Fixing Win98/2K dualboot

[Poontos]

I set this machine up a couple of years ago, so I did not recall how it was totally setup, plus I am on sinus drugs, so I am doing my best, please bare with me.

Anyway, the Win98 install was foobard, so I formatted c: and re-installed Win98.

D: = FAT32 with Win2K Pro on it.

Of course the dual boot files are gondee, since I formatted the c: drive.

So I ran Win2k Repair -> Recovery Console (thanks to the FAQ) and ran fixboot, then made the following boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=4
default=C:\
[operating systems]
C:\="Microsoft Windows"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Win2K loads fine of course, but Win98 first said bootsec.dos was missing. So I copied the file over from another dualboot machine,
as well as ntldr and NTDETECT.COM.

Still no go, I get Invalid system disk Replace the disk, and then press any key

...when I try to get back into Win98.

Please help, I need to get this PC out the door today! Thanks!

 

[DonaldC]

This might work:

Boot with a Win98 boot disk. At the prompt type "fdisk /mbr"
Now it should boot to 98 okay.

Next run the Win2K Repair/Recovery console and rebuild the boot.ini again.

 

[Poontos]

Originally posted by: DonaldC
This might work:

Boot with a Win98 boot disk. At the prompt type "fdisk /mbr"
Now it should boot to 98 okay.

Next run the Win2K Repair/Recovery console and rebuild the boot.ini again.

Ok, just did that. I guess I need to adjust my boot.ini, cause I still get the invalid system disk error message when I try to go into Win98.

I just realized that I did not go into Win98 right after the fdisk /mbr, but I completed the rest of your steps. Do you think this will have any effect on my current outcome/problem?

In addtion, all I did in the Win2k recovery console was type in fixboot and then exit. Should I be doing more? Win2k still boots OK.

Thank you!

 

[DonaldC]

First let me say I am guessing based on my 98/XP dual boot experience.

After you do the fdisk /mbr pull the floppy and reboot.

Do you get the boot.ini or does it go straight in to 98?

If it does not show the boot.ini and does boot into 98 then you are ready to use the recovery console.

I use the "bootcfg" and "rebuild" in XP to fix my boot.ini