about dual booting

[hermit]

i recently upgraded from winme to winxp

and i haf another windows 98 in my other partition

this is my boot.ini in xp

[boot loader]

redirect=useBiosSettings

redirectbaudrate=

timeout=0

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect C: = "Previous Operating System on C:"

1st question is what is the "c:="previous operating system on c:" for

2nd question is how do i add a line to the boot.ini so i can boot to my windows 98 in my other partition using the boot menu in boot.ini

thx

[FthrJACK]

set the timeout to 30, then reboot the pc and see what happens, make sure you right click on the boot ini file and go to its properties first as it is probably set to read only. when you reboot you should see win98 on the menu, but by the look of it, you wont, ive never seen previous operating system on a boot ini file before.. hmm.. did you actaully run the winXP upgrade by any chance? i bet thats what it is, let me know when you have tried the first suggestion

[aKaFrEE]

i think the "Previous Operating System on C:" is just it referring back to 98......

[hermit]

yes

the default is 30 sec right?

i set to timeout=0 myself..i haf never seen my win98 on the boot menu

before..when i had 30 sec

so what do i do now?

my xp line is

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect C: = "Previous Operating System on C:"

so i tried this for my win98

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Windows 98" /fastdetect C: = "Previous Operating System on C:"

and i tried this too

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)="Windows 98" /fastdetect C: = "Previous Operating System on C:"

but both doesn't work

1 say can't find /system32/hal.dll..and the other just auto reboot itself

xp=partition2

win98=partiton 1

well..they are on separate partition..that's all i know..

how do i tell xp to be on partition 1 instead?

[hermit]

so anyone knows how do i add my windows 98 to the boot menu

[hermit]

no one knows how to create a boot menu?

thought this should be an easy problem

help!!!!

thx

[Guest LouCypher]

To add your Windows 98 to BOOT.INI add the line:

C:="Microsoft Windows 98"

Under the [operating systems] section in boot.ini

Change the timeout to something else (ex. timeout=15 for 15 seconds)

You could of left the boot.ini alone, the "Previous operating system on C:" was Windows 98, but it should be on a seperate line and not appended to the line for your XP installation.

Check this link:

h*tp://www.winntmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8312

[hermit]

thanks

but it doesn't work

adding the c="windows 98" line doesn't work

it tries to boot my windows me (remember i upgraded from me to xp) and of cuz booting winme is no success

then i tried to tell windows that my windows 98 is on the other partition ......by doing this

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)c="Windows 98"

it just reboots itself when i choose to boot the windows 98

i know many of u guys have got dual boot

how did u guys do it?

[Guest LouCypher]

So instead of

C:="Windows 98"

Change C: to whatever drive letter that the XP drive (I guess your C:) see the Windows 98 partition as. If your C: is primary, and it is NTFS, and the Windows 98 is D: (under XP) and is FAT32 then try changing it to that letter instead of C:

Like:

D:="Windows 98"

You WILL have problems if they are both FAT32.

[hermit]

yes

both of my partition is fat 32

what can i do?

cuz win98 for sure needs fat 32

and i upgraded my xp from windows me (as i said) and of cuz its fat 32 too

about the partition

i m not sure which one is which

i just know i haf 2 partitions

normally before i used my windows me exclusively....(by the way..the windows 98 is in another language other than english)...now after i upgraded to xp...xp seems to like being a "secondary" partition because in the partition line in the boot.ini...it said its in partition "2"

so what is the problem with both fat 32

and how can i solve it?

[Guest LouCypher]

The problem is Windows 98 insists on being booted from C: drive, which HAS to be a Primary partition, and HAS to be set as the Active partition. Having another primary partition which is currently your XP C: drive being FAT32 and Active is what causes the problem.

It's okay to have two primary partitions, but when both are FAT32 then Windows 98 will see both and assign C: to be the first of the two partitions, so it won't boot because it sees itself as being on D: drive.

You could use another boot manager like Lilo and HIDE the partitions from each other depending upon which one you boot from, but then Windows 98 wouldn't be able to see the other partition.

Your best solution would be to convert the XP partition to NTFS. Since you said you upgraded from ME you might want to reinstall XP and format the partition as NTFS during installation and do a fresh install.

If the XP drive were NTFS instead of FAT32 then Windows 98 wouldn't know the XP partition was there and you could then boot, you just wouldn't see anything on it. XP would still be able to see everything on the Windows 98 partition.

[hermit]

wow

nice long answer

thx

very helpful (i m not sure if i understand all of what u said though)

few comments and questions:

1. don't wanna format cuz lazy backup

2. what would be the side effect of converting my partition to ntfs?

what's the difference between the two?....performance?

3. Lilo ? never heard of it! lol...any xp compatible boot manager?...i haf system commander 2k..but not compatible with xp..and don't think it can hide o/s...boot magic good?...any other ones?

4. i thought xp tries to make itself a secondary partition?!?!?!?

cuz it said partition "2" in the boot.ini

5. when i tell my computer to boot from partition 1 which contains windows 98 (i guess), windows just restart itself

if i tell it to boot from partition 2, windows said it can't find some xp files

6. just wanna tell you my situation clearly:

before xp, i haf windows me as the one i mainly use

then i partitioned another drive for a windows 98 (another language other than english) so i guess winme is c: and win98 is e: while my d: is just a few hundred mb of data

so what should i do now?

u sure i can't boot from with 2 fat32 partitions?

thx man Loucypher! =)

[Guest LouCypher]

Okay, in order:

1) So don't format now, you'll probably just have to do it later anyways.

2) XP will do this for you during setup, or you can do it afterwards using CONVERT.EXE, or Partition Magic (careful). The benefit to going to NTFS is: faster, more secure, less fragmentation.

3) LILO = [b:fad1b1842e]Li[/b:fad1b1842e]nux [b:fad1b1842e]Lo[/b:fad1b1842e]ader, Linux's boot loader

4) It's on the second partition, but it's probably the one set Active, which makes it C: by default, all the other partitions are assigned the drive letters under XP in the order they appear on disk after the Active partition is assigned C:

5) Because the Windows 98 partition isn't Active.

6) Like I said before, you'd have to hide one of the FAT32 Primary partitions from the other while each one is booted, with a boot manager. I don't think you want to go through the trouble of installing Linux just for LILO, but I'm not familiar with any other boot managers, other than maybe the Boot Magic stuff that comes with Parition Magic, I think the one w/ PM7 is XP compatible (although I won't SWEAR to it).

[hermit]

ok

thx for ur answer

now another question

1. if there is this hiding o/s problem

then why can i boot to different o/s using system commander?....and not the xp boot menu?

2. pm7...its compatible with xp....but many said they screwed up their system with it.....what's wrong with the prog?...why be careful? isn't it just like any other partition prog?

3. can i convert back to fat 32 after i convert to ntfs?

4. just to get it clear

so if i stay with 2 fat 32 now....then i will hafta hide the o/s each time i try to boot an o/s?...ex. if wannna boot to xp.then hide win98 and vice versa?...that's annoying...system commander works better in that case

5. so if i use ntfs for xp then no problem exist?

thx for continous help!

[Guest LouCypher]

1. Because System Commander resides on the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the HD to initialize the loading of the OS. It will dynamically change the stuff like hidden paritition and Active flags because it boots from the MBR. XP's boot menu doesn't get control until the boot process it passed to the partition XP is loaded on, which is set Active.

2. The Windows version of PM7 didn't work so hot for me. It failed to modify the partition XP was running on, which was also the partition it was running from. It couldn't lock the drive to modify the size of the XP partition. I just booted from a startup disk and ran the DOS version of PM7 and it had no problems at all. I think I saw mention of another mod (barnettp perhaps?) that had a failure in converting to TNFS from FAT32 w/ PM7, and XPerties doesn't like it at all either. I would just say to use the DOS version of PM7 or use CONVERT.EXE, or let setup do it for you during installation.

3. Yes, but only with something like Partition Magic (again, careful). CONVERT.EXE is one way only.

4. If System Commander works better then use it. It's doing the hiding and activating for you. Much easier (for you) than LILO.

5. There shouldn't be any problems with having two primary partitions, one NTFS for XP and the other FAT32 for 98/ME. XP will see both but 98/ME will only see the one it boots from (FAT32).