[A1ex 655321]

I connected a 2nd SATA drive to my computer (my drive has XP on it) and started installing Vista on it but during one of the restarts it got all messed up so I just stopped it all and took the drive out.

Now when I boot up it get an error saying it could not find a file called winload.exe. Although I am still able to get into Windows by selecting to load a previous version of windows. I went into my boot.ini file to take out the vista part of it but it dosent exist in it, all there is is this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


Comparing what it says there and looking at my drive in Computer Management it looks to be looking in the correct place. It's for sure Disk 0 but it might just be partition 1 instead of 2 like it says in the file. When I look at Disk 0 in the Comp Management they both have a blue bar over top of them which indicated they are the "Primary partition". (One is 47Mb FAT 'EISA Configuration' and the other is 148Mb NTFS 'System') So maybe 2 dosent exist? I also want to know what will happen if I change the 2 to a 1 and its wrong, will it not boot?

Also,

- I don't have my XP recovery or install discs anymore
- I already have Vista up and running on the other drive in another computer.

Thanks for reading!

[avisitor]

That's correct, if you change 2 to 1 and it's incorrect, it won't boot. Let me remind you that if it's wrong, it won't boot anyway, so most likely that's correct.

[johnebadbak]

could try www.nerdlabs.org get windows98se boot disk

then boot up on it and at the prompt type.. fdisk /mbr (fdisk spacebar /) this will correct the master boot record, and the machine should boot ok. I have used this on occasion when two system are in dual boot on same disk. Removing one won't alter the master boot record.

[A1ex 655321]

Which one should I download, wboot98se.exe or boot98se.exe?

I dont have a floppy drive to use either, can I still use this method?

Thanks

[johnebadbak]

no floppy drive makes it a bit more interesting. and no xp disks your up against the wall. can't even make a bootable cd with out the xp disk.or run a repair of the system