Booting problems after deleting XP from the E partition of a 98SE machine

[thanatoid]

Hello

As an experiment, I installed XP Pro on my 98SE machine, and
after playing with it for a while, deleted it.

Anyone interested can read about this in 24hrsupport.helpdesk.

Anyway, I deleted XP, and the machine still gave me the "XP or
Windows" boot menu. Needless to say, unnecessary and annoying.
So I renamed boot.ini as well as bootsect.dos (fortunately I was
not
reckless enough to just delete them). Well, you know what
happened. So I booted from a floppy and brought those two files
back.

The question:

How the hell do I get rid of that boot menu, the two files in
root of C:\ and (/if/ in fact XP messed around with the MBR)
restore the MBR to normal (i.e. pre-XP) operating conditions?

I have 16 partitions on that drive so AFAIK, fdisk /mbr is not
going to do it, or cause other, more serious, problems.

I DL'd a couple of MBR/partition programs but they have no
option to rebuild the MBR, or even to SEE it.

I am lost.

Anyone, please?


--
[from a recent mental conversation]

thanatoid:
So why did you decide you wanted broadband after all your
endless babbling about how no one except DVD pirates really
needs it?

thanatoid:
My ISP is offering it for less than I am paying for dial-up now
AND the offer includes some other very attractive rate
reductions in the basic phone service charges. And I decided I
want to read my e-mail faster

(to be continued)

 

[thanatoid]

16 partitions on the disk? How's that possible?

You can make more, AFAIK. Until you run out of the alphabet, I
think.

Anyway, it's a 40GB HD in a 98SELite machine. C is 2.5 or
something, D is 500MB (for the swap file), most of the rest are
2GB and the last 2 are about 3-4 GB.

I find partitions MUCH easier for organizing things than
subdirectories. I have 7 partitions on the 8.4GB HD in my 10
years and 11 months old Win95B machine.

However, if you're not using custom boot managers to get to
XP boot menu, you may try this:

1. Boot into Win 98
2. Prepare a new ERD
3. Boot from ERD
4. Issue command: sys c: a:
5. If command replied 'System transferred', you will boot
from now on from your C drive without XP boot manager.

Thanks very much. This procedure is a little harder to
understand than the other solution posted, but I will keep the
info and try it if the other one doesn't work.

t.


--
[from a recent mental conversation]

thanatoid:
So why did you decide you wanted broadband after all your
endless babbling about how no one except DVD pirates really
needs it?

thanatoid:
My ISP is offering it for less than I am paying for dial-up now
AND the offer includes some other very attractive rate
reductions in the basic phone service charges. And I decided I
want to read my e-mail faster

(to be continued)

 

[thanatoid]

thanatoid wrote:

IIRC, and hopefully not omitting any steps, first boot the
computer with the Windows 98SE startup diskette or a
Windows 98SE boot diskette.
From the A:\> prompt, type "Sys C:" (minus the quotes) and
Enter. This
should exchange the NT/2000/XP boot sector for one for
MS-DOS/Win9X. It is needed to assert command.com in the
root, followed by Win98SE's config.sys file and Win98SE's
autoexec.bat file (hopefully). Bringing back memories of
pre-Windows NT/2000/XP setup?

Thank you very much. I'll try it, the procedure makes sense.
I'm so glad someone is still awake!

t.

--
[from a recent mental conversation]

thanatoid:
So why did you decide you wanted broadband after all your
endless babbling about how no one except DVD pirates really
needs it?

thanatoid:
My ISP is offering it for less than I am paying for dial-up now
AND the offer includes some other very attractive rate
reductions in the basic phone service charges. And I decided I
want to read my e-mail faster

(to be continued)

 

[GHalleck]

Hello

As an experiment, I installed XP Pro on my 98SE machine, and
after playing with it for a while, deleted it.

Anyone interested can read about this in 24hrsupport.helpdesk.

Anyway, I deleted XP, and the machine still gave me the "XP or
Windows" boot menu. Needless to say, unnecessary and annoying.
So I renamed boot.ini as well as bootsect.dos (fortunately I was
not
reckless enough to just delete them). Well, you know what
happened. So I booted from a floppy and brought those two files
back.

The question:

How the hell do I get rid of that boot menu, the two files in
root of C:\ and (/if/ in fact XP messed around with the MBR)
restore the MBR to normal (i.e. pre-XP) operating conditions?

I have 16 partitions on that drive so AFAIK, fdisk /mbr is not
going to do it, or cause other, more serious, problems.

I DL'd a couple of MBR/partition programs but they have no
option to rebuild the MBR, or even to SEE it.

I am lost.

Anyone, please?

IIRC, and hopefully not omitting any steps, first boot the computer
with the Windows 98SE startup diskette or a Windows 98SE boot diskette.
From the A:\> prompt, type "Sys C:" (minus the quotes) and Enter. This
should exchange the NT/2000/XP boot sector for one for MS-DOS/Win9X.
It is needed to assert command.com in the root, followed by Win98SE's
config.sys file and Win98SE's autoexec.bat file (hopefully). Bringing
back memories of pre-Windows NT/2000/XP setup?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hello

As an experiment, I installed XP Pro on my 98SE machine, and
after playing with it for a while, deleted it.

Anyone interested can read about this in 24hrsupport.helpdesk.

Anyway, I deleted XP, and the machine still gave me the "XP or
Windows" boot menu. Needless to say, unnecessary and annoying.
So I renamed boot.ini as well as bootsect.dos (fortunately I was
not
reckless enough to just delete them). Well, you know what
happened. So I booted from a floppy and brought those two files
back.

The question:

How the hell do I get rid of that boot menu, the two files in
root of C:\ and (/if/ in fact XP messed around with the MBR)
restore the MBR to normal (i.e. pre-XP) operating conditions?

Normally, assuming Win9x/Me is installed to the C: drive, you'd
just have to boot from your Win98/Me startup diskette, type "SYS C:."
Then delete C:\NTLDR, C:\NTDETECT.COM, C:\BOOT.INI, C:\BOOTSEC.DOS, and
C:\PAGEFILE.SYS. Delete or reformat the WinXP directory/partition, as
applicable. Remove the startup diskette and reboot.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[thanatoid]

Normally, assuming Win9x/Me is installed to the C:
drive, you'd
just have to boot from your Win98/Me startup diskette, type
"SYS C:." Then delete C:\NTLDR, C:\NTDETECT.COM,
C:\BOOT.INI, C:\BOOTSEC.DOS, and C:\PAGEFILE.SYS. Delete
or reformat the WinXP directory/partition, as applicable.
Remove the startup diskette and reboot.

Thank you for your reply. I had 2 other people tell me the same
thing so I'm pretty sure this will take care of it

Regards
t.


--
[from a recent mental conversation]

thanatoid:
So why did you decide you wanted broadband after all your
endless babbling about how no one except DVD pirates really
needs it?

thanatoid:
My ISP is offering it for less than I am paying for dial-up now
AND the offer includes some other very attractive rate
reductions in the basic phone service charges. And I decided I
want to read my e-mail faster

(to be continued)