Win XP/CMOS Battery replaced/Disk confusion

[BOAC]

Replaced CMOS battery to find 'hal.dll' not found. Recovery console enabled my dual boot W200 to be re-instated (thank the Lord!) and I found that the disk assignment had changed. Although Disk management still shows the correct numbering, boot ini had to be changed 'cos rdisk(1) part(2) - the XP OS partition now has to be rdisk(3) part (2). I cannot understand how I can get 2 different allocations? Anyway, XP now running with multi-boot re-establ;ished. Can anyone explain?

[BOAC]

To refresh - any experts know how I can finish up with a different 'rdisk' allocation to the normal Windows XP disk numbering?

[Fugazi1000]

Do you have an additional internal or external disk (USB pendrive perhaps) attached to the machine that wasn't attached when the OS was first installed?

The hardware 'enumerates' all possible disk channels and devices when initialising and this is what is reported to the OS (when it installs).

Clearing the CMOS (by virtue of removing the battery) would initiate this action and an additional disk device may 'shuffle' the order of the existing allocation. The numbering, from 0 up, is hardware type specific and the order 'logic' differs (slightly) between manufacturers.

'rdisk' refers to the physical hard disk.

[BOAC]

Thanks Fugazi - no, no external attached at the time, and I understand what rdisk is but not how it can be different to the current disk allocation in Windows. To recap, XP is on Disk 1, Part 2 in Windows Disk Management, but rdisk (3), partition(2) in boot ini. I just don't trust Windows not to throw some wobbly because of this at some later stage, perhaps in defrag or a new partioning or whatever - and there was me thinking CMOS battery replacement - SIMPLE - just pop and click.................:ugh:silly me.

To answer your full question, yes, Disk 3 was not there at install - a 160GB Sata I use only for storage at the moment. That would appear to be the issue, I guess, but why?

[Fugazi1000]

I think the issue is your view of the 'third' disk is not what the hardware now knows as disk 3. Windows is not changing anything, the boot.ini is stating the disk and partition layout it knew when installed, it is the PC that has swapped the numbering of the disks since it 'forgot' the values during the battery swap.

Had you removed the SATA drive during the 1st initialisation with the new battery, and then subsequently re-attched, all would be the same.

The difference in labels is less important. The logical disk manager sees 'logical' disks and partitions and dynamically orders these (plug and pray) in XP as they are added. It's not so dynamic in Win2K but still accurate. If you click on the 'disk' details and right-click properties, you should see the specific device info (manuf/model) and what the hardware sees.

HTH.

[BOAC]

Windows is not changing anything, the boot.ini is stating the disk and partition layout it knew when installed, - unfortunately not quite that simple, but I will try the disconnect/reconnect on the SATA drive, thanks.
Here are bits of the old and new boot ini
Old (which used to work!)
timeout=8
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS

New (which NOW works)
timeout=8
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(3)partition(2)\WINDOWS

OS is on Disk 1 (2) according to Windows D M

[Jofm5]

Dont confuse RDisk with Disk.

Your disk etc has remained the same, the RDisk value represents the boot sequence set in your bios so previously when rdisk =2 your boot sequence may have been something like: -

CD-Rom
HDD

and after CMOS reset it may have defaulted to:-

Floppy
CD-Rom
HDD

More info can be found here: - meaning of "rdisk()" in boot.ini file (http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage/2006-02/msg00044.html)

[BOAC]

Jof - I appreciate your time analysing this - I think that is the key actually, BUT some more 'odd' events today!

Starting at the beginning, CMOS battery replaced due to repeated 'BIOS Default' events on boot up and repeated 'confusion' over the hard disk boot priority.

Then (probably due to your explanation, although the Windows disk allocation had not changed) I got the boot ini problem, sorted by changing to rdisk(3) as above.

THIS MORNING -what do I get? Default BIOS again:ugh:. So I reset to 'normal' and 'hal.dll' missing/corrupt. (Fits your theory)

Win XP recovery in and once again, bizarrely, all it 'finds' is my W2000 installation so I rebuild boot ini with that.

On inspection I find NOW the system thinks W2000 is back on rdisk(1), so I change XP to same and all ok again.

Several questions now:

1) I had actually come across Daniel's article during the initial 'outage' but it did not explain how rdisk and Win disk allocation could differ.

2) Any ideas what can be causing the BIOS 'defaulting' now with a new batt?

3) During 'recovery', bootconfig /list found NO boot entries????

4) Would using bootcfg /redirect useBiosSettings have sorted out the initial disparity between rdisk and Windoes disk numbering?

5) Why did recovery not find the XP installation?

[Jofm5]

As your probably aware - I think the main issue you have is with your CMOS being reset. If on start it has figured the disk to be different to when it was installed it may try look at the wrong sector/track for the master boot record and not find it - hence the apparent disappearance of your OS.

As for why the CMOS is going its a bit of a strange one, I would reseat the battery to make sure - also clean the contact points for the battery to make sure there is no oxidisation causing an intermittent connection. Only other things I can think of would be a short on the reset jumper (Unlikely but check for dust on jumpers etc) or there is a dry joint somewhere which could be near impossible to find and require a soldering iron to fix.

What I would say is record the settings in the bios for the disk and if it resets again make sure you have those same settings to make sure it finds the MBR correctly.

[BOAC]

Thanks again for that Jof - I will check those things. Like you I find the words 'soldering iron' and Mobo incompatible:). It was the first CMOS battery I have ever needed to change in a few years of computing and I am beginning to suspect that the original was not in fact flat, but that there is another issue somewhere. Anyway, all running sweet (at the moment). I still cannnot fathom how rdisk can diverge from the set disk number allocation in BIOS. I may try 'bootcfg /redirect useBiosSettings' sometime if I'm feeling brave.