Paragraph G modified, improved and renamed to HOW TO REBUILD TOTALLY YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Several minor corrections in other points.

HTH

Some corrections into the first paragraph and also into paragraph B1, and a change in the subtitle to "using Windows 98 to clone, maintain, repair and rebuild Windows XP", for an easier understanding.

Some minor improvements of the text in other points.

HTH

Edited October 14, 200916 yr by cannie

Improved the text edition of the first post using colors to separe more clearly the concepts for a better comprehension.

Several corrections in the text concerning the possibility of using the interactive mode of fdisk in all cases, to help newbies who don't know the partition number of the cloned XP unit before running DOS.

HTH

Edited November 10, 200916 yr by cannie

Trying to make the first post better: essential improvements in the shape, some text corrections, three new paragraphs, color titles and different font sizes to make the text "lighter" for any reader, taking into account that after so many succesive additions it became considerably complex.

Greetings.

HTH

Techw0rm's SRC Tools [last known versions] also here [9 KB]:

http://www.mdgx.com/files/SRCTOOLS.ZIP

I use xclone for DOS [works from within a DOS box/window] (freeware):

http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/win95/diskutl/xclone13.zip

Supports LFNs from within Windows.

Xclone can be used from native DOS [outside Windows] with DOSLfn [free, open source] loaded in memory:

http://adoxa.110mb.com/doslfn/

which enables LFNs support.

Xclone can copy entire disks/partitions to the destination of your choice.

Errorlevel is minimum by default, does not stop when it encounters the "unmovable" swap file or similar "locked" files.

HTH

You could use MaDdOg's "chooseos", which adds support for multiple Win9x boot into NTLDR's boot.ini.

http://www.maddogsw.com/bootchooser/

You then install the different Windows into different directory names on diffeent drives, eg

c:\win95, d:\win98

This is because regardless of where you install Windows9x , it creates a corresponding directory on the c:\ drive, eg

install it to h:\legacy, will add boot files also to c:\legacy.

Corrected omission at paragraph F1 in the first post (added "Copy all the boot floppy files to the CD root using the Nero windows").

HTH

Edited December 1, 200916 yr by cannie

Modified H1 to recommend using in the cloned partition the same FS used in the original primary one, after some experiences using NTFS/FAT32 in order to know what is the best solution (when using a Live CD the only thing that you use from Windows 98 is the DOS floppy), and also the convenience of keeping a backup of everything whenever you resize the used partition.

HTH

Edited December 11, 200916 yr by cannie

In order to make it easier the use of boot floppy to rebuild the boot sectors, or booting from Live CD for file manager operations, the text of the first post has been modified to replace BIOS changes by the use of F12 at boot. This way the switch is faster and only valid for the current operation.

HTH

Edited December 11, 200916 yr by cannie

In order to make it easier the use of boot floppy to rebuild the boot sectors, or booting from Live CD for file manager operations, the text of the first post has been modified to replace BIOS changes by the use of F12 at boot.

Hmm, on many motherboards you can press F12 till the end of time, but you WON'T be able to change boot order , and on some that have this feature the key is F11 and I am almost sure I had a laptop that used F2 :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_disk#Booting_from_a_disk

jaclaz

Edited December 11, 200916 yr by jaclaz

Hi jaclaz!

I had forgotten this possibility. I've modified all mentions to F12 to irecommend the previous BIOS modify procedure as an alternative in case that F12 does not work.

An excellent hint.

Thank you very much for your help, jaclaz!

An excellent hint.

Thank you very much for your help, jaclaz!

You are welcome.

More than a hint, I have a certain experience in this kind of stuff, and I have actually (seriously) had people telling me they couldn't find the "Any" key.

http://www.tomwet.de/shop/catalog/images/AnyKey3.jpg

I try as much as I can to suggest "foolproof" approaches, BUT:

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

jaclaz

Hmm, on many motherboards you can press F12 till the end of time, but you WON'T be able to change boot order , and on some that have this feature the key is F11 and I am almost sure I had a laptop that used F2 :

For what it's worth, on the ASUS EeePC series, <Esc> gets you to the boot order menu and <F2> takes you to the full BIOS configuration menu, as in most ASUS boards. While <F2> is an easy guess, <Esc> is an unusual choice, not being an "F" key.

More than a hint, I have a certain experience in this kind of stuff, and I have actually (seriously) had people telling me they couldn't find the "Any" key.

http://www.tomwet.de/shop/catalog/images/AnyKey3.jpg

LOL

I've read the first post again taking into consideration your hint and consequently improved the redaction of paragraphs C2 and H2. Those who are not able to find the "Any" key would no doubt copy the Recycler folder to the new unit and delete it afterwards from the old one.

HTH

The text has been revised to explain more clearly why is recommended moving the Windows 98 folders to the extended partition preserving the primary ones for XP and the boot files of both OS, using the terms "bootable partition" and "data partition" for an easier understanding.

HTH

Edited January 9, 201016 yr by cannie