Booting XP with Win98

[Sanjay Verma]

Friends,
Earlier I posted query regarding multi-boot. But I've found a new issue here.

The current disk configuration is:
C:\> WIN XP - NTFS
D:\> WIN 98 - FAT32

Although Win98 was installed first, it access from the C:\ driver. Now since XP is installed (NTFS - C Drive), how can I boot Win98 so that although 98 DOES NOT recognise NTFS but still able to boot??

[Jon Finley · Accepted solution]

If you truely installed 98 on drive D (the second partition), then the only way to boot 98 would be with an external boot floppy.

You can rearrange the partitions with Partition Magic, but none of the Registry entries will match the drive letter.

When you build a multiboot image, you want to create it in the following manor:

Install 98 first, and on the first partition (usually C:). Fat32 is OK

Install 2000 or XP next, on the second partition (usually D:). NTFS is fine.

Jon

[Sanjay Verma]

Jon, I've gone crazy. Can't we modify the boot.ini to pickup the boot files for 98 from D: drive instead??

[Jon Finley]

You can check the boot.ini file, but I'm betting that it already points to D:\ for Windows 98.

Jon

[Sanjay Verma]

It's already pointing to C:\, no fraud.
The contents are:
[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
c:\ = "Microsoft Windows"

I did the test by changing c:\ to d:\ but the screen goes blank.

[Sanjay Verma]

Thanks Jon. What I did was installed 98 on C:\ (FAT32) and XP on D:\ (NTFS). Did not spare more time in struggling with BOOT.INI.

[Brian Borg]

I would recommend starting over. Although I have done this type of thing before, it is not really worth the effort. The problem is that now that you have Win XP installed in ntfs on the first partition, Win 98 does not mount that partition as C:. Instead it mounts the second partition as C:. In order to boot it, you need to change the registry for the Win 98 OS by replacing all instances of D:\* with C:\*. This is possible by using regedit for Win 98 in dos mode. This might be possible by editing the msdos.sys file on the second partition, or else by booting a Win 98 system floppy, and then going to C:\Windows.

[Sanjay Verma]

Brian,
Thanks for your suggestions. Pl. find my comments below:
(a) Modifying registry - Since registry tweaking involves bit of complications and risk, I'm not sure if that can give 99% accuracy when dealing with production data.
(b) Booting from floppy - I liked the suggestion but you know, carrying the floppy all the times causes a bit of complications too and also you can't rely on the floppies. Plus, the Compaq Evo N610C does not come with FDD surprisingly.

Once again, thanks for your comments but will setup another pc and will work on investigating with the registry - replacing the drive identifications.

Cheers - Sanjay