Dual Boot 98+XP - need to format & reinstall 98 1

[tutmoses]

Hi!

I'm running Win98 & XP, dual boot. NEED to format the drive with 98 on and re-install 98..... If I do that, all the dual boot info will be lost .... So.. which files do I need to save before I format the drive, so that I can put them back afterwards and have the dual boot option again when 98 is re-installed.

Thanks!!

 

[Kento]

Well i'm not a dual boot dude but I believe boot.ini would be one to save. Anyone else know if there are any others?

 

[tutmoses]

I think there are. I tried that once before (just boot.ini) and it didn't want to know. I guess there is a file/command that tells the thing to actually 'look' at boot.ini?

Thanks!!!

 

[wolluf]

You can't (probably not, anyway) do this. If you reformat & reinstall win98, you'll have to reinstall XP as well to re-establish the dual boot using XP's boot menu. The XP install creates an image of the win98 boot sector (saved as a file) which is used to boot win98 after install. Even if you save that image (can't remember what its called, but should be 512 bytes in root of C & replace it on drive after reinstall, it probably won't work. But you can try if you want. The other files you'll need are boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com from root of C:. You'll also need to use XP's recovery console - FIXBOOT command on C: after reinstall and replace of files.

Note1: You can also make yourself an XP boot floppy, by formatting floppy in XP and copying 3 files mentioned above to it. This will enable you to boot your XP installation (from floppy) after you reformat & reinstall win98, if you can't re-establish the boot menu.

Note2: Using a 3rd party boot manager (see

http://www.boot-us.com)

can prevent all these problems - you can independently install/reformat etc each o/s without upsetting botting the other.

 

[cdogg]

I think the 512b file is bootsect.dos.
ck_blk@yahoo.com

 

[tutmoses]

This is how I did it... Probably not the most advisable way... but heh.. it worked!

Booted into command prompt (dos). Deleted all the folders on C and autoexcec.bat and config.sys (well renamed them atleast). Then ran Win 98 setup from the dos prompt. Once setup finished, it rebooted and the dual boot info was still intact!

Thanks for all your help!!