Check your boot sequence in the mainboard BIOS. Verify that the HDD your installing the O/S to is listed in the sequence. Some mainboards allow multiple HDD boots such as HDD-0 HDD-1,2,3, If your installing the O/S on HDD-1 and boot sequence is HDD-0 won't find the O/S to boot to.
It seems that you have two OSs installed on the HDD and my guess is that W2K made a partition for itself and Win98 is sitting in its own partition of 5891MB. Perhaps you were upgrading W98? or trying a dual boot installation?
If Win98 was present when installing the W2K or XP files, the install process places the bootloader files needed for NT-OS in the Win98 main drive (usually C:) and the files can get corrupted or lost. OR if Win98 was installed later it eliminates the files that NT needs to start.
This problem can be complicated to solve and a clean install would be best. If W2K is what you want, boot up from the CD or Floppies. After loading the setup files you will be asked to select a partition. At this point delete all the partitions and other OSs one by one. Then make the partition (4 or 5 GB is plenty for OS and programs), make a couple more partitions for Pagefile (prev Swapfile) and for storing your date then install the NT system.
If later you want to install Win98 as well, use a third party partitioning software (Partition Magic or System Commander). In general, separate partitions is less complicated than dual booting because if Win98 dies on you in a dual boot scenario, you could lose the loader files for the other OS or if you need to re-install W98 you will lose the loader files for NT.
If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem. Also please exercise your best judgment when posting in the forums--revealing personal information such as your e-mail address, telephone number, and address is not recommended.
missing os
WHENEVER I INSTALL WIN2K (OR) WIN XP AFTER FINISING THE FILE COPYING. WHEN MACHINE RESTARTS
IT HAS TO BOOT FROM HDD BUT IT SAYS MISSING OS. IN THIS SENARIO I TRY TO INSTALL WIN98 IT IS SHOWING
5891MB TOTAL DISK SPACE.BASICALLY HDD WAS 40 GB BARRACUDA ATA. WHEN I AM BOOTING FROM WIN2K CD
IT SHOWS 40GB. SIR WHAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM PLS KINDLY INFOM ME..THANKING YOU WAITING FOR U R REPLY.