OR how do I fix the boot sector of my C: partition, when I'm in winXP
on the D: partition, but I have MS dual boot from the C:, win98
partition?
Right now I'd be happy just to fix the boot sector, but the only way I
know to do that is from the XP Recovery Console, with " fixboot C: "
(Background: I used Easeus Parition Master 6 to make the C: partition
smaller and now, I still have my dual boot menu and can boot to winxp
with no problem, and I can boot to the win98SE menu, but whichever
option I choose, it doesn't get very far before it stops with some bad
message or other.)
So, How do I install XP Recovery Console:
I' sorry the rest of this post is so long.
I took my XP installation CD and found winnt32.exe and ran it
y:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcon but I'm up to SP3 and my CD is SP0,
and it said it was older than the current version.
So I found SP3 on a CD, but it was just one .exe file.
Then I remembered I had expanded the .exe file and had all the files
in my external backup drive.
So I found the one for SP3 and ran it:
I:\win2000basement\xpsp3\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcon and I got the
message "The installation source path specified in Setup is invalid.
Contact your System Administrator."
So I googled this message, and
1) some urls said it couldn't run from a flat file, which I think
means it has to be on a CD, is that right? So I copied the file and
2 winnt32 dll's and 2 winnt dll's to a CD and ran it from the CD and
got the same message.
2) Other urls said iiuc one had to slipstream sp3 to XP and then run
that (they all said sp2, because sp2 was the highest then, but
shouldn't it be enough to take winnt32.exe and maybe its .dll files
out of SP3 and run them?
3) One or two other places said that the problem could be solved in
the registry: http://forum.sysinternals.com/topic7290.html
"Temporarily change setup source path in the registry under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup
"SourcePath" value should point to c:\
(Re-create slipstreamed "i386" in c:\)
Backup previous key/data and reverse the process when done."
In keeping with this one, I went to that location in the registry and
my SourcePath was E:\, which until yesterday was the name of my second
CD drive. First I changed it to the address of my external drive,
where the files for SP3 were, all of the address that precedes i386\ .
That didn't work, so I copied the file to a C:\i386 folder, changed
the registry entry to C:\ and ran it. There it complained that it
didn't have winnt32u.dll, so I copied all four dll files whose name
started winnt to the same C: folder. Then it went back to the
previous message about Source Path.
Then I figured that I should use D:, since that is the WinXP
partition, so I moved the folder to D: changed the registry to say D:\
and ran it from there. Same error message.
Then I burned a CD and ran it from the CD in the second CD drive.
Didn't work so I went into the registry and changed the entry to Z:\ .
Didn't work so I moved the CD to the Y: drive and changed the entry to
Y:\ . That was almost the last thing I tried, and it gave the same
message "The installation source path specified in Setup is invalid.
Contact your System Administrator."
4) And one guy said all that was necessary was to copy winnt32.exe to
the C: partition:
http://askbobrankin.com/comments_000400.php
"The Recovery Console CAN be installed after Windows XP Service Pack 2
[That would also include sp3.] has been installed. Basically, you must
temporarily replace the XPSP1 c:\i386\WINNT32.EXE file with the XPSP2
WINNT32.EXE file, then you run the "c:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons"
command. No other changes or Registry edits should be necessary.
[So this guy definitely disagrees with 3 above.]
There are step-by-step instructions on the following page:
Microsoft Windows XP FAQ - (21) Recovery Console SP2 Revision -
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#021 "
This url says "You will need to do one of the following.
1. If SP2 was applied as an update and the option to save the
uninstall files was enabled, Uninstall SP2 from Add/Remove.
2. If Windows XP SP2 was preinstalled or installed from XP media
with SP2 included, uninstall will not be an option. You will need to
clean install with an older XP version or use one of the options in 3
and 4 or 5. [I don't like options 1 and 2. There is no 5 below, but
maybe he means the "work around
fix".]
3. Use a slipstreamed XP CD with SP2.
4. Use a retail/OEM XP SP2 CD when available."
"SP2 work around fix
Work around compliments of "Jon" from the msnews newsgroups.
You can install Recovery Console, AFTER SP2 installation, via the
following workaround.....
For this you need the full network version of SP2.
Downloadable from HERE. [This is the SP2 installer. I have SP3
already, and I did all the stuff below already.]
1. Open a command prompt in the folder containing the SP2 installer
and type
WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe -x
Choose a folder to extract the files to e.g. file:///c:/SP2files
2. Make a backup of the file winnt32.exe in c:\windows\i386
3. Replace the winnt32.exe file in c:\windows\i386 with the
identically named file in C:\sp2files\i386 (or in the i386 folder in
the folder where you extracted the files)
4. Open a command prompt at c:\windows\i386
Type winnt32.exe /cmdcons
Recovery Console should install
****I did this almost, I put the exe and 3 dlls that weren't already
there into D:\windows\system32 and I changed the registry entry to
match, but it didn't work. Surely it couldn't make a difference if
it
were in C;\windows\i386 .
(Ignore the first error message, if any)
5. Replace the winnt32.exe in c:\windows\i386 with its original
version (created in step 2) Hope this works for you. Jon
So I have tried pretty much all of these (except making a slipstreamed
version**, but I think I got the same files from SP3) and none work.
What am I doing wrong?
**Last year, I spent hours trying to make a slipstreamed XPSP3, using
every method suggested, and I couldn't get it to work. But here I only
need one file to work.
Thanks for any help you can give.
