Multi Installs of Windows
Objective: Install W98SE, W2K, W_Xp Pro on one PC (loading sequence as listed)
Equipment: 400mhz Celeron w/ an i440BX-SMC60X-2A69KX3GC-00, Acorp 6BX81 Ver: 2B, with Award BIOS v4.51PG motherboard
8.4 Gb HD (Seagate); 80 Gb HD (WD)
SYBA – SY-ATA6410-2I Controller
So Far: Win98SE installed on 8.4 Gb HD and working; ATA controller drivers installed for W98. W98 reads 80 Gig HD with it?s partitions and data.
2. 80 Gb Hd formatted with 2 partitions w/WD Overlay removed. W2K doesn?t ?like? the overlay. It ?thinks? the partitions are corrupt and unformatted.
I?ve tried several times to get all 3 OS?s on this drive under 3 partitions. However, since the BIOS doesn?t recognize the full drive with the WD overlay the only OS that will install is stand alone installations of W98, W2K or XP. If I try to install 98 then W2K, 98 installs fine but W2K ?thinks? the partitions are corrupt or unformatted, regardless of what formatting structure is used – Western Digital, FDISK (upgraded version) or Partition ?Magic? . Continuing with W2K to format partition arrives at 99% then a ?cannot format? error.
3. 80 Gb attached to ATA6410 controller and its drivers installed at F6 prompt for W2K install.
4. W2K continues install and writes operating files to selected first partition on 80gig HD. W2K recognizes both partitions as ?formatted?.
5. Upon restart to ?Start W2K?, I get an error ?Could not start because of a computer disk hardware problem…..?. My research indicates it could be several things including the Boot.ini and Ntbootdd.sys files.
A. The Boot.ini file appears with ?signature(xxx..) under ?Default? and ?[operating system]. Microsoft (MS) indicates this should work provided the HD?s signature doesn?t change. It doesn?t. I?ve tried several irritations such as ?SCSI(x)? and ?Multi(x)? without resolve. I?m not sure what the exact make up should be when using both the ATA controller and the onboard motherboard controller. Here?s my take:
Default = scsi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)/WINNT
[operating systems]
scsi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) ?Windows 2000 Professional Operating System? /fastdetect
?C:\=?Microsoft Windows?
Adding a ?scsi? line to activate W98 as default or otherwise gives the same error as starting W2K. W98 starts every time from the ?C:\=? entry.
B. I?ve replaced and renamed the Ntbootdd.sys file with ?viaraid.sys? from the OEMDir directory as indicated in yet another MS research paper. The Ntbootdd.sys is located in the Win98 root directory, the 80 gig root directory and the OEMDir under /WINNT on the 80 gig HD.
I?ve downloaded ver 2C for the 6BX81 motherboard and the DOS Boot Disk for Flashing the BIOS but didn?t really want to try this. The PC should operate from the ATA 6410 controller.
I?m at a complete loss as to which direction to proceed. Could someone please help?
Thank you,
