Multi-Boot Floppy Disk

[DaveNamou]

I have a floppy that I'm trying to make into a Multi-Boot Disk.

I have created the floppy so that it has two choices.
(1) Boot to WIndows 2000 - Which is on the hard drive
(2) Boot to Windows 98 - Which is on the floppy
(This Windows 98 is only the command line version)

Here is what my Boot.ini file looks like

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=A:[operating systems]
A:\="Microsoft Windows"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000"


And of course I have all the files necessary on the floppy.
ntldr, ntdetect.com, command.com for W98, etc.

The Windows 2000 part boots just fine.
But the Windows 98 part fails.

It basically just reboots the PC if I try to boot to the Windows 98.

Any Help or Ideas? Or some third party tools that might help? ALL GREATLY APPRECIATED
I've tried boot.exe so far...didn't really work! Dave Namou, MCSE CCEA

 

[RhythmAce]

Where does linux come in? ) If Win 2K is on the hard drive and Win98 is on the floppy, why don't you let the machine boot 2k then when you want 98, boot from the floppy?

 

[DaveNamou]

I had a feeling the Linux question would come up....Do a search on Google for Multi-Boot and 98% of the results have to do with Linux and Windows. So I'm assuming that the Linux world also knows quit a bit on this subject of Multi-Booting.

The reason I'm creating a floppy that boots to Win2K and Win98 is that I'm making a boot configuration disk to Load Win2K from an Image. I use Win98 to answer all the configuration questions and then Boot to Win2K which queries the answers off the floppy.
At this point, I would have to be there to stick the floppy in at the exact time that Win2K needed it, otherwise It just loads the default settings.
I have no problems scripting it to boot to the OS that I want. Problem is that I can't boot to the windows 98 OS which is on the Floppy.


Dave Namou, MCSE CCEA

 

[RhythmAce]

Call me stupid on a stick, but I'm still not to sure of what you want to do. Take a look here and see if any of these do what you want.

http://www.tucows.com/system/boot95.html

I don't think that daul boot is what you want. It sounds to me what you are trying to do is load 2k with 98 configs. Is that right? If so, I would think once you booted between systems, all the configs would be lost anyway. Couldn't you load 2k with 98's .ini files? ...or maybe I'm just not gettin' it. )

 

[DaveNamou]

I'll check into this tool and see if it does the trick. Thanks!

FYI,
I'll try to break down what I'm trying to do...
1. An IT user slaps a floppy into a new PC and boots from the floppy.
2. NTLoader starts and has 2 options, Windows 2000 and Windows 98(Default is Windows 98)
3. Windows98 Loads from the floppy
4. A MENU Program which has varios options runs from the floppy.
5. The IT user makes his choices and then when he's done chooses the START option.
6. The MENU Program then writes all of the settings to a file on the floppy. (Sysprep.ini).
7. The MENU program passes peramiters to GHOST to copy image from the network to the local harddrive.
8. The MENU Program modifies the Boot.ini on the floppy to default to Windows 2000.
9. SYSTEM REBOOTS
10. NTLOader has 2 options again, this time with Windows 2000 as the default partitions.
11. The system boots to Windows 2000 setup which uses the Sysprep.ini file to customize the install.

The Actual Windows2000 OS is on the Hard drive. I'm just using the floppy to boot from and then passing control to the Windows 2000 OS on the harddrive.

Hope that makes what I'm trying to accomplish more clear.

My main effort is to make this procedure work without ever taking out the floppy so that the IT User can walk away once he chooses his options.
Dave Namou, MCSE CCEA