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Multi Boot Choice

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by elvis035

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I have 98 & XP installed on the same harddrive but do not have the choice to pick which one to boot to from the boot startup when i am in XP the XP drive comes up as C:/ and 98 comes up as E:/ I tried adding (E:/"Windows98") to the boot loader under the XP part but when i click on it on the boot start up the computer restarts when i check the partitions it reads 98 as partition 1 and XP as partition 2 and when i am in 98 it reads as drive C. All i need to know is how to have a choice when booting thanks my email is elvis035@yahoo.com

3 replies

by w2ktechman

Setting it in the boot.ini file should work fine if it is pointing to the right place. Do not go by what the OS says is its drive letter. Each OS thinks that it is on c:. You need to specify where on the HDD the OS resides by partition. If you have 2 partitions, and the first has win98, the second has winXP, then the boot.ini file should contain
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft 98"

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

by sgt_shultz

i am not sure from your post exactly what is happening but i would remind you of this requirements for dual booting win98 and xp
1> remember win98 cannot recognise volumes. a file format recognised by both systems would be fat32.
2> did you install in the correct order, namely xp last?
here is an article that tells all:
How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559

by wcp

It appears that you installed Windows 98 AFTER the Windows XP.
This not only replaced the NT boot loader but also might have changed some files that affect Windows XP.

You cannot simply create NT boot loader in the system partition without going through Windows XP installation.

If you want Windows 98 and XP in dual boot (without using third-party boot manager), you have to create a partition in FAT (16 or 32) and install Windows 98 first in that partition or in other FAT partition. And then install Windows XP in a SEPARATE partition. This way, NT boot loader will give you choice of OS (Windows 98 or XP) you want to boot from.

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