My "old" c:drive decided to go south but I had it backed up. The original OS install had been
working flawlessly and I had installed a generous amount of progs/utilities etc., and collected a great deal of email (Thunderbird)  and bookmarks (Firefox). I had kept the
system regularly defragged,  maintained (RegCure), and protected (AVG, SPyBoot, Trojan
Hunter). Trouble started when I attempted to install SP3. A blue screen rapidly flashed,
not long enough to read it, and that was that. Booting STOPPED. Install CD could not repair.
Concluded a new HDD was needed, so I got one and installed it. I have a dual Opteron
244 on a     TYAN Thunder K8WE S2895, with 4 SATA onboard adaptors (0-3) connecting to 3 (non raid-ed) SATA drives including "old" c:. The thought occurred to me to get a Seagate 500GB SATA drive (same make as the 2 remaining ones on one of which the c: backup was stored) and that to save time re-installing all progs (and updates) and also recuperating all other stuff from "old c:") I might do a clean install of XP Pro on the first
partition and restore the "old c:" on the second one. In other words have both, the new and the old XP installation available in a dual boot config.I would then back up the new install (slender because practically just the root stuff) This would give me a very efficient way to get into the system if problems occurred, as opposed to go into Install CD, etc., etc.,  I edited the Booit.init as follows
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Alas, the "old C:" (now on second partition of new HDD as "New Volume H:" does not boot,
pointing to a "corrupt ntoskernl.exe" file with the advice to re-install it. I looked at the
System32 folder of te "old c:" drive and the file was missing(?) so I made a copy of the one
of the new XP install and pasted it. To no avail. So I looked at the Boot.init file n the RESTORED "old c:" and got this:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"  /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
;C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Puzzled by the reference to "Recovery Console" /cmdcons", could this be a left-over from
the ATTEMPT to repair the "old C:"? I left it untouched.
Thinking the partition might need changing I ALTERED it to "2",b ut that didn't help either.

My questions is: does the boot file of the restore c: XP play a part, or is it redundant?
What am I doing wrong and is there something else I could try to successfully bring up the "old c:" stuff as a second boot up option. It would make everything so simple :-).
I explored you very excellent site for similar occurrences but didn't find one. A lot of good
info on dual booting W2K/XP, even WIN98/XP, etc., but not on "dual XP". Help would be
much appreciated as the time saved is precious. 

 Hey,
What i would do is use ERD commander (can download at microsoft) to repair the file system on the second partition and then use the windows recovery console to fix the boot file.

If you dont know it google it!

What parts of the Old partition you are tring to save? The OS, the apps, documents?

Many thanks, I'll google it. I'm trying to save it all. The restore ALREADY gave me all
the data as such, obviously the programs don't all work and, more important
the partition does not boot up, and, wanting to learn from this, I would like to
know why not and if I'm making wrong assumptions in my logic, as outlined in previous message.  Perhaps it's not possible to use thew same OS in a dual boot config, or
I'm making mistakes in bootinit file "path" to the restored "old c:"??

Hi, I looked up and am downloading ERD (64MB!), but I fear it's one of those programs you can easily get lost in but I'll have a go. Meantime,  could you possibly be so kind and comment on my questions in original message. I thought I followed a legitimate path I could explain to myself but without success, so it's good if not essential for future reference to know what one is or has been doing wrong. I'm a video editor and as much as I'm fascinated by the inner
workings of computers, I'd rather be editing, a complex enough activity but one I can
solve problems in !!
 Obviously no longer relevant but your original problem was likely not a failed hard disk. It would have been best to determine what the blue screen was by disabling automatic restart on error. Quote

Puzzled by the reference to "Recovery Console" /cmdcons", could this be a left-over from
the attempt to repair the "old C:"?