[gerryf]

Right, it's not that anything he was suggesting is wrong... I know exactly what he was saying, and if it were his machine, I would not have any hesitation with where he was going....He was going to blow away the first partition which had ME on it, then rebuild the system files needed to boot into the second partition....that makes perfect sense assuming you're backed up and comfortable.

I am erring on the side of caution, leaving the boot files intact....

So, step 1

edit your boot.ini file to look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

save it.


Reboot, no menu, straight into Windows 2000.

Now, couple questions.....

How large is your C: drive (1st partition)
How large is your D: drive (2nd partition)

At any time, did WinMe have multiple profiles?

Do a quick look at D:\Program Files....are any programs your used to running now in there?

I have seen dual boot systems where people start putting programs into the wrong program files

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Look at it this way, you've got more than $100,000 worth of IT helping you out right now....how great is that?

[gerryf]

Look at it this way, you've got more than $100,000 worth of IT helping you out right now....how great is that?

[kdowning]

Do a quick look at D:\Program Files....are any programs your used to running now in there?

I have seen dual boot systems where people start putting programs into the wrong program files

[/quote]

I probably messed up but when I first installed 2000 I couldn't find any of my programs of course because they were in the other partition so I did a search found where they were then cut them out of the one drive and pasted them into the other drive but somethings I couldn't do that with - like I can't burn CD's in 2000 but can in ME

[kdowning]

my C drive is 25.2 GB with 3.86 GB used and 21.3 GB free
my D drive is 2.71 GB with 2.34GB used and 382 MB free

no at no time were there multi-profiles setup on ME - I think at one time I was going to play around with it so my neice could do her stuff and I could do mine but then decided it was too much hassle

Edited by kdowning, 18 April 2005 - 07:40 PM.

[kdowning]

Look at it this way, you've got more than $100,000 worth of IT helping you out right now....how great is that?

I'm not worthy
but am extremely thankful

and to show my thankfulness I'll give you guys a useful tidbit to put to good use - don't try to work on your computer and bake your son cookies for his lunch the next day - you'll end up burning the cookies

Edited by kdowning, 18 April 2005 - 07:39 PM.

[ke6ziu]

Look at it this way, you've got more than $100,000 worth of IT helping you out right now....how great is that?

I have my own network solutions firm that I started 6 mos ago. We specialise in all operating systems, all hardware solutions, and we deal with all security concerns. Even though we have all of our certs, we don't draw upon them for experience. All of these solutions are always out of the box solutions. Any problem that we can't find a solution for, we research it. We adapt, improvise, and overcome...we don't need Microsoft's help; how great is that? That's what makes us great...not money. No amount of money can make you great, only a brain-trust of experienced operators...with at least 50 combined years of experience to draw on. Now, you can't beat that...
Anyway, enough about that...

Edited by ke6ziu, 18 April 2005 - 07:11 PM.

[ke6ziu]

I'm not worthy
but am extremely thankful

You're worthy...the ones that aren't worthy are those that won't ask for help. Yes, there are many out there that won't ask for help.

[ke6ziu]

I'm not worthy
but am extremely thankful

and to show my thankfulness I'll give you guys a useful tidbit to put to good use - don't try to work on your computer and bake your son cookies for his lunch the next day - you'll end up burning the cookies

rotf lmao

[kdowning]

rotf lmao

if only my son had found it as funny

[kdowning]

ok so I fixed the boot.ini and it now starts up right to 2000. However, everytime I start up it goes through checking the drives (like if I had not powered down correctly) this is nothing new - ever since installing 2000 it has done this - what's the next step in getting my hard drive back

I'm ready to accept my next assignment

of course it will probably have to wait until I get home from work but I am ready

[kdowning]

just had a thought process sitting here at work - if I just cut all my docs and what have you from the D drive and saved to C drive and continued to save things to C instead of D that would solve the space problem - but I guess that's really not a solution just a band-aid as that would not solve problem with CD and printer

ok still ready for my next assignment

[gerryf]

my C drive is 25.2 GB with 3.86 GB used and 21.3 GB free
my D drive is 2.71 GB with 2.34GB used and 382 MB free

no at no time were there multi-profiles setup on ME - I think at one time I was going to play around with it so my neice could do her stuff and I could do mine but then decided it was too much hassle

Oh boy...this, combined with what you did with your program files has really brought us to a bizzarre point

I had a feeling something was odd when you said that you did the dual boot, but didn't really know how.

The SYSTEM_SAV as the volume name had me pretty certain that you had somehow installed windows 2000 to your system restore partition, which is normally hidden.

It can certainly be done, but no one would ever want to do that do to the size and the fact that you no longer have your restore files.

I'm kind of at a loss as to where to go next because simply fixing this will lead us to someplace that will quickly become unworkable.

Here's what I would do if it were me....maintain the two partitions, using the second small one as a storage location, blow away the first partion, then install win2000 there.

Ironically, with this you are going back temporarily to a dual boot, but with dual boot windows 2000.

Here's the first obstacle to that...you have no space on your D: drive to store anything and it is unclear what you need to move there. I highly doubt most of the program files yo moved from c: to D; will work at all, as well, and you probably do not have program disks for those programs because they were hidden on the partition you installed windows2000 to.

Yikes.

So, I guess now we have to make some decisions ...

If you want to maintain the smaller drive with windows 2000 and save everything to the larger c: drive, you can certainly do that, but it will a pain...we could edit your system variables to point to that drive, or even move the profile there, but it is ...awkward.
The problem is that your going back

[kdowning]

had just a minute to check my mail at work - not home yet but where do you suggest I go from here? Just to clarify - have been running this way for about a year but system really running slow lately - and actually feel up to trying to tackle the whole thing again. Glad I found this forum because I have found the most help here - other forums just wanted to flame about ME and not help again you guys have been so awesome and I am truly grateful for the assistance so far

[gerryf]

I would , at this point, use the second drive as a temp storage location and then blow away the first partition and load windows 2000 again there, then move the files back, clean the second partition of the other win2000, and use it for back up space