I successfully built a CD here based on the instructions and upon booting asked me to insert the Windows CD. What I need to do is edit the boot.ini file on an existing partition that is incorrect. Unfortunately, the bootable CD I created using the instructions provided here only allows me to reinstall Windows and I don't need to do that as I have data that I need to save.

How can I boot and access a NTFS drive, and then edit the boot.ini file?

Your help is appreciated.


Cheetoman

What version of ubcd4win have you build???

Joshua

Make sure the "Custom" directory box is empty.

You may have added the windows setup files to the build by accident.



Please give more details as to what versions you are using.

As the others have said, you built your CD incorrrectly somehow. Please give us more details on what you did as it should never ask you for your XP CD during boot up as it just boots into its own environment. Thanks.

Thanks for all the replies.

I followed the instructions provided on the site.

The only gotcha here is that I used a Gateway OEM Operating System Disk to make the CD but all I did was copy the I386 folder to my hdd for the build. I did load the drivers provided by UBCD4Win.

As far as versions it was PE 3.1.10a., BootCD 2.6, Drivers 1.8.

Where is the "Custom" directory mentioned above? There is no folder of that name in my build directory.

Thanks for your help...Cheetoman

On the "how to build" page....under the instructions for "...building UBCD4Win"....it would be step 4. The screenshot is right above the instruction number.

I didn't put anything into the Custom prompt so that's not the problem.

Can you please list, in extreme detail, exactly what you did when you built the CD? I know you said you followed the instructions, but we've learned over time that sometimes there was a small error in what the person did. Since, as I said before, it should in no way ask for a Windows CD or start the Windows installation during bootup.

Upload pebuilder.log, autobuild.log & input.inf to somewhere we can see what the logs say. Use rapidshare if you have to. These should tell us what we need.

I could not find the autobuild.log file. The other files you requested are here: My Rapidshare Folder

Your logs look OK, so it's probobly a problem with the source you are using.

Do you have a non-oem source you can use?

No, unfortunately I don't have a non-OEM source available. Gateway really makes things difficult. The only way to fix a Gateway system seems to be to rebuild it from scratch. I just moved everything from a laptop so I'm not inclined to rebuild at this point.

A little history behind my attempt at using UBCD4Win...

This whole exercise was to fix a partition problem created by uninstalling PartitionMagic and Bootmagic and the way it bungled up my partition scheme. I was creating partitions to run Vista, which I did successfully, but I ran into problems with my external USB drives. In chatting with Symantec tech support (which BTW is a useless endeavor) they told me to uninstall PartionMagic and BootMagic. After doing this, my system was left unbootable which led me to attempt to create the UBCD4Win so I could edit boot.ini. Since then, I discovered that by deleting the hidden partition Gateway installs for recovery my system became bootable again.

I am running MS MCE 2002 which is what came on this system (that's what they are putting on retail systems these days). An interesting thing occurred when I ran sfc /scannow. After it finished running, it requested the XP Pro CD and I put in the OS disk Gateway provided. It was not acceptable which leaves me with no way to repair my system. I was trying to fix a problem with MSCONFIG not running when I discovered this.

One further possibility has occurred to me. There is an I386 directory under the Windows directory. Do you think using that directory in my build might yield better results or is it a waste of time? I really would like to create a usable UBCD4Win CD so I can deal with situations as they arise.

I appreciate everyone's help on this.

Some people have had success with this method (i386 on hd) but it takes a few modifacations.

You will need to search the forums a little for the propper instructions. I have not done this & do not have access to a setup like yours so I'm only guessing but you will need to create a new folder say..C:\XPCD & copy the i386 directory to the new folder & then you must create the "Tag" files that identify the OS version.

These are empty files named..

WIN51
WIN51IP
WIN51IP.SP1
WIN51IP.SP2

The .SP1 & .SP2 identify the service pack level of the cd. You may have to slipstream this new source folder(C:\XPCD) to get the propper service pack installed.

I know there are posts that detail this procedure, so you should be able to find what you need with a little looking around. If you can't find it here, look at www.911cd.net.

BTW: I don't know if it's still availble, but Microsoft used to have a free 360-day trial of Win 2k3 server, which actually works with pebuilder. Google is your friend.

Thanks hilander. In reading the your post it occurred to me what the problem might be. When you specify the source file location, should that location contain the files in the I386 folder or the folder itself that contains the files?

Point pebuilder at the folder containing the "Tag: files, ie.. WIN51IP.SP2. The I386 folder should be the next level down.

That was a really stupid question I asked. Sorry about that. I appreciate your patience.

I know what I need to do now. I'll give it a shot and let you know how it worked out.

Here's an update:

I copied the entire contents of my Gateway OS CD to a folder on my hdd. I then did another build and burned a CD which I booted. It indicated it was booting the UBCD but then it prompted me for Windows XP Professional SP 1 CD. This is the same thing that happened with my first build.

Obviously there is something strange on the OEM CD. If I knew what it was I would delete it and move on. Can anyone point me in the write direction on this? I would very much appreciate it. I am about Googled out.

Here is the contents of the autorun.inf file:

[autorun]
open=Programs\nu2menu\nu2menu.exe

Here is a list of files on the root of the CD:

autorun.inf
I386
Programs
WIN51IP
WIN51IP.SP2

I wonder why no bootdom, bootsect, ect.

Any ideas?

There are couple of other ways of editing boot.ini or retrieving your data from the ntfs boot drive.

If you cannot manage to create & boot from BartPE cd pull your hdd drive & transfer it as a slave in any other pc running W2k or XP. You will have full access to your boot drive as d:.

Otherwise lay your hand on a bootable Partition Magic CD. Convert your partition to Fat32. You will then have full read/write access to your c: drive even from dos 7.x

This is one reason I always leave my system drive as fat32 & never as ntfs.

Yet another way is to download terabyteunlimited's bootitng. It is a partition & boot manager. When you get to partition manager & check the properties of your system drive you will also have an option of editing a file. You can then edit & save your boot.ini file in there.