Need help getting an OS recognized on bootup...

FrogDog

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2000
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Before, I was running a duel boot with Win98 on one HD, and win2k on my other HD. Yesterday I formated the Win98 HD (I never ever used win98) and installed winME on it. So now when I start up my computer it just loads winME and doesn't give me my usual duel-boot screen. Can I edit my MSDos.sys file to correct this? For some reason I have it in my head that I can. Here's the start of my msdos.sys file:

[Paths]
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C

[Options]
BootMulti=1
BootGUI=1
AutoScan=1
WinVer=4.90.3000

So is it possible to input a few lines into that so that I have my duel boot back? Or maybe there's another way to do this entirely?

And I tried reinstalling win2k but it won't work from within DOS or winME...I don't know why. But there's a perfectly good copy of win2k on my HD right now anyway, I just need to be able to boot into it.
 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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uh oh

by formatting your 98 hard drive, you KILLED your boot files and your boot sector.

that is not good.

there ARE ways to recover, but what i'd do is boot off the win2k cd and re-install win2k....it will overwrite your existing install and will rebuild a boot loader and restore your boot files.

 

FrogDog

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2000
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<< but what i'd do is boot off the win2k cd and re-install win2k >>

How do I do this?
 

sohcrates

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Sep 19, 2000
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go into your bios and under boot options you can make &quot;cd-rom&quot; the first boot choice (before floppy or hard drive)..then put win2k cd in, and when you boot up it will spin up the disk and you usually have to hit the keyboard when it prompts you to &quot;press any key to boot from cd-rom&quot;
 

FrogDog

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Jan 12, 2000
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So there's no way I can edit that file so that it will see both OS's on startup?
 

sohcrates

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Sep 19, 2000
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well, i said there *are* ways of doing that. but the truth is i've never been able to do it successfuly.

but this forum gets a lot of traffic, so someone who might know how is bound to come in here pretty soon.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Boot.ini file should look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=C:\
[operating systems]
C:\=&quot;Microsoft Windows&quot;
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT=&quot;Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional&quot; /fastdetect

You may be able to repair it, by starting the reinstall and choose the repair option.

NTLDR is another file you are missing.

 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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you need 4 files in your root C: directory to dual boot with win2k

ntldr
boot.ini
msdos.sys
ntdetect.com

that repair options might work, or you can actually pretend your re-installing 2k off the cd and then cancel it before it copies files...that might fix it.

i don't think editing boot.ini alone will fix it. although, if you edit boot.ini, i could probably send you my other 3 files, and then it might work.
 

FrogDog

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Jan 12, 2000
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Trying to boot from the CD-ROM won't work. It just says &quot;Boot from CD-ROM failed&quot; and then boots from the HD. This is weird...
 

FrogDog

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Jan 12, 2000
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A copy. There is a folder called I386 and the files are Autorun.inf, CDROM_IP.5, CDROM_NT.5, ReadFirst.txt, Readme.doc and setup.exe.
 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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yeah, it's not uncommon for win2k copies NOT to be bootable.

umm...i know you can make a boot disk set for win2k..i think there's a utility on the win2k cd that will do that for you..might require several floppy disks.
 

FrogDog

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Jan 12, 2000
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I just looked around the CD and didn't find anything but then again I didn't really know what I was looking for. I check around bootdisk.com, maybe they have something along those lines.
 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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a full retail win2k cd has a folder called &quot;bootdisk&quot; on it (in addition to other folders, such as i386)..sounds like you don't have that folder though eh?


it's 5 disk images, and a program to write the images to 5 floppy disks.

are you on cable modem? i can send them to you, just pick a method of transfer. PM me if interested
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Just copy the i386 directory to the hard drive and execute the installation. You don't need a bootable anything. Start it right from within WinME. If you reinstall, just select that you want to choose installation partition in advance setup options.
 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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yeah, i'm not sure why i was making this so much work. compuwiz is correct. just make sure (again) that you select the correct partition you want to install to. you can run setup right from winME
 

FrogDog

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Jan 12, 2000
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I've tried that, compuwiz1. I transfered the whole CD to my HD and tried running it from there and it gives me the same errors as it does from the CD. First it says it can't upgrade from anything because it can't find a file that should be somewhere in the C:\Windows folder, and then after that it says it can't continue with setup because it can't detect what OS I'm running.
 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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sounds like you're trying to &quot;upgrade&quot; to win2k , instead of install it separately.

so maybe the boot up discs are the best idea
 

FrogDog

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Jan 12, 2000
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Yeah it asks whether or not I want to upgarde to win2k and it doesn't matter if I say no and then click Install Windows from the autorun window or if I say yes - It still gives me both errors.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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It's not the autorun you want. Open the folder &quot;i386&quot; scroll down toward the bottom and find &quot;Winnt32&quot;, dos box, not the one with the picture of the disk. It may tell you you cannot upgrade, just click ok, and the process should still start.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Ok, but click the ok button, when you get the errors, not no, or cancel...forgot what it was. It will blank out a couple secs, then the setup comes back up. I just tried it, on one that I already have Win98SE and Win2k installed on.