Phew, John/jbirkett's method just worked for me. Thank you, John! I'm running Windows XP Pro, SP2 with all the latest updates.
 
For what it's worth, here's a small detail that might be helpful to others doing this the first time:
 
After the bootcfg had scanned my drives (took quite awhile), it asked me if I wanted to add "D:\WINDOWS" (the recovery disk, I assume). I answered "Y", then just pressed enter on the following two prompts. When it asked the same thing about "C:\WINDOWS", I just pressed enter. I assume this counted as a "Yes", but I didn't get the two prompts I'd gotten previously.
 
When I rebooted, I was asked to choose which operating system to boot. I apparently had two options: a blank line(!), or Windows XP Professional. I chose Windows, and everything booted normally.
 
When I checked the boot.ini file, I saw two entries at the bottom, in the operating systems section. One of these had "" where the other had "Windows XP Professional . . ."
 
So I deleted the "" line from the boot.ini file, left everything else alone, saved, rebooted. Everything was back to normal.
 
Not exactly sure exactly what I should have done (No to D:\WINDOWS question, Yes on C:\WINDOWS question?) . . . but, thankfully, it doesn't really matter at this point.

I need help also. I am migrating machines, from an older Intel to an AMD 64 mobo and 2 new drives. I have XP loaded on the primary drive, and Fedora 4 on the slave.
 
I want Windows to control the boot sequence, not grub. The purpose is so that I can update to FC5.
 
Q1. How do I remove grub loader, and get MSFT to load the boot sequence.
Q2. My grub.config is as follows:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd1,1)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
 
How do I translate this into the boot.ini once I have successfully replaced the boot loader.
 
raddad51x

I forgot to include that i want to add W2000 to this new machine, making it a tri=boot. XP and W2000 are going on the first drive, and a NTFS partition and Fedora5 are going on the second, cable selected drive.
 
Your help is appreciated.
 
raddad51x@hotmail.com

Your second post clarified a little what you are trying to do.
 
In any case, you are going to lose a booloader no matter what you do in a triple boot situation.
 
Perhaps the true Windows gurus can comment on this more fully.
 
Keep in miond that each OS that you install assumes that it will be the only one on the system, so they proceed, by default, as such.
 
I believe that when you install Windows 2000, it will overwrite the MBR, so I would look at the XP boot.ini file and either back this up, or write down the values.
 
Ditto for when you install Windows 2000. Look at the boot.ini and write down the values.
 
Since I am a Linux person, why not install Windows 2000 (taking the steps to note what the boot.ini files say as a precaution), then upgrade to Fedora Core 5 and use Grub to boot all your operating systems?
 
If you insist on using the NT bootloader, you can then add the boot file (that would be placed in the root on the C drive) and add the reference to the Linuc boot file to the NT bootloader.
 
Either way, you are only using the NT bootloader to reference the grub bootloader in Fedora. So, you do not want to remove Fedora, since the Fedora Grub reference files are on that boot or root partition, depending how you set Fedora up.
 
The other quick thing that I noticed, is your use of the term "cable selected" for the Fedora drive. Is ths drive jumpered as either a primary slave, or secondary maseter or slave drive, not cable select on the hard drive's jumper? A small point, but I am just curious.
 
 

It is set for cable select, but the cables are designated "Primary" and "Slave"

I have never used Windows 2000, so my knowledge is limited on this. But, I found the following.
 
Windows 2000 should be installed first, then XP. See the Microsoft article located here.
 
This question is also complcated by changing motherboards from an Intel to and AMD 64 and i assume that you are trying to keep the current operating systems intact, migrating the old IDE drives to the new system?
 
This may present some interesting challenges for Fedora, since it was installed origionally on the Intel system with that hardware configuration used during the installation. Is this correct?
 
Also, have you checked out how Windows 2000 will fare on this new motherboard? Remember, it was released long before this AMD motherboard class was designed.
 
Before I get caught off guard again (as I did in a previous thread), what make and model motherbaord is the new board? Sometimes this can make a difference, as well, given the potential hardware changes. Are you using the same hardware (ie; video card etc...) I the new system?
 
In any case, my question still stands. Rather than Fedora Core 5, I would do a fresh install of Core 6 and use grub as your bootloader. This would assure, hopefully, that Fedora likes your new hardware (motherboard). It may make thngs much easier. Core 4 does not do well in some cases with AMD 64 boards, especially if you add sata drives.
 
If you keep Windows as your bootloader, you can elect not to have grub and add Fedora as a reference to the Windows boot.ini file. But this also takes some savy work in Fedora's rescue mode. This is why I recommend Grub as the bootloader.
 
Why a fresh installation? Because I have not had a lot of luck with upgrades. Especially after migrating to a new motherboard of a different class and architecture. It may just be me, but save all your important files in Fedora and do a fresh installation of Fedora, once your Windows installations are straightened out and completed.
 
But remember, aach OS that you install will want to ditch the current MBR (bootloader), so be cautious.
 
If Fedora Core 4 is working fine now (sound and video work - you have only the older IDE drives in the system), upgrade to 6 and use Grub as the bootloader.
 
I mention all these things, only because I have been through them. You obviously want to make the whole process as trouble free as possible.
 
Again, unless you do some savy work, if you attempt to install Windows 2000 next to XP, you could run into some issues. Note the Microsoft article again that I referenced.
 
This is why I asked for some of the true Windows gurus could respond to this issue.
 
But my comments would be the ideal solution from my perspective, given the significant change in your system setup that you have now.

OK. I got rid of grub to boot for now. I used the repair console on Windoze to overwrite the MBR and to boot straight into it.
2 simple commands in the repair mode:
fixmbr
fixboot
 
Now, I want to still access the Linux partition before I upgrade to Fedora 6. The previous grub config statement was as follows:
 
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
 
How do I now connect the dots so that the Windoze boot.ini gives me the opportunity to boot to Fedora 4, before I go through the process of upgrading to FC6 after I migrate to the new machine?
 

Hello everyone,
 
I had a simillar problem but I found a very useful piece of sotware called the EBCD – Emergency Boot CD', and from the ms dos command prompt do a fdisk /mbr.
 
Hope that helps.
 
Jhangeirakhtar300