Cold boot problem help?

[rthomps9]

My PC started to display this error recently: ntldr couldn't open drive multi(0)disk(0)partitition.... only on a cold boot. Warm boot OK and once booted works perfectly.

I've go into the Recovery Console and ran chkdsk /p/r, copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the XP cd onto the root drive, ran the Maxtor HD diag utitlity on the drive, and still haven't found what's causing it. I've checked into running Fixboot and FixMBR from the recovery console but am hesitant about it since they may completely crash the drive.

My system consists of: Gigabyte GA-7VAX MB, AMD XP2500, 1G RAM, ATI 9800 Pro video card, Xtasy Theator Pro 550 tuner card, Maxtor 200G ATA drive (master) and Maxtor 80G (Slave), Sony DVD burner and Aopen CD burner. The 200G drive is divided into six partitions, including the C: drive, the 80G drive is in two partitions. This system has been running stable in this configuration for well over one year.

[rthomps9]

My PC started to display this error recently: ntldr couldn't open drive multi(0)disk(0)partitition.... only on a cold boot. Warm boot OK and once booted works perfectly.

I've go into the Recovery Console and ran chkdsk /p/r, copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the XP cd onto the root drive, ran the Maxtor HD diag utitlity on the drive, and still haven't found what's causing it. I've checked into running Fixboot and FixMBR from the recovery console but am hesitant about it since they may completely crash the drive.

My system consists of: Gigabyte GA-7VAX MB, AMD XP2500, 1G RAM, ATI 9800 Pro video card, Xtasy Theator Pro 550 tuner card, Maxtor 200G ATA drive (master) and Maxtor 80G (Slave), Sony DVD burner and Aopen CD burner. The 200G drive is divided into six partitions, including the C: drive, the 80G drive is in two partitions. This system has been running stable in this configuration for well over one year.

Any thoughts? All help greatly appreciated.

[Sylvander]

Perhaps the BIOS is handinding over to ntldr before the HDD has had time to warm up so as to be ready for reading.

Is the BIOS configured to "quick boot"?
Have you recently changed the BIOS configuration to this?

Do you have a FDD?
If you do, until you get a better fix you could try using an XP boot floppy to get you into Windows without errors.
The [FREE] Emergency Boot CD (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485) includes [on its 2nd menu] the "Create NT/2000/XP Boot Floppy" program that makes a boot floppy to match your system.

[mjc]

I'd give the drive the once over with the manufacturer's diagnostics...

[rthomps9]

Thanks Sylvander and MJC. I haven't changed anything in the BIOS but may try the load fail-safe option and see what happens.

MJC, I ran the Maxtor drive diagnostics and the drive passed everything.

Thanks for the replies.

[Sylvander]

I suspect a customised XP boot floppy [the EBCD would make one] would successfully boot into Windows without problems.

It would then be interesting to compare/contrast the settings in the boot.ini file of the successful boot floppy with the settings in the boot.ini file on the HDD boot partition.

See HERE (http://www.mossywell.com/boot-sequence/#NTLDR_with_Windows_NT) where it says...

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT = " Some Text Here" is called the ARC naming style

Part 1 can be the word "multi" or "scsi". multi means use the BIOS (technically INT 13 calls) to communicate with the hard disk. scsi means use scsi BIOS to communicate with the hard disk. The value following "multi" is always 0 because if NT has to boot from an IDE controller, it will only boot from the first IDE controller (starting the count from 0). The value following "scsi" is the number of the SCSI Host Bus Adapter from which to boot.

Part 2 is always "disk". If SCSI is being used, then the value following the word "disk" is the SCSI ID of the target disk from which to boot. (Easy really!) If BIOS is being used instead (that is, "multi" is on the same line), then the value is always 0.

Part 3 is always "rdisk". If SCSI is being used, the value following the word "rdisk" is the Logical Unit Number (LUN) of the disk. It is nearly always 0. If BIOS is being used, it represents the disk number on the IDE controller and therefore takes the value 0, 1, 2 or 3.

Part 4 is always "partition". NTLDR decides where the OS loading files are after the user has made a selection from the boot.ini file.

(GOTCHA!) The partition numbering starts from 1, not 0!

I'm no expert on this kind of thing by the way. :(

Is your Master HDD [the one that includes the partition that holds the Windows OS] connected to the Primary IDE controller?
[Relates to the red text above]

[rthomps9]

I can boot Windows, just when I cold boot I get the error. When I hit any key from the error screen it will re-boot, POST, and boot normally. I can warm boot normally. I've checked the boot.ini (below) but don't see any difference then what I've seen elsewhere. The reason there are two boot paths listed is because when this started happening I installed XP one of the second drives (80G) partitions as a back up. Before then it just listed the lower boot path.


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /bootlog
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

The HD 0 is the master drive on the primary IDE controller. This system has run great for well over a year with this configuration, it's just in the last couple of weeks the boot issue showed up.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Sylvander]

Now I'm no expert on boot.ini settings, but...

My reading of your settings...
[Perhaps the boot.ini file changed recently and this is causing the problem]
1.
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S

rdisk(1) should read rdisk(0)
...in both this and 2 below.

2.
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /bootlog
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

You don't have 2 Windows installation do you?
In which case there should be only one line of code here [beware of the gaps].
I don't know why the difference at the end [/bootlog] or which of the 2 is best.
Try choosing to load the 2nd of the two at the Startup menu; I bet it works whereas the 1st doesn't.

3. Rather than taking the risk of editing this boot ini file [unless you get expert, knowledgeable advice on how to get it right]...
Make a free Emergency Boot CD = EBCD (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485) and use the "Create NT/2000/XP Boot Floppy" program to make a customised boot floppy that suits [boot.ini settings match] your setup.
Use that to boot into Windows, and if it works ok, then you know its boot.ini settings are ok for your system.
Then substitute the floppy boot.ini for the HDD boot.ini knowing that it works.

[Sylvander]

Here's my boot.ini settings...

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

And the boot.ini settings from my boot floppy made by the EBCD...

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

They look identical to me.

[rthomps9]

The boot.ini file did look like your example and like the one I posted earlier with the red font - before I loaded Windows onto the second HD as a backup OS if the original HD/boot partition crashed. It's still a cold boot only problem too, that's the interesting part. I know some things are not reset on a warm boot, but I don't know what could be causing the big difference when booting.

Thanks again.

[Sylvander]

So by default...
WinXP [SP2 installed?] loads from the Primary Slave drive [80 GB Maxtor] installed on the 1st [Primary] Partition [yes?] marked as "active" [yes?]
And you are not making any choice from the Startup menu [yes?]; just allowing the default to load [yes?].

SP2 is needed to handle HDD's over 120 GB.
So is it installed on the WinXP installation on the 1st partition [a Primary and marked "active"] on the 200 GB Primary Master HDD?

You're giving no feedback on my suggestions on choosing to load options 1 and 2, or the making of a boot floppy using the EBCD.

[rthomps9]

Yes, XP SP2 installed on the 200G HD, installed as multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)as the master HD. I only installed XP on the second 80G drive after the booting issue, and yes I do get to choose which installation of XP I want when booting, the original XP install is the second choice now.

So by default...
WinXP [SP2 installed?] loads from the Primary Slave drive [80 GB Maxtor] installed on the 1st [Primary] Partition [yes?] marked as "active" [yes?]
And you are not making any choice from the Startup menu [yes?]; just allowing the default to load [yes?].

SP2 is needed to handle HDD's over 120 GB.
So is it installed on the WinXP installation on the 1st partition [a Primary and marked "active"] on the 200 GB Primary Master HDD? Yes

You're giving no feedback on my suggestions on choosing to load options 1 and 2, or the making of a boot floppy using the EBCD.

Didn't mean to imply anything about your suggestions, I just haven't done the boot disk yet, but will tonight or Sat. morning.

Thanks again,

[Sylvander]

Meanwhile I'll go lie down in a darkened room and search my brain for a reason why loading Windows should go wrong during a cold boot, but OK during a warm boot. :confused:

There's no place like home...
There's no place like home...

Cold boot versus warm boot...
Cold boot versus warm boot...

Cold boot versus warm boot...
Cold boot versus warm boot...

Are the HDD's properly configured for use [in the BIOS Setup]?
All drives set to "Auto"?

See There is an apparent failure of the hard disk (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/fail_Failure.htm).

But the hardware portion of Startup seems to complete OK, and the problem begins when loading important files off the HDD at the beginning of loading Windows.
Is the ntldr file corrupted?
Or is it OK, but there's a problem with the Windows files that boot.ini points to?

File corruption?
"MS Scandisk" on the EBCD will find such as these, but can only fix them on FAT partitions.
"chkdsk" run from the "Recovery Console" can fix NTFS file systems.

[rthomps9]

[/QUOTE]Are the HDD's properly configured for use [in the BIOS Setup]?
All drives set to "Auto"? Yes, and nothing has changed in over a year.
See There is an apparent failure of the hard disk (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/fail_Failure.htm). I've read that too...
But the hardware portion of Startup seems to complete OK, and the problem begins when loading important files off the HDD at the beginning of loading Windows.
Is the ntldr file corrupted? Replaced twice from the XP disc in the Recovery Console.Or is it OK, but there's a problem with the Windows files that boot.ini points to?

File corruption?
"MS Scandisk" on the EBCD will find such as these, but can only fix them on FAT partitions.
"chkdsk" run from the "Recovery Console" can fix NTFS file systems.[/QUOTE]
Ran that from RC also...I don't know except I think it's come down to a test of wills...

[Sylvander]

I suspect the cause of this problem may be understood once the details of how the Windows OS is loaded in its early stages is understood.

Seems that ntldr is loaded and runs from one of these two HDD's...
Then finds, loads and reads the boot.ini file...
Then goes to the HDD and partition of the chosen Windows installation to load/run NTDETECT.COM in the root folder and the other Windows files in the Windows folder.

QUOTE
Having decided which partition on which disk NTLDR is going to track down, it uses the Relative Sectors field to find the partition itself. (It could, of course, find itself - that is, the partition that it is currently running from.)

Part 5 of the ARC naming convention shows the location of the operating system main directory. In this example, the operating system will be located in the \WINNT directory. (Clearly this will cause a problem on a Linux partition!) Assuming this it has found a File System that it can read, NTLDR would find the NTDETECT.COM file in the root directory and the other OS files in the \WINNT directory.

There must be something different about the way things are done during a warm and cold boot. :(

[mjc]

I'm still leaning toward this being a hardware problem.

About the only difference between a warm boot and cold boot (as far as Windows is concerned) is that the drives are up and spinning during the warm boot.

I'm assuming, since you mentioned C: being on the 200 GB drive, that the 80 GB is a storage drive and not essential for the OS to boot...if that is the case, disconnect it and do a cold boot with just the 200 GB attached.

You may want to go through and check your BIOS settings and make sure that both drives are being properly detected/enumerated, that LBA and UDMA are on. If the machine is more than a year or so old, it would probably be a good idea to replace the CMOS battery.

[Sylvander]

"C: being on the 200 GB drive, that the 80 GB is a storage drive and not essential for the OS to boot"
No, the 80 GB HDD is more than just a storage drive.
There is a Windows installation on each of these 2 physically separate HDD's...
Each Windows installation is on the 1st partition on each HDD.

And the Windows installation on the 1st partition on the Primary Slave HDD is the DEFAULT installation that loads automatically after 30 seconds if no other installation is chosen by the user.

Still waiting to see what happens when you use a customised XP boot floppy. :)