Dual Boot Win98/Win2000 Problems

[Chackt]

Hello, I have just finished a win98 installation on a Slave hard disk (1st IDE) and then (after) a win2000 installation on a Master hard disk (1st IDE).

Once both operating systems are installed, the win2000 boot doesnt offer me the posibility to boot win98. I've tried
using the recovery console, doing fixboot, fixmbr, nothing worked. I can only boot win98 if i select its hard disk as default boot disk.

Any solution? Thank you.

 

[Chackt]

Hey, nobody knows an answer???

;/

 

[1stITMAN]

I think its your boot.ini, you need to add line to it.
Sample Boot.ini File

This is a sample of a default Boot.ini file from a Windows 2000 Professional computer.
[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 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

This is a sample of the above Boot.ini file after adding another partition running Windows 98.
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 2000" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 98" /fastdetect


I think that is correct.


Zaheer Ahmed Iqbal
I.T Systems Support Engineer
Bsc. (Hons).

 

[Chackt]

I tried this, dude. Before you told it, and exactly that, except the 'WINNT' directive, because of Win98 resides in a 'Windows' folder. I saw anyway a thread from microsoft where they claimed adding c:\widows="Microsoft Windows 98" in boot.ini, could be this possible?
with multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 98" /fastdetect, win98 won't start (points a problem in krnl8.exe or something like that in windows system.

I'm totally overloaded.

 

[danomac]

IIRC, Windows 98 *has* to reside on the first partition of the first disk, on the first IDE interface.

It won't boot from anywhere else.

Windows 2000 can boot from any partition, so you will have to reinstall both, more than likely.

D

 

[jlnjn]

Win98 must start before cylinder 1024 on the master drive. The partition must also be FAT or FAT32. It cannot be an NTFS partition. Partition Magic makes building dual boot systems really easy. It will take care of all the details. You might try that route for $49.95.

 

[Chackt]

Thank you. I didn't know about that. Hm... so I should put the win2000 disk as slave.... i understand. Or instead, install the partition magic bootloader, isn't so? i hope i've understood that?

 

[danomac]

For dual booting windows 98 and 2000, have the Windows 98 has the master drive, and install it.

Install Windows 2000 on the slave drive.

You don't need the partition magic bootloader for this, as when you install Windows 2000, W2K install one to switch between the two OSs.

D

 

[Chackt]

I know!! But I meant installing partition magic bootloader in case of having win98 in the slave drive. because win2000 can't load win98 being it in a slave drive, isnt so?

So i could try that. Hm. But then, how's that posible that i have seen a dual installation, in the same machine in fact, with only one disk, with win2k in the first partition and win98 in the secondary one. And they booted both perfectly! How was that posible if win98, according to what you say, can't be started from any different partition of the first one of the master disk?? Thanks!

 

[danomac]

It is possible to "trick" windows 98 to installing to the second partition. I've never tried it myself.

It involves partitioning the master drive into 2 partitions, Installing windows 98, then copying Windows 98 to the second partition (running the shell SYS command to copy the boot sectors), then installing Windows 2000 on the first partition as NTFS.

I always found this to be a pain. So I would keep Windows 98 on the first partition for simplicity.

It's Windows 98 Setup that errors out on install, IIRC. It would complain it couldn't find usable space on the primary partition or something.

If you google for it, you might find more steps to try to get it to work that way.

D

 

[wolluf]

Chackt - just go to

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

download and install the boot manager (free for personal use) and run it to set up dual boot menu (save to mbr, partition or floppy). Problem solved.

 

[Chackt]

Wonderful. I put the win98 disk as master and the one with 2000 as slave. I got problems, i formated and reinstalled win98 in his new master position. i 'fixed' the MBR then with the recovery console of win2000... and the problem persisted!!! saying that winnt\system32\nts2kernl.exe or something like that, wasn't found or failed.

Well so... cool. But i realized that despite of that, the boot.ini isn't modificated with the fixmbr or fixboot. And probably is what i need, cause after deleting this file and doing a fixmbr and/or fixboot, system says that boot.ini is not found, so fixmbr/fixboot doesnt generate or modify that. Then why do i need them? i need something that can write right partition entries in boot.ini!!!

 

[Chackt]

And wolluf, referring to your post, i tried to install boot-us, looked great, and started my win98 partition wonderfully. Only got one problem. The second entry, the win2000 one, the most important, didn't boot. Great, isn't so?? It is in a slave disk, primary ntfs partition as i said. Any suggestion? I would leave it on if it runned correctly both operative systems.

Thanks again.

 

[wolluf]

You shouldn't delete boot.ini - its one of 2k's boot sector files (ntldr & ntdetect.com are the others. If this won't boot, then run fixboot from recovery console to write a new boot sector. You don't need fixmbr - but it wont hurt either). You just need to create a new boot.ini and copy it to root of 2k drive. If 2k is now on first partition of second drive, boot.ini should look like this:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

you can create it with notepad - make sure you save it as type 'any files' (not text documents - that will put an extra .txt extension on it). Also make sure ntldr & ntdetect.com are there (can copy off 2k install CD if not). Boot-us should now boot the 2k installation (it can only boot bootable partitions!).

 

[Chackt]

??? I guess that you have replied that as 'default' answer to that kind of situations but if you had read the upper posts you had seen that i have already tried all these things. And that fixmbr doesnt generate any boot.ini entry according to your avaliable operatives systems, that this is what i would like to do.

Anyway as i told you, i can't start win2000 with Boot-Us, although i can start it uninstalling it.

Thanks.

 

[wolluf]

???????

If you want new entries in boot.ini, you need to edit them there yourself (or install 2k - either new or repair install). You did say you DELETED boot.ini - so I was just giving instructions as to how to replace it. I know fixmbr doesn't generate boot.ini entries - it writes a new standard M$ master boot record, leaving partition table intact. Fixboot x: writes a new 2k boot sector to the partition on x:. To boot 2k, you need the files ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini in the root of the system partition and that partition to have a 2k boot sector. So if any of those files missing, they need copying there, and if still won't boot, usually means need to run fixboot to write a boot sector. Obviously if you install 2k it will create a new boot sector - on the first active partition it finds with supported filestore (fat, fat32, ntfs). So if you install 2k on second drive with 1st drive present and with fat32 (win98) filestore, it will install bootsector on that first drive (and create its own M$ dual boot - via entry in boot.ini and a file called bootsect.dos - which is a copy of win98's boot sector - used to boot 98 from the 2k boot loader). You can create your own bootsect.dos by following this procedure -

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

(read 2k for xp)

I have no idea what's happened on your system - whether the drives have their own boot sectors or what (suspect not, as boot-us will boot virtually any o/s on a bootable partition) - so hope these general tips will help. If no good, please post again saying exactly what you are trying to do, and where its not working, and we'll try to help further.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

http://windows.about.com/cs/dualboot/

Cliff, CCNA/MCSE/MCSA 2000
Network Administrator