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From: Paul on 20 May 2010 00:25
Puddin' Man wrote:
> On Wed, 19 May 2010 22:03:25 -0400, Paul <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't think you're missing anything, but it may still help to
>> review the "before" and "after".
>
> ok ...
>
>> Maybe we should look at your old system for a moment, and think
>> about where the disk used to be plugged in. Were you using
>> an Intel Southbridge port on the old machine, or some other kind
>> of port ? I'm asking this question, to see if it is a driver issue or
>> not.
>
> ICH5.
>
>> What was the old motherboard make and model number, and what port
>> where you using on it ?
>
> This is per Belarc:
>
> Processor-
> 2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
> 8 kilobyte primary memory cache
> 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
> Not hyper-threaded
>
> Board: Intel Corporation D865GVHZ AAC72419-110
> Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
> BIOS: Intel Corp. BF86510A.86A.0075.P24.0503071605 03/07/2005
>
> Not really certain what you mean by "port", but the Speedfan info
> will probably cover that base:
>
> I/O properly initialized
> Linked ISA BUS at $0290
> Linked Intel 82801EB ICH5 SMBUS at $C400
> Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
> SuperIO Chip=LPC47m172
> Sensor's Base Address : $0000
> Scanning Intel SMBus at $C400...
> ADM1027 (ID=$27) found on SMBus at $2E
> SMART Enabled for drive 0
> Found WDC WD800JB-00FSA0 (80.0GB)
> SMART Enabled for drive 1
> Found Maxtor 53073H4 (30.7GB)
>
> The W2k image was ~23 gb on the Maxtor, was then copied (Partition Magic 7) to
> the Samsung SATA drive, registry-hacked, test-booted, then transferred to the
> new sys.
>
>> My trick with the Ultra133 TX2 (IDE) card, is purely so in the move
>>from one motherboard to the other motherboard, I'd be assured of
>> having a driver in place to boot from. Win2K was booted via the
>> Ultra133 TX2 card on my old system, then I moved both the disk and
>> the card, to the new system. That means the driver is there, to work
>> immediately.
>
> Lost po' me there. You moved the controller and disk. The driver was
> on the disk. How did you install it if there was no driver to read
> the disk via the "foreign" controller?
>
>> I can then, install drivers for other port(s) on the
>> new motherboard, unplug the disk and move it over. Once it is booting
>>from a motherboard port, I can unplug the Ultra133 TX2 and put it away.
>
> Still don't understand "port". Maybe I've been fiddling this thing too
> long. :-)
>
>> In terms of which SATA port to use on the new machine, the Southbridge
>> is generally split into two controllers, with some SATA ports on one
>> controller, and couple other SATA ports on the second. I'd probably
>> try the "SATA 1" port (group of four), if I was doing it, rather than
>> "SATA 6" (group of two).
>
> The manual sez Intel H55 SATA and depicts SATA1-4 and SATA5-6, grouped
> differently on the board. In recent tests I connected to SATA1.
>
> Much Thanks,
> P
>
> "Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."
>

OK. I tried using your original error message. And this is the
first page I read, just now.

http://www.the-pc-guru.com/Error_Reboot_and_select_pr.php

It is suggesting that the disk being read, is not bootable.
Now, that could be because the boot flag (80 hex) is missing
in the MBR, for the boot partition. Or, perhaps, the boot
sectors are missing from the copy you made. The boot sectors
are near the beginning of the partition (i.e. C: partition).
And those boot sectors are separate, from the small amount
of bootstrap code in the MBR.

You can see the boot flag of 0x80, for row #2 of this PTEDIT32
output screen in Windows.

http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

This is from a Microsoft page on NTFS, showing the rough location of
the partition boot sectors.

http://i.technet.microsoft.com/cc781134.737c1f18-1bbc-45c7-9cb7-d61387d78324(en-us,WS.10).gif

As far as the boot sectors in the partition go, this is the only
tool I have on hand to look at them. A "fixboot" from a Recovery
Console, is another way to put the boot sectors back, if they've
vanished. (As far as I'm concerned, it is highly unlikely the
backup boot sector is good, while the boot sector at the
beginning of the partition is bad. So this tool, while it
allows you to look at the two or three sectors in question,
can't really fix anything. "Fixboot" writes a new copy, which
is why it is more likely to work.)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

I was probably thinking more along the lines of "inaccessible
boot volume", which as far as I know, is a driver issue. And
your registry hack + four files, is probably working
along the same lines, of solving the inaccessible boot
volume problem. Inaccessible boot volume, probably
occurs later, than the error you got ("reboot and select
proper boot device").

Now, the thing is, you booted the Samsung, while the Samsung
was connected to the old system. Was the Samsung booted,
while it was the *only* disk connected to the old computer ?
I'm looking for proof that it booted on its own, and there
wasn't some help from some other disk that had a working
boot flag and boot sectors and boot manager.

As far as the recipe on mostlycreativeworkshop.com , I'm not
absolutely certain that is needed for every transition case
you do. I think I've moved my Win2K disk from one Intel
Southbridge to another. so at least some of those files
and the necessary registry info, were already there.

My method, of using a separate controller card, is so I
know for certain, the necessary boot driver is present.
When the controller card is moved from the old computer
to the new computer, and is used to host the boot disk,
the driver I was using for that controller card, is still
present and ready to go. I only use the separate controller
card, for as long as it takes to install the other drivers
needed, to boot off the new motherboard built-in drive
connectors.

Paul
From: Paul on 21 May 2010 02:01
Paul wrote:
> Puddin' Man wrote:

>>
>> I tried to boot SSP1_WDP2_BKUP on the i5 sys and got
>>
>> "A kernel file is missing from the disk. Insert a sys diskette and
>> restart."
>>

Well, I did a search of my Win2K partition. I used Ubuntu and
the file search they happened to have. I got a hit in

C:\Windows\system32\xmnt2001.exe

and that is a file which is used by Partition Magic when
it reboots and works on the C: partition. On my Win2K system,
I've used Partition Magic a few times, and it seems to install
that program permanently, rather than cleaning up after itself.

So rather than the boot sector saying something, for some
reason, that Partition Magic thing is doing it.

Now, if you're using a different version of Partition Magic
than I am, the file name will be different. But it will
likely start with "xmnt".

In any case, my search engine isn't coming up with much
with respect to that file and your error message.

Paul
From: Paul on 21 May 2010 03:40
Paul wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> Puddin' Man wrote:
>
>>>
>>> I tried to boot SSP1_WDP2_BKUP on the i5 sys and got
>>>
>>> "A kernel file is missing from the disk. Insert a sys diskette and
>>> restart."
>>>
>
> Well, I did a search of my Win2K partition. I used Ubuntu and
> the file search they happened to have. I got a hit in
>
> C:\Windows\system32\xmnt2001.exe
>
> and that is a file which is used by Partition Magic when
> it reboots and works on the C: partition. On my Win2K system,
> I've used Partition Magic a few times, and it seems to install
> that program permanently, rather than cleaning up after itself.
>
> So rather than the boot sector saying something, for some
> reason, that Partition Magic thing is doing it.
>
> Now, if you're using a different version of Partition Magic
> than I am, the file name will be different. But it will
> likely start with "xmnt".
>
> In any case, my search engine isn't coming up with much
> with respect to that file and your error message.
>
> Paul

I hope this isn't a red herring. A German web site claims
xmnt2001.exe is launched from the MBR.

Normally, you'd go from MBR bootstrap code, to boot
sector on C:, and in there it says to use NTLDR, and
gives an "NTLDR is missing" if that file can't be accessed.

If Partition Magic is working, then MBR calls for
xmnt2001.exe instead of NTLDR. And if xmnt2001 finishes
whatever checks it is doing, I presume it calls NTLDR and
lets the regular bootup procedure complete. If
xmnt2001 can't find NTLDR, then my guess would be
"A kernel file is missing..." results.

As for the "why", I haven't a clue. I got the impression
from my usage of Partition Magic, that it didn't clean up
very well after itself. On a previous machine, I was
all the time seeing messages printed by xmnt2001 on my
screen, before Windows would start to boot. So it doesn't
seem to remove itself as a final step, after a successful
partition change of some sort.

If you were to load the Recovery Console for Win2K (i.e. use
the installer disk, to start the Recovery Console), then do
"fixmbr" from there, that would rewrite the 446 bytes of
bootstrap code. That would remove a reference to xmnt2001,
and jump to the boot sector on C: like normal. (You might
well still get an error, but this time, it will be an
error printed out by Microsoft code, rather than from
Powerquest.)

In another search I tried, looking for "mbr xmnt2001",
a user suggested renaming the xmnt2001.exe file, so
that it could not be found, and then a normal boot
would take over. For some reason, only people in Germany
seem to know about this stuff (both articles were on
German sites).

I can't verify this on my machine right now, because my
Win2K MBR sector (sector 0 on the disk), doesn't have any
reference to xmnt2001 in it. On this machine, I don't
see any messages during Win2K bootup, so I don't have
the problem here.

I make a copy of the MBR, using "dd", then look inside
it with a hex editor. You have to figure out which
Harddisk it is, to make up the address. "Partition0" means
to treat the whole drive as a raw device. The block size of
512 bytes and block count of 1, means 512 bytes total will be
read from the beginning of the disk. And that is a snapshot of
the MBR.

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

dd --list

dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition0 of=my_mbr.dd bs=512 count=1

(Then, hexedit the "my_mbr.dd" file and look for readable text.)

If you had a real "disk editor", stuff like this would be a
lot easier. I hate having to cobble together bits and pieces of
stuff.

Paul
From: Puddin' Man on 21 May 2010 18:21
On Fri, 21 May 2010 03:40:59 -0400, Paul <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote:

>I hope this isn't a red herring. A German web site claims
>xmnt2001.exe is launched from the MBR.
>
>Normally, you'd go from MBR bootstrap code, to boot
>sector on C:, and in there it says to use NTLDR, and
>gives an "NTLDR is missing" if that file can't be accessed.
>
>If Partition Magic is working, then MBR calls for
>xmnt2001.exe instead of NTLDR. And if xmnt2001 finishes
>whatever checks it is doing, I presume it calls NTLDR and
>lets the regular bootup procedure complete. If
>xmnt2001 can't find NTLDR, then my guess would be
>"A kernel file is missing..." results.

My guess would be something like "NTLDR is missing".

More than you would ever wanna know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_startup_process

>As for the "why", I haven't a clue. I got the impression
>from my usage of Partition Magic, that it didn't clean up
>very well after itself. On a previous machine, I was
>all the time seeing messages printed by xmnt2001 on my
>screen, before Windows would start to boot. So it doesn't
>seem to remove itself as a final step, after a successful
>partition change of some sort.
>
>If you were to load the Recovery Console for Win2K (i.e. use
>the installer disk, to start the Recovery Console), then do
>"fixmbr" from there, that would rewrite the 446 bytes of
>bootstrap code. That would remove a reference to xmnt2001,
>and jump to the boot sector on C: like normal. (You might
>well still get an error, but this time, it will be an
>error printed out by Microsoft code, rather than from
>Powerquest.)

I may give it a try if I can find time.

>In another search I tried, looking for "mbr xmnt2001",
>a user suggested renaming the xmnt2001.exe file, so
>that it could not be found, and then a normal boot
>would take over. For some reason, only people in Germany
>seem to know about this stuff (both articles were on
>German sites).
>
>I can't verify this on my machine right now, because my
>Win2K MBR sector (sector 0 on the disk), doesn't have any
>reference to xmnt2001 in it. On this machine, I don't
>see any messages during Win2K bootup, so I don't have
>the problem here.
>
>I make a copy of the MBR, using "dd", then look inside
>it with a hex editor. You have to figure out which
>Harddisk it is, to make up the address. "Partition0" means
>to treat the whole drive as a raw device. The block size of
>512 bytes and block count of 1, means 512 bytes total will be
>read from the beginning of the disk. And that is a snapshot of
>the MBR.
>
>http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
>
>dd --list
>
>dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition0 of=my_mbr.dd bs=512 count=1
>
>(Then, hexedit the "my_mbr.dd" file and look for readable text.)

Neat.

>If you had a real "disk editor", stuff like this would be a
>lot easier. I hate having to cobble together bits and pieces of
>stuff.

It can be damnably time-consuming. Thanks for carrying it as far
as you did.

The whole thing is humbling to po' me. I considered myself nary, nary
a guru of any sort, but I thought I knew enough to sort thru this stuff
in less-than 40 days/40 nites.

And I didn't expect Part. Magic 7 to chop off my leg. No NT/2K/XP sys will
boot w/o NTLDR. My test partition -had- to have had NTLDR or it wouldn't
have booted on the old sys.

I suppose I should've known PM7 could do funny stuff: I've suspected it
of committing unnatural acts with my boot.ini for years. Truly a shame:
with a bit more work (which Norton declined to do) PM could have been
an exceptional disk mngt. program.

Well, anyway. I'm installing Win7 on the new hardware, numerous issues to
chase. Need to see if I can make any sense of the Asus CD. :-)

Much thanks for your help with this.

Best,
Puddin'


"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."

From: Puddin' Man on 12 Jun 2010 23:24
On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:13:44 -0400, Paul <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote:

>Have you tried pressing F8 at bootup ? That could present a
>popup boot menu, and then perhaps the CDROM drive would be listed.
>
>I can't promise the results would be any different, but perhaps
>that path would actually get to the CDROM. The fact you're getting
>the exact same message, seems to suggest the optical drive is being
>ignored for some reason. Does it look like the optical drive is
>enabled in the BIOS screens ? Is the optical drive on one of the
>Southbridge SATA ports ? Have you tried another SATA port for the
>optical drive ? Does the optical drive show up, by name, in the F8
>popup boot menu ?

'Tis well that you ask all these questions, as I seem to be
prone to miss a detail here or there ...

>I can't really think of any other test cases, other than F8. because
>you seem to have exhausted any other possible solution. The only other
>way out of this, would be an alternate BIOS version, where ExpressGate
>was entirely missing. And I doubt Asus would entertain such an option.
>
>This is what it says in your manual, with regard to F8.
>
> "To select the boot device during system startup, press <F8>
> when ASUS Logo appears."

I finally got this to work (the timing is tricky with this board).
Loaded the Recovery Console, ran fixmbr which said it successfully
rebuilt mbr.

Rebooted and got (guess what) ... Voila! :-)

"A kernel file is missing from the disk.
Insert a system diskette and restart the system."

I thought I had disabled Expess Gate, but it was set to 'Auto'
which suppressed the features, only wrote a line of text. I
fully disabled it and got the same result when trying to boot.

>As for the behavior of your system, the only other option that
>comes to mind, is flash updating the BIOS. Check the vip.asus.com
>forums before doing that - sometimes, if a new BIOS is causing grief,
>there'll be a posting from a customer there.
>
>http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20100520225401593&board_id=1&model=P7H55D-M+EVO&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

I checked, no evident bios issues. There are 5 bios versions available.
I'm running the second (0701). The entire series looks like:

Version 1303 - Improve Memory OK! function.
Version 0903 - Support new CPUs. ...
Version 0806 - Enhance the compatibility with certain memory.
Version 0701 - Add item "Configure SATA as" at setup screen to support AHCI mode
Version 0503 - First release.

In order to get to these on the Asus site, I had to spec an OS. I spec'd
Win7 (no W2k option). Are bios's now OS dependent? Do you know anything
about EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface)?

Just for s***s and grins, I reconnected the Win7 disk, booted, and
searched the W2k disk for "kernel file is missing". It found no
occurances. Of course, I don't necessarily trust Win7 "Search". <g>

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed ... :-)

Thanks,
P

"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."

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