IDE connectors that can reach the drive in the position it is, one booted with the error and the other didn't even see the drive so it wasn't the correct one, definitely not a port problem.

I'm still clueless about what could have caused the INACCESSIBLE_blabla error on the OG drive, my guess is that somehow the MBR got fcked when connecting it to the PC I used for the cloning, I have no other explainations so far.

 

[Bubu93]

Well, I ended up solving the myster, somehow the computer I've used to clone the drives did something to them that made them unreadable for the old 1998 computer.
No clue why, but If I used an USB/IDE adapter to burn the image of the original drive to another HDD it works flawlessly. 🤔