Repair dual boot win 98 win 2k

kevinivers · 02-09-2003 04:44PM #1

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

Capt'n Midnight · 02-09-2003 05:07PM

The simplist is to rerun the W2K setup again...

If you are paranoid about making a mistake - simply choose to install it into the win-temp folder - on the second boot you should be able to choose your original version from the now working boot menu.... then in system choose which version to boot from and then remove the win-temp folder.

Eh yes it is delibrate on M$'s part - while 98 couldn't be expected to recognise 2K as such it should recognise it as NT and not trash the system - but hey that's tough...

kevinivers · 02-09-2003 05:56PM

Sorry dont quite follow, Are you saying to reinstall win 2k? Even if i were to do this (last resort) the win 2k CD setup isn't picking up my ntfs partition.
If your not saying to reinstall win 2k I'm not really sure what you are saying.

Thanks

moridin · 02-09-2003 06:41PM

Originally posted by kevinivers
I have used partition magic to make the partition and its a hidden partition.

Soooo you have a partiton on your computer with win2000 installed, but it's installed on a "hidden partition".

Partition magic generally is great for screwing up your machine eh?

Have you tried unhiding said partition, and just defining it as NTFS again?

kevinivers · 02-09-2003 07:18PM

Tried unhiding partition but every time I reboot it says partition is hidden again. I think you can't have 2 primary partitions visible on the one hard drive, according to PartitionMagic anyway.

Capt'n Midnight · 02-09-2003 08:38PM

If it does then it will be on the Active Partition.
(ie. The BIOS looks at the partition table and loads the code on the active partition - this can be the dos boot sector that 98 has put there or the boot loader menu that NT uses)

So you want to put the boot loader on to the ACTIVE PARTITION This is where you start the Xp install
You only want to get as far as the point where it reboots during setup..

You could run repair - but I'd guess you don't have a repair disk etc.

moridin · 03-09-2003 08:32AM

Originally posted by kevinivers
Tried unhiding partition but every time I reboot it says partition is hidden again. I think you can't have 2 primary partitions visible on the one hard drive, according to PartitionMagic anyway.

*grin* That's why pmagic sucks. I've got 2 primary partitions running at home no problem whatsoever.

Have you got a Linux boot disk? If so use a "linux rescue" boot and use linux fdisk to write to the partition table that it's an NTFS partition and make it active. (don't forget to toggle the active flag off the 98 partition, as linux fdisk will happily mark more than one partition active and the disk won't boot)

kevinivers · 03-09-2003 02:11PM

If i change the ntfs partition to active, how will i get win 98 to boot?

moridin · 03-09-2003 02:20PM

Using the Win2000 Bootloader?

[edit]
Alternatively install something like OSBS.

http://ftp.u-strasbg.fr/FreeBSD/tools/osbsbeta.exe

Extract OSBS. Save osbsbeta.exe to a DOS disk, then run it. It will extract 'OS-BS\OSBS20B8.EXE'.
Run 'OS-BS\OSBS20B8.EXE'
Select 'Install' -> 'Boot menu'
Press 'INSERT' for each partition you wish to add to the boot menu.
Press 'ESCAPE' when done. You will be asked to select which OS to boot by default, how long to wait before booting it (10 seconds is reasonable), and whether to modify the start id on boot time (usually no).
Save the boot menu, and quit.
If you booted from floppy disk, remove it.

I've used it before and it's simple and effective

[/edit]

Repair dual boot win 98 win 2k

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