Another Dual Boot 2HD problem (2k & XP)

[SNGX1275]

Ok I have a computer with 2 harddrives in it. And NO CD-ROM, Both harddrives are on seperate channels (C=Primary Master, D=Secondary Master). So here's what I did: I took my XP CD and tossed it in my main machine and copied the cd to the HD and then I connected to my second machine's 2nd HD (the one I want to install to) by going to \\sngx1275\d$ and I sent the files from the XP CD to that directory.

Ok so now I have the XP install files on the 2k machine. I start the installation via setup.exe, I go through the stuff, and select advanced options -> choose drive letter and partition on setup, it also wanted to put the temp install files to "\WINDOWS" I think, but I tried to tell it d:\WINDOWS, but I don't think it listened (Explained in Edit #1). Anyway installation begins and all goes well (still in Windows2000 currently). Then the first reboot happens, this boots into the text based XP install and its going well, I choose the correct drive and everything looks good. Now the next reboot - this should boot me into the final stages of the XP install which are GUI based rather than text based.

I get some error talking about hal.dll I think this is the error:
Windows XP Setup - Missing HAL.DLL
Error Message: Cannot Find \Windows\System32\hal.dll

So I wonder whats going on because I had no invalid files or anything on the install, so I google it and I get this page: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm . That seems to pretty much explain whats going on, so I restart and I choose to boot back into 2k, rather than XP so I can take a look at the boot.ini. I get there and here is what I see:
[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Previous Operating System on C:"

So I take a look at that and see rdisk(1) and I think it should be rdisk(2) 2nd disk is secondary master

So I change that and try to reboot and it says I have a hard drive configuration problem (indicating to me that maybe I botched up the rdisk(2) part).

I did use the search feature, and everyone that has asked about dual booting from 2 hard drives has had problems that are not similar to mine as far as I could tell. So does anyone have any suggestions?


Edit #1: That default line is wrong it should say \WINNT rather than WINDOWS, but thats a moot point since I am not having problems with that.
I don't see whats wrong with my boot.ini otherwise, it looks correct to me, and my D:\WINDOWS\system32 does in fact contain a hal.dll and all the other necessary goodies. Infact it looks to me like the entire Windows directory is how it should be.
I have $WIN_NT$.~BT and $WIN_NT$.~LS sitting there in the root of my C:\, and I think thats partially to blame here. The installation to the final stages never occured, so those likely still contain relavent data to the rest of the install.

Edit #2: Interesting thing happens when I boot up with a boot floppy. C:\ dir returns expected results. D:\ dir shows the correct drive, but then has crazy characters for the results, and the incorrect number of directories. chkdsk from within 2k, seems to think the disk is in fine shape though. (Both C and D are FAT32 file system - once again a reason to not attempt to use ntfs - at least not until you have things up and running.

Edit #3: Edit #2 concerned me, so I began the install again, this time I let it copy the install files to \WINDOWS (C:\WINNT is the 2k Windows dir so thats not a problem). Then when it rebooted I just told it to go ahead and format the D drive - the one I'm wanting to install XP to. Problem is I still have the same problem I did before with it complaining about hal.dll. I figured out somewhere between Edit #1 and Edit #3 that the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\System32 is where its looking for hal.dll and its not there - but it doesn't matter because none of the dlls are there, only 2 things are there ntdll.dll and smss.exe. So putting hal.dll there just makes it say ntoskrnl.exe isn't there, and replace that and another ect.

Edit #4: I MAY HAVE FIXED IT, well sort of, more or less I just bypassed the problem. With the help of my digital camera, my webspace, and Stormbringer - I got it all straightened out. Basically now I just made the 7 gig HD Primary slave, and didn't mess with the boot.ini from my Edit #3, so it was defaulted (originally incorrectly because of my Secondary Master position of the 7 gig) to look at Primary Slave. Once I booted it up it just went straight to resuming the XP install. Thanks to everyone that helped [size=1]Just kidding about that help part, I didn't post it that long ago, doubt too many people got to see this thread.[/size]

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

So are you saying XP can't handle empty connectors in IDE controllers?

 

[SNGX1275]

No. Thats not what I'm saying.

I can't explain why it didn't work the way I tried, but its sort of documented in that first link I gave, but the problem there was slightly different than mine, they were installing 2k after XP I believe. And their approach to fixing it didn't fix mine. I indicated what the original boot.ini was and where I believe it was wrong, fixing it though didn't allow me to boot anyway.

 

[StormBringer]

No Mict, I believe the main problem was bad communication, it was pretty much made clear once he took some pics so I could see what he was actually working with. The age of the cables, and the jumper config were the main things that we dealt with. The final config that worked just ended up being how we got it to work. Once we were on the same page with everything, that is the way he connected it and it worked so we didn't mess with it any further.