win98 boot failure on dual disk system disk

[ballym]

I have dual HD system with XP and win98SE on them. last week I tried to boot woth win98 but recieved following message...
" Searching for boot record from IDE-1....OK
"Invalid system disk
replace disk and press any key"

So basically .. booting to win98 seems to be the problem.
I can Access data on that drive from WIn XP( NTFS on cwithout any problem.
I have not made any changes in hardware.
Only change I can think of is that...
I did some changes so that I now have a network logon screen in XP( instead of screen showing variou usernames etc..( this may be entirely separate issue... I am not sure).
I also tried to put another line in Boot.ini with multi(0)disk(1) address...
This just gave me another screen where it gives option for booting...and on selecting window 98...it says:
" COMPUTER DISK HARDWARE CONFIGURATION PROBLEM"
" COULD NOT READ FROM SELECTED BOOT DISK"
"CHECK BOOT PAH AND DISK HARDWARE"

This may be a small problem.... need your guidance.

 

[rvnguy]

As Win98 is on a different drive from your XP install, try running chkdsk, or scandisk on it from xp. See if any errors are found... if so re-run with the /F switch and see if it will fix the errors.

Start there and post back with results...

Hope this helps

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[ballym]

No luck, the messgaes after chkdsk /f remains same. It was run on restart of system

 

[rvnguy]

So there wee no errors posted upon the chkdsk /f run?

You can also attempt to troubleshoot the master boot record that would be located on you c: xp drive & contains info on the dual boot along with what you have already done with the boot.ini. this is done either at the cmd line or through the repair console:

REPAIR CONSOLE:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmc_str_bjid.asp

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

The 98 drive might also be checked for its' ability to boot by making it the c: boot drive (place it in the ide0 position) as the only drive. If it will not boot to 98 there is a problem with it. As you can currently boot to XP and if I read correctly view the 98 drive, I would also backup any data that you do not want to lose prior to any additional corrective actions.

Hope this Helps

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[wolluf]

Is this a 'traditional' dual boot system? Ie, win98 on the first disk, winxp on the second. If not then please give full details of your setup so we can properly help.

If it is as I suggested, then sounds like there has been a corruption in the bootsect.dos file which contains an image of the win98 boot sector before you installed XP to create the dual boot. The XP boot loader uses this image to boot 98. You can recreate the file - there are details on this page:-

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

I've copied thr relevant section below:-



Repairing the Windows® XP Boot Loader

1) Create a Win98/Me Startup Disk
2) Create a Notepad file with the following entries, exactly as shown:

L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q

3) Save the file to the Win98/Me Startup Disk as READ.SCR
4) Boot the computer with the Win98/Me Startup Disk and at the A: prompt type

DEBUG <READ.SCR

Steps 1 - 4 create the BOOTSECT.DOS file needed to boot Win98/Me. For your convenience, you can download READ.SCR here. I suggest you use right click and Save As. You may need to use the ATTRIB C:\BOOTSECT.DOS -S -H -R command if BOOTSECT.DOS already exists and you get an error when trying to recreate it.

HTH - if not, please post back more details.