xp boot restore

[lagaye]

I have run xp and 98SE with dual-boot for one year, it worked perfectly

I had to reinstall win98 and now, i don't have any boot menu now. Windows 98 has overwrited it.

I have tried to restore the boot record with the xp install cd, but I can't access restore options because (I know i shouldn't have, but it happens ...) I forgot my admin password.

Do I have a way to recover my MBR ?
Didn't someone write a tool to do that from within win 98 ?

Thanks for any clue ...

 

[wolluf]

Its not your MBR, its the boot sector of the first partition - you need the Fixboot command of XP's recovery console (so you need administrator password). BUT, if you do that, it will almost certainly not boot win98! You could create a boot floppy which will enable you to access XP - format floppy & copy files ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini from root of C: (win98) drive - unless you formatted before reinstalling win98. In which case, get ntldr & ntdetect.com off the XP install CD and create your own boot.ini. It should look something like:-

[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 XP Professional" /fastdetect

(you won't be able to access win98 from here - but system will boot win98 without the boot floppy).

One way of getting boot menu back:-

Reinstall XP, using the Repair option (this will reinstall on top of itself - should leave the installation largely as was & put back win98 on boot menu).

Note: If you intend continuing with dual booting, have a look at

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

Using the boot manager & associated tools there, you can set up independent 98 & XP installations so reinstalling one doesn't upset the other.

PS.

http://www.securiteam.com/tools/6T00D0A35S.html

has an XP password reset facilty - could use it to reset your XP Administrator password.