Loosing the doubleboot XP/Win98 ?

[cannie]

First caution! While doubleboot is working OK you must save .rar copies of the main folders:

- Program Files

- Documents and Settings

- Windows (XP)

- Windows (98).

Of course you must save somewhere else a copy of the 10 C:\root files:

For XP: ntdetect.com,ntldr,boot.ini,bootsect.dos and bootfont.bin.

For Win98: Io.sys, Command.com, Msdos.sys, Autoexec.bat and Config.sys

You must also always keep an updated copy of My Documents.

And remember that you must delete recycle.bin using Autoexec.bat to avoid error messages at Win98 start.

Your troubles may be:

A.- If Windows 98 works but XP doesn't (in many cases due to an unapropiate use of disk invading Win98 apps such as defrag.exe) :

1.- Delete the 5 XP root files and Pagefile.sys, and also Program Files, Documents and Settings and Windows (XP). Defrag the HD (yes in this moment).

2.- Insert the XP install CD and a floppy containing only a copy of the 5 above said boot files for Win98.

2.- Change Bios so that first boot is CD and second floppy. Reboot and start the XP install until first reboot.

3.- At first reboot withdraw the CD, so that the OS loads using that floppy. Keep the newly created 5 XP root files and delete the new Windows XP folder. Don't use defrag.exe in this drive any more!.

4.- Rebuild from scratch XP using your preserved Program Files.rar, Documents and Settings.rar and WindowsXP.rar.

5.- Withdraw the boot floppy, reboot and restore the originary Bios boot order.

B.- If XP works but Windows 98 doesn't.-

1.- Get a system DOS boot floppy and copy in it bootpart.exe. You may download it from here:

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

2.- Insert the floppy and reboot. Then type:

BOOTPART WIN95 BOOT:C:

3.- Reboot without the floppy. If Windows 98 works jump to point 5.

4.- Only in the case that Windows98 doesn't still work, reboot using the DOS floppy again and type:

fdisk /mbr

sys a: c:

BOOTPART WIN95 BOOT:C:

Copy your saved msdos.sys to c:\ and withdraw the floppy.

5.- Delete the 5 XP boot files in C:. Don't touch any other XP folder!

6.- Insert the XP install CD and a floppy containing only a copy of the 5 boot files for Win98.

7.- Change Bios so that first boot is CD and second floppy. Reboot and start the XP install until first reboot.

8.- At first reboot withdraw the CD, so that the OS loads using the floppy. Then delete the newly created Windows XP folder.

9.- Withdraw the boot floppy, reboot and restore the originary Bios boot order.

C.- If none of both works but the HD is OK and you have saved copies of everything:

1.- Use a system DOS boot floppy and install Windows 98 in the normal way.

2.- After install you are in the situation described in the precedent paragraph A. Follow all the given instructions.

3.- When Windows XP starts working, delete the Windows 98 folder and rebuild it from scratch using your saved .rar file.

Maybe there are easier methods for doing the same, and it would be good to know them.

HTH

[jaclaz]

BOOTPART WIN95 BOOT:C:

And, AGAIN, if you are using Windows 98, run

BOOTPART WIN98 BOOT:C:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...124561&st=8

Maybe there are easier methods for doing the same, and it would be good to know them.

Sure there are.

There is NO conflict of ANY kind between Win9x/Me System/boot files:

IO.SYS

MSDOS.SYS

COMMAND.COM

AUTOEXEC.BAT

CONFIG.SYS

and NT ones:

NTLDR

NTDETECT.COM

BOOT.INI

NTBOOTDD.SYS (for SCSI disks)

BOOTFONT.BIN (some localized versions)

There is NO point in deleting them. (of course should any of them be corrupt you need to replace them)

If you have an XP booting correctly but you cannot boot 9x/Me (and you want to), after having checked that the 9x/Me files are not corrupt, there is NO point in rewriting the bootsector, you should create a Win9x/Me bootsector and add a new entry to your

working BOOT.INI.

Typically:

BOOTPART WIN98 C:\BOOTSECT.W98 "Windows 98"

jaclaz

[cannie]

Thank you very much AGAIN, Jaclaz!

I didn't understand you completely before.

Greetings.

[Multibooter]

Maybe there are easier methods for doing the same, and it would be good to know them.

Use a good tool like System Commander. I have been using it for the past 13 years and have purchased 4 versions over the years. I wouldn't touch any other boot manager.

[dencorso]

Simple, but not very fast to save, although quite fast (and problem-free) to restore:

1)Isolate your data in a partition and each of your OS in its individual partition.

2)Image each regularly (while working properly). Regularly, I said, not once every century.

3)When things get ugly, redeploy a previously saved, known-to-be-good, image.

After having good images you may install whatever you fancy, or otherwise devise a new way every day to thrash your OSes seven ways to Sunday, knowing that you're fully covered, and 15-30 minutes away from getting everything working properly again, no matter what.

I use Ghost. But there are other choices that are for free.

[jaclaz]

I wouldn't touch any other boot manager.

Of course everyone has his/her own tastes , too bad you won't touch anything else , should you become more "tollerant", a "test drive" of grub4dos may enlarge your (IMHO right now a bit "narrow" ) angle of view.

Even if you won't touch it, maybe you could read (from a distance ) this:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm

that illustrates just a small part of the features.....

jaclaz

[Multibooter]

Hi jaclaz,

I looked at the docu . Maybe strong language, but System Commander has worked fine for me, and equally important, I'm kind of stuck, getting rid of a boot manager looks to me like a major operation, it's the basis of all my installed operating systems. I once tried out PowerQuest Bootmagic, with System Commander still installed (which I should have uninstalled before but didn't dare to), never again, it was a big mess, that's why I said I wouldn't touch any other boot manager. How easy/difficult would it be for an expert to migrate from one boot manager to another, if you have already 6 opsys installed?

BTW I have seen somewhere that System Commander can also boot into CP/M, any comments on that?

Edited November 24, 2008 by Multibooter

[esecallum]

Hi jaclaz,

I looked at the docu . Maybe strong language, but System Commander has worked fine for me, and equally important, I'm kind of stuck, getting rid of a boot manager looks to me like a major operation, it's the basis of all my installed operating systems. I once tried out PowerQuest Bootmagic, with System Commander still installed (which I should have uninstalled before but didn't dare to), never again, it was a big mess, that's why I said I wouldn't touch any other boot manager. How easy/difficult would it be for an expert to migrate from one boot manager to another, if you have already 6 opsys installed?

BTW I have seen somewhere that System Commander can also boot into CP/M, any comments on that?

use free from google gag and or smart bootmanager...both very good...they come with uninstall option too unlike bootmagic which does not work on 400gb hard drives and fails to load operating system on 500gn or over hard drives...

[Multibooter]

getting rid of a boot manager looks to me like a major operation, it's the basis of all my installed operating systems

I should have expressed myself better, it should read instead: after having uninstalled the boot manager, getting the other 5 opsys to work again, including an opsys with a quite different code page Arabic/Farsi, looks to me like a major operation

BTW, a mini-project of test-installing Farsi Vista on a 2nd(!) internal 1TB HDD, while keeping on the 1st internal HDD all other opsys operational (e.g. partition C: as FAT16) and unaffected (e.g. XP), took only 2 hours with System Commander 9, from reading the System Commander instructions to running it for the first time. No fiddling around.

Edited November 25, 2008 by Multibooter

[thydreamwalker]

"An Older Application" XOSLBootManager works with most HDD's and has Safe PowerSoft start-ups on all 6 of my partitions with 98SE,linux,w2k,win95 and 2-saved for programs (on different HHD's with fat,fat32,ntfs etc....)

[Multibooter]

XOSLBootManager works

I wonder if it or XP will still work after you installed Vista. Edited November 25, 2008 by Multibooter

[jaclaz]

For the record, ALL mentioned bootloaders (exception made for grub4dos) are very good, but they are still "old" in the sense that they use a combination of hiding /setting active partitions and use bootsectors to load the different OS.

They miss the key feature (among the others) grub4dos has, i.e. that to load DIRECTLY the OS files bypassing the bootsector.

System commander uses AFAICR some of the hidden sectors.

XOSL, which is a very good app, needs either a dedicated (very small) partition or it litters the active partition with a number of it's files.

However I don't t think we should further hijack this thread, sorry cannie for what has already been done.

jaclaz

[cannie]

For the record, ALL mentioned bootloaders (exception made for grub4dos) are very good...They miss the key feature (among the others) grub4dos has, i.e. that to load DIRECTLY the OS files bypassing the bootsector.

Hi, jaclaz!

I've learnt a lot from your posts, even when in some points I am a rather bad pupil!

I had never heard about grub4dos before.

According to your post I think it is a much better boot system that any other based on the bootsector, so I'm loading it just now.

I've added in boot.ini:

C:\GRLDR="Start GRUB"

My Xp folder is C:\Windows (main partition 1) and my Windows 98 folder is D:\Windows (extended partition 2).

I have also a totally free partition (main partition 3).

Abusing of your experience, if you allow me it, may I ask you what do you consider to be the best way to complete the grub4dos configuration?

Thank you very much for everything.

[jaclaz]

Abusing of your experience, if you allow me it, may I ask you what do you consider to be the best way to complete the grub4dos configuration?

Thank you very much for everything.

Well, you can already boot XP directly from NTLDR+BOOT.INI, thus all you need is probably an entry in menu.lst such as:

title Win98
find --set-root /io.sys
chainloader /io.sys

(if you have more thatn one partition with IO.SYS in the root you can use a "tag" file, something like "thisis_c.tag" to "identify" the right partition.

title Win98
find --set-root /thisis_c.tag
chainloader /io.sys

or "fix" the drive:

title Win98
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /io.sys

But of course it all depends on tastes....

jaclaz

Edited November 27, 2008 by jaclaz

[cannie]

Thank you, jaclaz!