manman

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Not sure what you are referring to--best not to use *abbreviations* until after you identify what they refer to.

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The boot process has two steps that are critical--and changing the *layout* of your system may muck this up:

1.  *boot.ini* has to point to the correct *partition*--that's probably where the problem is if you have changed the number of partitions.

2.  Once the boot process finds the correct partition from *boot.ini*, then the drive letter assignment has to correspond to what the OS registry points to.

What capabilities do you have?--

Are you able to create DOS boot disks and run DOS utilities?

Do you have PartitionMagic's DOS boot and program disks? 

Do you have another WinXP system where you can create WinXP boot disks (floppies)? 

Can you boot your system from floppies?

manman

So, explain again what you have done--you said you have changed the layout of the HDD that you restored to:

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I don't see what you mean by this given your last post.

As far as creating an image and restoring--what was the sequence of procedures--which HDD is the source and the destination in each step?

Were both HDD's hooked up when booted to WinXP?

Did you do the Ghost procedures in DOS vs using the Ghost Windows GUI?

Manman, I infer that your end-in-mind objective is to reallocate space among partitions on HDD1 (and possibly hide one partition).  If that is the case, then have you considered (A) restoring your system to State 1, and then (B) using Partition Magic to accomplish the objective rather than Ghost?

manman

If you put */SOS* at the end of the line for the problem OS, that eliminates the Windows splash screen during boot, and you might then see the error state that Windows is freezing at:

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To find out if it's a *boot.ini* partition problem, probably the fastest testing is to create, using your functional WinXP (?) system, a WinXP boot floppy that bypasses the *boot.ini* and other boot files on the HDD.

See here for the outline: 

How to use System files to create a boot disk to guard against being unable to start Windows XP

.

Here's a *generic*  *boot.ini*:

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I have created 4 boot floppies using the WinXP format, and not the MS-DOS startup disk option.  Added Boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com to each.   And for each floppy the *partition(x)* in *boot.ini* is incremented by 1--so 1 thru 4--these represent the 4 possible primary partitions that Windows can be booted from on a *standard* boot scenario for Microsoft.  (Alternatively, you can edit the *partition(x)* on a single boot floppy after each boot attempt with numbers 1 thru 4 and then attempt to re-boot after each edit.)

I then boot the system from the boot floppy one at a time until the system boots (if it's going to, at least  !), then I know based on the *boot.ini* that worked, what number belongs in the *boot.ini* that's on the HDD.

I know you are going to argue that you have three partitions and the OS is on the third *physical* partition of the HDD--but--we don't get to see what Disk Management or MMC is doing to the partition table.  Here's the deal--there's 4 primary slots--the order of the partitions in the partition table depend on the order that the partitions were created--and not on the *physical* positions that they exist on the HDD.  I (and you) don't know if after you deleted the two partitions, if Disk Management and/or the HDD's partition table forces the next new partition that's created to go into that 4th position before going back to the first, second, or 3rd position to see if they are in use or available for enumerating the newly created partition.  So, it's possible that your partition table lists the partitions *out of order* relative to their *physical* placement.  And, the partition table order is what *partition(x)* looks at, and not the physical layout!!!!

There are ways to *look* at the partition table to determine if the order is not *sequential*, but that will take more time to explain and test out than the above *quick* test can take.

Results?

This may not be the exact answer/solution, but something you should consider.

As others have said, it is *possible* that the partition(number) is or was a factor.  However, at this point I don't think it is.

I believe the problem is that your system boot drive letter has changed.

State 1:

Harddisk        Partitions
-----------------------------------------
HDD1:         C E F G        OS 1 (functional in this state)
HDD2:         D H I             OS 2 (functional)

State 2:

Harddisk        Partitions
-----------------------------------------
HDD1:         C F G        OS 1 (with problems)
HDD2:         D H I            OS 2 (functional)

By deleting your state1 E partition, you have caused the drive letters on HDD1 to change.  Hence although you say, HDD1 is now C F G, I believe it is C E F.  The reason for that is that Windows (Dos, Windows 9x, XP etc) assigns the first partition on the first hard drive as c:, and then IF a second hard drive exists, it's first partition gets D:, then E, F, G, etc are assigned to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, partitions of HDD1.

Your configuration now is:

HDD1: C E F, where F is your boot drive.

This normally never occurs because by default, c: is the normal boot drive partition and any partition manipulation occurs AFTER the c: partition.  In your case I will bet money that you at one time had a DUAL BOOT system (or maybe had Windows 98 and then created a dual boot system for XP which was put on G: )

To fix it you could/should put a small partition physically after C on HDD1.

The other choice is to run an XP Repair Install.

The other choice is to modify the registry offline (BartPE) something along these lines:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/ ; except you are trying to change F: so it says G: ( I think... )

Be sure you have confirmed TESTED backups before experimenting with any of this.

Sorry I don't have all my notes and references handy here now, but wanted to through this out in case you don't resolve it by modifying the boot.ini, as others have suggested.

manman

In your first post, you were very emphatic:

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Why did you make that statement?

How are you so sure?

I've used SavePart on one of my test computers and it wasn't as difficult as I expected.

Ghost4me introduced me to RegistryEditiorPE. John, do you think this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

could be done with BartPE and the plugin? It can't be done from Windows here as Windows won't boot. Now that would be an interesting alternative to SavePart. The "G: drive" OS would need to be set active to be accessed by BartPE.