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Repair dual boot win 98 & win 2k

By kevinivers ·
Had to reinstall win 98 (full format of partition ) recently on a dual boot machine and like the idiot that i am i never backed up any of the files needed for the dual boot ( boot.ini etc ). So now win 2k wont boot for me.

I have tried adding the files nessacary (ntdect, ntldr, bootsect.dos ) and manually writing the boot.ini file pointing to the partition that has win 2k on it (multi(o)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\winnt ="win 2k". I have then run the fixboot command from the recovery console of the win 2k cd. This give's me the chioce at the start but when i choose win 2k it says the the start up files can't be found.

Another thing i have noticed is that the win 2k CD doesn't recoginise the ntfs partition where win 2k is installed, instead it says its an OS/2 partition. I have used partition magic to make the partition and its a hidden partition.

Any help or advice would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks

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by compgirlfhredi In reply to Repair dual boot win 98 & ...

If you plan to add Win98 to a Win2K Pro system, you need to use Win2K Backup to create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), which lets you recover the system if the Registry becomes corrupted as a result of the Win98 installation.

Adding Win98 to a Win2K Pro setup is more difficult. This configuration will work only if the root partition is FAT16 or FAT32 and the partition on which you install Win98 is also FAT16 or FAT32. The main problem is that Win98 setup won't run from Win2K. To work around this problem, you need a Win98 boot disk. The full installation version of Win98 includes a boot disk; however, if you're installing an upgrade to Win98, you need to create a Win98 boot disk on another system.
Before you add Win98 to a Win2K Pro system, you need to create a Win2K ERD because Win98 will overwrite the Win2K Pro boot sector on your C drive, eliminating the option of booting Win2K Pro on system startup. To restore that option, you need the ERD and the Win2K Pro boot disks. Make the boot disks by running makeboot.exe from the boot disk directory on the Win2K Pro CD-ROM, as Screen 2 shows. You'll need four blank high-density disks. After you create the boot disks, shut down the system, put the first boot disk in your system's A drive, and restart the system. The system will prompt you for the other disks. Select the option to repair a damaged Win2K Pro installation. The system will prompt you to insert the ERD. Win2K Pro setup will replace the files on the boot partition, and you should have the option to boot either Win2K Pro or Win98 on the next restart. If the system doesn't give you the option to boot either OS, manually edit the boot.ini file on your C-drive partition by adding the following line:
C:\="Microsoft Windows"
Then, shut down and restart Win2K, and you'll have the option to boot either OS.

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by Deadly Ernest In reply to Repair dual boot win 98 & ...

Important points to remember:

Win 98 does not recognise NTFS,
Win 2K default loads NTFS.

You can NOT load an earlier version of Windows onto a dual boot system and expect both to work, often neither will work as the loading process will often replace system files in the 'newer' system directory.

To dual boot two Windows systems you MUST load the older system first, then load the newer system.

I recommend the use of two physical HDDs for dual boot, with on system on each. That way if you have to rebuild the older system you can just unplug the HDD with the newer one whilst you do the rebuild, and it does not get damaged.

I think you will have to remove the directories for both operating systems, and all the load up files within the c: root area and then reload both operating systems starting with Win 98.

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by Deadly Ernest In reply to

Nearly forgot - you may be able to get by with just deleting the Win 2K directory and try loading from the CD as a clean install; may have to do from DOS mode with a Win 98 boot disk.

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