[WinSetupFromUsb] boot partition does not boot

[roxaz]

as the topic says.. i installed xp x86 from usb flash drive to the F: (for some reason creating new partition and restarting setup over and over did not make my old C: drive (now F:) again C:). anyway, i installed OS, however could not boot. as FAQ said i executed those 2 files in system32 dir. however i noticed something weird. boot.ini, ntldr and other sys files were in C:, but OS itself was in F:. F: is marked as bootable partition. I figured that i maybe i should move boot.ini and other crap from C: to F:, however it did not help. for some reason OS thinks that boot.ini must be in C: (windows boot.ini gui thing uder [startup and recovery]). im completely lost in action and have no idea how to make OS boot from F:. anyone faced this weird problem before?

[ilko_t]

Please list all your partitions and their contents, as well as which one is set active.

A picture like this could be very handy as well:

[roxaz]

sorry, cant rly make photo of windows installation screen cause i accidentaly broke files on flash, 1st option wont load.. (experimenting with that cmd that works with boot.ini). anyway i will upload it later if needed.

[ilko_t]

What program is the screenshot from?

Do you have any other operating system installed and starting? Can you post a screenshot of disk management, showing all disks and partitions?

Is the disk with partition D: first in BIOS boot order?

Is either of those disks IDE? Which one is IDE/SATA?

Any reason to use logical partition for F:?

[roxaz]

that screen was made with EASEUS partition manager. i thought i could get something out of it, but it turned out to be not powerful enough, or i dont know what i am supposed to do.. besides of xp - no, only this OS is installed. DISK1 - IDE, DISK2 - SATA. Reason i used F was that i did not want to loose all my data that was saved on D: and E:, however when i fired up windows setup - my D: became C: and E: became D:. When installing USB drive took E: so i got left with F:. Didnt rly care cause its not my PC, i should have tho.. Last time this happened i managed to arrange partitions using gparted from ubuntu live cd, however my dvd-rom is broken now, and i can not use laptop dvd-rom on workstation cause power supply plugs dont match. this is how i got to this stupid situation.

[ilko_t]

Your boot files (boot.ini, ntdetect.com, ntldr) are most likely on D:.

Make BOOT.IN on USB disk like :

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Continue GUI Mode Setup XP + Start XP from HD 1 - Part 1" /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Continue GUI Mode Setup XP + Start XP from HD 1 - Part 2" /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Continue GUI Mode Setup XP + Start XP from HD 1 - Part 3" /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Continue GUI Mode Setup XP + Start XP from HD 1 - Part 4" /FASTDETECT

and test each entry in order to start GUI mode and start Windows for first time. The entries which should work are HD1- Part2, or HD1- part 4.

Once you install windows and enter the first windows desktop, you need to manually amend BOOT.INI in D: and change rdisk values to rdisk(1) if they are rdisk(2).

Why this has happened:

BASIC Disk - Drive Letter Assignment Rules

The following are the basic disk drive letter assignment rules for Windows 2000:

* Scan all fixed hard disks as they are enumerated, assign drive letters starting with any active primary partitions (if there is one), otherwise, scan the first primary partition on each drive. Assign next available letter starting with C:

* Repeat scan for all fixed hard disks and removable (JAZ, MO) disks and assign drive letters to all logical drives in an extended partition, or the removable disk(s) as enumerated. Assign next available letter starting with C:.

* Finally, repeat scan for all fixed hard disk drives, and assign drive letters to all remaining primary partitions. Assign next available letter starting with C:.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234048 Edited March 1, 2009 by ilko_t

[wimb]

as the topic says.. i installed xp x86 from usb flash drive to the F: (for some reason creating new partition and restarting setup over and over did not make my old C: drive (now F:) again C:). anyway, i installed OS, however could not boot. as FAQ said i executed those 2 files in system32 dir. however i noticed something weird. boot.ini, ntldr and other sys files were in C:, but OS itself was in F:. F: is marked as bootable partition. I figured that i maybe i should move boot.ini and other crap from C: to F:, however it did not help. for some reason OS thinks that boot.ini must be in C: (windows boot.ini gui thing uder [startup and recovery]). im completely lost in action and have no idea how to make OS boot from F:. anyone faced this weird problem before?

The problem that you have comes from the fact that your NEW partition (drive F:) is of the wrong type and NOT set Active.

Now Drive F: is a Logical Drive of an Extended Partition, whereas you should have made a Primary Partition which you Set Active.

You cannot Install XP on a Logical Drive and Besides your Install Drive must be Set Active.

The Set Active Boot Partition gets Drive Letter C: and now this is the second Partition of Harddisk 1 (the second harddisk).

Your Downloads are in Drive D: of Harddisk 0

What you need to do is:

Remove the Partition of Drive F:

Then make Primary Partition in Unused Space and Set this Partition Active.

Then your second partition on Harddisk 1 - your Drive C: with GAMES is no longer Active but also No longer the Boot Drive

That means NO Booting with GAMES, but you can Install XP on the Created First Partition

At best you can do this by booting in the Environment where you made the Screenshot of Computer Management

You can use Disk Manager to change the Partitioning (F:)C: of Harddisk 1

so that on Reboot in XP Setup the First Partition will get Drive Letter C: and your second partition with GAMES will get Drive Letter F:

There are more solutions to Change the Partitioning, but the essential point is that the First Partition on the Harddisk must be a Primary Partition and Set Active in order to be used for Install of XP.

This partition will then get drive Letter C: in TXT-mode XP Setup DriveList.

Edited March 1, 2009 by wimb

[roxaz]

boot files were on C: by default and in my case boot.ini is a little different.

[boot Loader]

Timeout=5

Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[Operating Systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Second part of XP Professional setup" /FASTDETECT

it works, however system does not boot from any of drives, i put boot files on all of them and still nothing. i guess i should make ubuntu live on usb stick, reset flags on drives, make my main drive C: agan and reinstall..

EDIT:

@wimb: that makes things quite clear, well i was thinking about something like that just using linux tools. thx, ill try this out ;]

EDIT2:

Well i couldnt get it working heh. Finally i got back my dvd-rom, booted up ubuntu, used gparted to delete F:, created new partition, had set it as boot, had unset all flags of other partitions, reinstalled xp from cd and now it works as it should. Sort of victory, not rly heh

Edited March 6, 2009 by roxaz