Dual - boot problem

[darek]

Higuys,
I need your help.
I've had two operating sysytems installed on separate partitions of one physical drive: Win XP on C: and Win 98 SE on D:. I was able to choose between them via dual - boot menu. They worked just fine until I installed a new hard drive from Western Digital. I used their Digital Lifeguard to install and set up a new drive. It allowed me to migrate an operating system with all files to the newly partitioned HDD. Unfortunatelly it moved only Win XP to the new C: and left Win 98 on the old partition D:. Now I'm left with barely working Win XP! Even though I have a menu where I can choose the OS, when I attempt to run Win 98, nothing happens. Moreover, in Win XP System Recovery, System Information and Windows Help don't work at all. My new configuration is:
Master HDD: C: (Win XP), G:, H:
Slave HDD: D: (Win 98 SE), F: (the old C:)

Boot.ini:
[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 XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

Please help!!! I spent almost a week trying to figure it out.

[Killer_Typo]

boot your winxp (do you still have your xp cd?) if you do put it in the drive. go Start>run> Clear out anything thats in there and type SFC /scannow and hit enter. that will scan though your windows xp install and replace all major system files with the disks version. i was able to fix a few problems on my machine and my moms machine with that. but for you not being able to boot your 9x install, im not sure because i dont run dual boots.

[darek]

Thanx Killer,
I tried this yesterday, but it didn't work. XP still doesn't work properly. I can't launch System Restore, System Info and Help and Support. Maybe some more parts of it but I haven't found out so far. :(

[caperjack]

I think it is possiable that the 2 OS were sharing some file ,and now that it only copied xp. it left the shared files behind ,
did you partition the new drive before you got the program to copy the OS's.
if yes ,then maybe all you need to do is run the program again an see if you can get it to copy win98 .
If you still have the old drive still intact, format and partition the new drive and try copying it again!

[Catweazle]

If you want a Windows 98/Windows XP dual boot, then install Windows 98 first.

Loading earlier versions of Windows AFTER a Windows XP install is shaky at best, and I'm not surprised that it failed after a migration.

Windows 98 should be on your C: partition, and the boot files for Windows XP will be written there as well. Windows XP will automatically configure the dual boot, and set itself to be the default OS

[alc6379]

Also, Windows 98 is VERY particular about where it runs.

I've always been mindful to run Windows 98 on the active partition of the Primary master disk. Since this is usually designated as C:, it never causes any issue.

To add to Catweazle's suggestion, install Windows 98 first, but be sure to install it in what is actually C: From there, you can install Windows XP on whatever partition you want to install it onto. Additionally, if you had the know-how, you could use an alternative bootloader like Linux's lilo or grub, or a standalone bootloader like XOSL. Those bootloaders have the ability to "trick" the Windows installs into thinking they are running on C by remapping what the BIOS thinks each drive is. I've actually run 3 seperate Windows 98 installs on a single drive using this method-- by remapping what address the BIOS thinks the drive/partition is, all of the installs thought they were working as C:!

[darek]

Thank you guys for your advices.
My problems seem to be over. Finally I have two OSs up and runnig after days of struggling with that mess. I have no idea how I got it to work. First, I had to reinstall Win 98. Boot.ini seemed to be fine but there was no way to start Win 98. Since my Win XP occupied partition C: and I was very reluctant to get rid of it (due to many problems I'd had with graphic drivers before I set them up) I reformatted partition D: (the first one of the old drive) and installed Win 98 there. Setup went smoothly. I was sure that I wouldn't be able to boot int my XP because of overwritten boot files. Surprisingly I still was able to log in to XP. It worked fine except for System Info, Help and Support and System Restore. Than I decided to fix it. I used a repair option from Win XP CD. It seemd like XP was reinstalled. Again, after that I was afraid if I would be able to boot into 98. Luckily, I was. Then I tried to boot into XP. And it was a nightmare! Right after connecting to the internet I got a message:

"This system is shutting down. Please save all work.... This shutdown was initiated by NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM Windows must now restsrt because the Remote Procedure Call service terminated unexpectedly"

I was given 60 sec before a system shut down. And it kept rebooting every time I started XP. Thanx to my Win 98 (that's a good reason for having two systems on one machine) I could search the net for some solution. I was almost sure that the reason was some nasty worm like Sasser or Blaster, but it seemd almost impossible to got infected in the first 15 sec of being online for the first time after installation. I found very useful command (shutdown -a) which prevented the system from rebooting, unfortunatelly I wasn't able to make any windows updates due to some errors on Microsoft's webpage( caused by my system I suppose). I couldn't switch the firewall on. I couldn't run any of the removal tools from Symantec due to not having administrator privilieges (?!). Antivirus wasn't able to find anything. In fact I am not even sure what helped. What I did was that just right after loging in to Win XP and before getting that message about shutdown, I quickly activated the firewall. Then I was able to install all patches from Microsoft. So far I do have an administrator privilieges :) and there is no more this annoying message. So far everyting works fine. It looked like a race against time: who's going to take over the comp first (lol). That's my story.

[zerofeal]

Higuys,
I need your help.
I've had two operating sysytems installed on separate partitions of one physical drive: Win XP on C: and Win 98 SE on D:. I was able to choose between them via dual - boot menu. They worked just fine until I installed a new hard drive from Western Digital. I used their Digital Lifeguard to install and set up a new drive. It allowed me to migrate an operating system with all files to the newly partitioned HDD. Unfortunatelly it moved only Win XP to the new C: and left Win 98 on the old partition D:. Now I'm left with barely working Win XP! Even though I have a menu where I can choose the OS, when I attempt to run Win 98, nothing happens. Moreover, in Win XP System Recovery, System Information and Windows Help don't work at all. My new configuration is:
Master HDD: C: (Win XP), G:, H:
Slave HDD: D: (Win 98 SE), F: (the old C:)

Boot.ini:
[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 XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

Please help!!! I spent almost a week trying to figure it out.

Hi,

The main cause of this is that Windows software prioritize Physical Hardrives. Not Extended/Logical drives (Drives that was made during partitions besided the main the drive which is drive C) .

Now you have said "They worked just fine until I installed a new hard drive from Western Digital." Your operating system treats your new hard drive as its 2nd priority (prior to 1st because which is C because it carry your OS loader which is XP) so it has been treated as the next drive to C which is D.

Now your "Slave HDD: D: (Win 98 SE), F: (the old C:)" will be treated and be moved as "Slave HDD: E: (Win 98 SE). The path for your 2nd OS which is Windows 98 has been removed in its orignal location so thats why your Windows 98 doesnt work anymore.

To clarify:

Before installing the new hard drive:

Master HDD: C: (Win XP), Old hardrive
D: (Win 98 SE) Old hardrive (Extended Partition)

After installing the new hard drive:

Master HDD: C: (Win XP), Old hardrive
Slave HDD: D: (New hard drive)
E: (Win 98 SE) Old hardrive (Extended Partition)

Note: Master and Slave of Hard drives will occur if you have 2 Physical hardrives attached on your PC.

If any body needs more information pls try to email or chat with me at this address: [e-mail]