Most people here (Gen HW) already have a fixed idea of what they think is wrong, so are not open to other input. Ultimately they argue with the helpers, or if you give 5 things to try, they only respond to 1 or 2. Then they abandon the thread, stumble around and somehow get things going or just reformat. What they are really looking for is a one sentence sure fire answer.
But I am more like you, I just like to know why, not only how.
However, over time, computer knowledge has gotten to be easier to assimilate and the number of people needing deep help has lessened dramatically. Remember when you practically needed to be an engineer to set up a 56.6K dial up with a com port?
As of late, when you look at the daytime GH first page on AT, you may see 10 new threads. I can remember when there used to be 6 pages of them. A good argument could be made to close the GH, Software and Video forums. They really serve no purpose now. 99% of the stuff can be answered with google, anyway.
But anyway, back on subject.........
heres a nice page that describes MBR and bootsectors starting about half way down
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p6.htm#What_is_the_MBR_or_Boot_Sector
a few more blurbs on bootsectors.....
When you install NT on a machine with an existing OS, NT Setup creates a file called bootsect.dos and copies the existing OS's boot sector, which resides in sector 0 of the C drive, into that file. Then, when you run the previous OS, NT copies bootsect.dos to the boot sector. Because NT Setup creates bootsect.dos, the file can be the boot sector for any previous OS and one can take advanced measures to recreate.
When you install Windows 98, and since it relies on MS-DOS, it places its boot files in the root of drive "C" regardless of where the actual files are for the operating system, which is your case I presume is drive "D" since you do not mention this. When you installed XP Home, it found these boot files and created Bootsect.dos for you and then created and enabled your dual boot configuration. When you formatted your "C" drive and reinstalled XP Home, you removed the MS-DOS boot files for Windows 98, hence the error you receive. You now need to recreate these boot files as well as the bootsect.dos files for Windows XP Home.
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Always check boot.ini for correct info before starting
If XP is missing, BOOTCFG /REBUILD will add it in recov console, but I prefer to edit it in notepad before doing anything.
FIRST Step........
basically you do a sys transfer to C: from a win 98 boot floppy to bring back Win98/ME
A:>sys C:
then create bootsect.dos which will USE that loaded Win 98 MBR info
STEP 2 -- MAKE THE BOOT SECTOR FILE (its always best to delete old and make a new one) MUST BE IN SAME ROOT Volume as NTLDR boot.ini and ntdtect
http://www.bcpl.net/~dbryan/ntfs-dual-boot.html
You must now make a BOOTSECT.DOS file from the boot sector of the DOS/Win98 partition and store it on C:\ (i.e., in the root directory of the NTFS partition).
Note that you cannot simply copy a BOOTSECT.DOS file from another installation, because the boot sector contains an internal table (used to locate the root directory) that describes the physical layout of the drive and partition on which it was created, e.g., the number of heads, the number of sectors per track, the location of the partition in sectors from the start of the drive, the size of the File Allocation Table, etc. This physical information will not, in general, be correct unless you're copying it from a system with an identical partitioning layout on an identical hard drive (not just the same capacity, but the same number of cylinders, heads, and sectors per track).
To capture the DOS partition's boot sector, log on to your NT system as Administrator. Copy the following text into a new file called READ.SCR:
L 100 * 0 1 (* is normally 2 or "C")
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q
...where the "*" in the first command is replaced by the number corresponding to the drive letter of the DOS partition. Use 2 = C, 3 = D, 4 = E, and so on (the letters are those assigned to the partitions when running under NT). As an example, if the DOS partition is drive letter E:, the command would be "L 100 4 0 1". Note that the partition number is entered in hexadecimal, so that drive letter J: is 9, K: is 0A, L: is 0B, etc. (0) =A (1)=B
Once you have made this text file, start an NT command prompt, change directories to the location of this text file, and run the DEBUG program as follows:
A:> debug <read.scr
This will create the file C:\BOOTSECT.DOS from the boot sector on the Win 98 partition. If the DEBUG command reports any errors, check your text file carefully to see if you made an error in entering the commands.
Looks complicated, but really easy and quick
http://www.mesich.com/download/DEBUG.EXE
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm
Then as a third and final step you do a FIXBOOT on XP install from recovery cosole on XP install routine to bring back XP
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu...s/en-us/bootcons_fixboot.mspx?mfr=true
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