Will formatting partition 01 erase win2k boot sector ?

[Thor_Sevan]

Hi, I currently have an old installation of win98 on partition 01 and wink2 on partition 02.
I would like I install win2k on the first one and then delete the second win2k remaining.

The reason I am doing so is to keep a fully fonctionnal win2k OS while I reinstall and configure a new fresh win2k on partition 01.

Now, will formattin 01 erase win2k (on partition 02) boot sector ? How can I manage that ?

THanks

THor

 

[Priit]

In general, formatting doesn't touch the boot sector.

 

[Relayer]

Your boot files, ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com, are all on your C drive. If you do a fresh install of w2k on your C drive, the installation of w2k on your D drive isn't useable, as far as I know, unless you can edit your new boot.ini to dual boot both w2k installations. You could try it. It would look something like this...I have XP though, so it may be a little different...


here is what it will look like before adding the dual boot option
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

here is what it will look like with dual boot
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

The "multi" part may have to have a 1 in there. Is anyone currently dual booting to concure?

 

[Thor_Sevan]

Thanks !

So, I format partition 01, install win2k and then change the boot.ini file ?

Thor

 

[Relayer]

correct

boot from the w2k cd. It will allow you to format the first partition before installing. Since there will be 2 installs of w2k, all you have to do is edit the boot.ini.