XP Boot Sector Erased (Dual Boot 98/XP)

[jimbo]

I set up a dual-boot system as described in Q306559. On the
C hard drive I was using Windows 98 SE on a FAT volume. On
a second hard drive partioned into drives D & H I was
using Windows XP Professional, with both drives formatted
as FAT volumes. This worked great for about a year until I
reformatted the C hard drive as FAT. When I rebooted, I got
a blank screen with two spades showing.

I tried to reinstall windows 98 SE on the C drive, but when
I inserted the original OEM boot disk, I got this message
"Disk I/O Error. Replace the disk, and then press any key".
I get the same error even if I try and install XP on it.

How do I now make the D & H volume a bootable windows xp
professional volume while preserving all of my data?

How can I install any OS on drive C?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

In addition to the BOOTCFG /REBUILD command, you'll also want to run the
FIXBOOT command. You'll also need to replace NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM in the
root directory of the C: drive. See my web site, www.dougknox.com and go to
Win XP Tips

For Win9x/Me: Install 98/Me after XP is Installed.
For Windows 2000: Install Windows 2000 after XP is installed.

You'll primarily be interested in the section on Repairing the XP Boot
Loader, at this point. You'll also need to copy the two files I mentioned,
above, from the XP CD.