Re-Installation of Windows 2000 on Windows 98

[mjmaio]

Waz up All,

Here's the situation...mind you it gets weird. I installed Win 98 onto my system with no problems. I then upgraded to Windows 2000, effectively dual booting my computer system. Then for fun, I installed Suse Linux 6.4, which trashed my NT partition, even though I put the boot record on the floppy (I didnt touch my master boot record on the hard drive). When I booted up (without the floppy SUSE boot disk) and selected Windows 2000 from the boot menu, I recieved ntkernel.exe is corrupted please re-install. I tried the Emergency Backup to no avail. I then deleted all the windows 2000 files off my system, and got rid of the boot loader, so now my system iS running windows 98, and Suse Linux smoothly. I decided that if I'm gonna run a webserver, win 98 is not a secure choice, and since I dont have sound in Linux (I need my music to work!) I should re-install 2000, and upgrade windows 98 the same way, with a dual-boot configuration. Well that was bad. Here's the error message I'm getting:

Windows 2000 does not support upgrading from windows if you have multiple operating systems installed. Setup will now exit.

Now, I dont think the Microsoft setup can see Linux. I upgraded my old computer when I had windows 98 with Suse Linux installed and was able to upgrade to windows 2000 and dual-boot without a hitch.

So I'm thinking the image of 2000 is still left on my drive. The only weird thing I did notice was I had 2 MBR's when my virus scanner ran. Do I have to do FDISK /MBR and then boot off a win98 floppy and sys c: the drive again for win2k to be totally gone?

I also found this support article on msft's website, which I followed without any luck:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q232/1/23.asp

Any thoughts are appreciated. I'm sorry for the long post,I just dont want anyone to waste anyone's time.

thanx
Matthew J

 

[pbxman]

Are you using the Lilo boot-loader? You should be using a 3rd party boot loader for dual Win + linux setups.

 

[mjmaio]

No LILO is not installed on my MBR. I am loading into windows 98 by default. I'm wondering how windows 2000 checks for multiple operating systems. Any light shedded on this area would probably solve my problem.

thanx,
Matthew J

 

[pbxman]

You need lilo to access the linux partition.

Is 98 on Fat16 or Fat32? What about your 2000 partition? NTFS or Fat32?

Your boot.ini must be on a filesystem that can read all of your partition info.

 

[mjmaio]

The 98 partition (which boots directly) is on a fat32, which is upgradable to 2000. 2000 is completely wiped out! I deleted all the files from my 2000 installation since it was corrupted somehow Linux (2000 files might have been on linux's partition, dunno how, i didnt defrag 2000 before installing linux). Linux in order to run, you are correct, LILO is needed. Lilo is on a floppy disk, not in the mbr of my hard drive.

As for boot.ini, its gone. ntldr, ntdetect.com, are all gone with it. I have no more 2000 files on my computer(I dont think), yet my setup is detecting multiple OS's.

Here is what the upgrade report said:

Other Operating Systems Found

You cannot upgrade this Windows installation to Windows 2000, because you have more than one operating system installed on your computer. Upgrading one operating system can cause problems with files shared by the other operating system, and is therefore not permitted.

Now if files are being shared...Linux can't be detected, since the files shared between linux and windows is not possible (ext2 is not readable in win 98, nor 2000).

thanx again,
Matthew J

 

[pbxman]

Ok - now im getting confused!


If win98 is working okay..you must have a boot.ini
Try resetting the attributes for it - it's probably hidden.

Once you can read boot.ini - pull the Win2K reference out of it, or do an FDISK /MBR, but do NOT sys c: afterwards.

This is where programs like partition magic are worth their weight in gold. Get yourself a copy for the future - all knowledgeable computer useres should have it.

 

[mjmaio]

Boot.ini does not exist in windows 98. It shouldn't exist in 98. I dont think this is a partition magic issue either. Time to do a workaround... clean install, make an emergency boot repair for 2000....sys c: with a win 98 disk then emergency repair the win 2000 operating system and get the right boot menu.

thanx for trying
Matthew J

 

[pbxman]

Mj - dont give up yet. I didn't mean to infer that boot.ini was still resident on your 98 partition - only that it may be reading NT's if it was not removed. You may have left out a couple of files that NT requires (and your boot-menu may be finding)

..all of these are hidden except NTldr.
Ntdetect.com
Boot.ini
Pagefile.sys (if present)
Bootsect.dos

Try these:
1) Sys your c: drive
2) Your bootloader may be finding Bootsect.dos - so make sure that and the above files are all gone as well.

BTW - Partition Magic would easily show you the problem, and have a one-step interface for undoing this - or at least taking the guesswork from wherever you're at.
Please let Tek-Tips members know their posts were helpful. Thanks!

Pbxman
Systems Administrator
A+, MCSE+I