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Reinstalling W98 on a 98/2K system. How do I repair 2K?

R

Rob G.

Senior member
This is proving to be a frustrating exercise. I've got a 98/2000 dual-boot system. 98 is on C: and 2000 on D:. For reasons that aren't worth explaining, I need to reinstall Windows 98. Obviously if I do this then I lose the NT bootloader and the ability to get into W2000.

So, I need to know how to go about repairing the bootloader. I've tried to test this out by deleting the C: partition and recreating it as empty (the 98 partition is backed up using Drive Image, but wanted to try this as an exercise).

Booting from the W2K CD, I've tried performing a fixboot c:, followed by a repair using the ER disk. All I get upon reload is 'ntldr missing'.

How do I get this working again?
 
If you're referring to...



<< If you do happen to find that Win98/SE/ME has overwritten the Win2K MBR and Boot Menu, boot up from the Win2K CDROM and perform a repair installation (by hitting R when prompted).

Either use the Recovery Console, and type in the command fixboot, or allow Win2K to perform an automatic or manual repair. If you perform a manual repair, make sure you select Inspect Boot Files. >>



...then no, it doesn't. I would imagine it works if you haven't trashed the 9x partition.

On the suggestion of another FAQ (2K and XP dual boot repair) I also copied the files ntdetect and ntldr from the I386 directory on the W2K CD to C:. This time it complained about there being no valud boot.ini file available, and then being unable to find ntoskrnl.exe.



 
Sure have, just the one though. The standard W2K one created in the Backup utility (only just created so it's up to date).

Order of events thus far:

1. Delete 98 partition (remember, this is an excercise)
2. Recreate Pri Dos partition where 98 used to be (active, of course) and format.
3. Boot from W2K CD and do a fixboot.
4. Boot from W2K CD again and run the ERD repair.
5. Copy the ntdetect and ntldr files from the W2K CD I386 directory to C:
6. *sigh*

There must be a way of doing this. I get the feeling I'm missing something really fundamental.
 
You should be able to repair it if you have a copy of boot.ini that matches your configurations. Copy that back to your C: and then run the repair again. This time it should be able to find your Win2K installation and then proceed with the repair.

(I'm at work at the moment, so I can't give you a copy of boot.ini).
 
OK, got a solution:

When the C: partition has been recreated and formatted, copy ntdetect.com ntldr and boot.ini to C:\

Boot from W2K CD, into recovery console and do fixboot followed by fixmbr

This has worked fine, and as you said, it relies on keeping an up to date copy of boot.ini around. It's the fixmbr which made the difference.

What has me confused though, is how utterly useless the 'recovery' options are. Whether I tried the automatic or manual options - even when using the ERD - none of them worked. Not sure if there's something particular to my system which renders it dud, but whatever...

Thanks for the help.
 
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