How to recover dual boot (XP SP1 + W98SE)

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I have 3 partitions on my hard drive. The first has Windows 98, the second is data and the third is Windows XP Professional SP1. The XP is a recent addition, when it was installed the dual boot worked perfectly.

The Windows 98 was giving me problems AGAIN this morning and so I restored the first partition from a Ghost image. This lost the information needed to boot XP. I can boot from the Windows XP CD and start the Recovery Console which lets me see the files, but I can’t work out how to recover the boot information.

Any suggestions?

StuartR

I found fixboot on the recovery console eventually, but I will leave this here for the next person who is searching for it. Now I have to restore NTLDR and whatever else is nneded in a System Partition

Later
I’m making progress. Recovery Console use of FIXBOOT followed by copying NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM to C: have enabled me to boot Windows XP again. I have edited BOOT.INI to have the correct lines. Now I need to find a working BOOTSECT.DOS for a Windows98SE installation. Can anyone tell me how to get this from my Windows 98 boot floppy?

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Replying to my own post…

I have created a new BOOTSECT.DOS by following the instructions to boot W98 from a floppy and issue a set of Debug commands that I found on a number of web sites, but W98 still won’t boot. BOOT.INI prompts me to choose between XP and 98, but if I choose 98 it immediately re-displays the menu!

Can someone who dual boots these two operating systems please post the following…
The contents of your boot.ini
A full directory listing of the files in the root of your C: drive so I can try to guess what I might be missing

Thanks in advance.

StuartR

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And a final reply describing how to do this for the next poor victim…

1. Boot from a Windows98 formatted floppy
2. SYS C: This was the step that I had missed
3. DEBUG < READ.SCR Contents of READ.SCR are in the attached text file
4. Boot the Windows XP installation CD to the recovery console
5. FIXBOOT

Now you know

StuartR

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This looks like the correct thread to put this question in. If not, feel free to elevate it or move it.

RE: Fixboot command – I would like to double check my understanding of this command before I go and use it.

Situation: When I installed XP, I thought I’d keep the existing W2K installation to make sure that I had migrated everything correctly. The hard drive had three partitions – XP (system), XP (everything else) and W2K. When I (incorrectly) setup this dual-boot system, I left the W2K partition as the boot partition. Well, I never got W2K to dual-boot but it’s no longer relevant since all migration is complete. I have deleted the W2K files from its partition and left the necessary files for booting XP, as you explained above, Dave, namely, boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com and ntoskrnl.exe. XP boots correctly.

Goal: Move booting from the old W2K partition to the XP (system) partition.

Question: As long as I have the necessary “XP boot files” on the XP (system) partition, is Recovery Console’s command, FIXBOOT, the command I use to change the MBR to the XP (system) partition?

Thanks,

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Al, that command should work for you. You could also use the repair process from the CD, which will recognize your XP installation and allow you to fix the boot sector – probably the most thorough and safest method. FIXBOOT is in my experience more intended to repair a non-booting system with a corrupt or overwritten boot sector, as opposed to moving/migrating.

I can’t stress enough that a backup in this situation is called for. Also, you need to be wary of the changing of drive letters. I can’t tell you that this will work if your old Win2K installation was the C: drive, and you delete that partition – since it’s the active boot partition, it may present more problems than it’s worth. You could conceivably wind up with a long list of registry edits that need to be made. My personal preference would be to start with a clean disk and install that way, or parallel install to C: and then use the migration wizard in XP to move everything over to the new install.

Whatever you choose….good luck, and be careful!!

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Mark, I appreciate your warnings. Fortunately, the partitions on my hard drive are “more normal”:

• C: partition = XP (system)
• D: drive = CD drive
• E: partition = data (old W2K partition – now empty)
• F: partition = XP (everything else)
  [/list]So, I think I’ll be okay since the drive letters are what Windows expects. I’ll look into the Recovery Console – Repair process before using the FIXBOOT method.

  Backup – yes – to a separate drive.

  Many thanks

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I did this once, all I had to do was put in the XP install CD and do a repair, took about 15 minutes.

Once you get it workin right:

It is safer, and advised, to backup the current bootfiles of an existing Windows before installing the next Windows or repairing a OS. And then backup all bootfiles again after a successfully new installation.

Win XP/2000/NT Bootfiles:
Boot.ini, Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, Bootsect.dos, and maybe Ntbootdd.sys, Pagefile.sys & Hiberfil.sys
Bootsect.dos is created by a XP/… installation when it recognizes a pre-existing Win9x/Me.

WIN9x/Me Bootfiles:
Io.sys, Msdos.sys, Command.com, (also Drvspace.bin), and maybe Autoexec.bat & Config.sys.

Ntldr and Ntdetect.com are not PC-specific and can be copied from the CD or another PC.
Boot.ini is computer-specific, but can easily be edited if copied from another computer.
Ntbootdd.sys is specific to a SCSI controller but can be copied from a PC that has the same.
Bootsect.dos is computer-specific, and cannot be copied. Back it up when it is valid! A Repair may recreate a valid Bootsect.dos. Use Bootsect20.zip to create one only if other methods fail.”

To back up the Boot Files. Make sure you have enabled “Show Hidden Files and Folders” and unchecked “Hide protected system files”. Find the files which are present on your system using the above as a guide. Then simply copy them. Suggest you put one copy on a floppy then another on a convenient partition on your system – somewhere accessible to both OS.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Thanks Dave. I did try a repair. but this doesn’t recreate BOOTSECT.DOS. I’ve backed them up now!

StuartR

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