Booting from a different Partition?

[Guest]

OK, here's a little background info.

We have some laptops setup with 3 partitions. Partitions 1 and 2 are
standard C and D drive running Windows XP. 3rd partition is a FAT partition
that has some ghost image files on it that we use to reimage the first 2
partitions.

Currently I boot from a Win 98 floppy disk. Because Part 1 and 2 are NTFS,
it doesn't see them at all so Partition 3 is the C drive. I just run ghost
from a batch file that loads the image onto the first two partitions.

What I want to do is not have to use a floppy disk or CD but somehow press a
button or something to get some sort of boot menu in which I can tell it to
boot off the 3rd partition. The 3rd partition would just load into DOS and
run the batch file so we just didn't have to use a disk any more.

Any ideas?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

OK, here's a little background info.

We have some laptops setup with 3 partitions. Partitions 1 and 2 are
standard C and D drive running Windows XP. 3rd partition is a FAT partition
that has some ghost image files on it that we use to reimage the first 2
partitions.

Currently I boot from a Win 98 floppy disk. Because Part 1 and 2 are NTFS,
it doesn't see them at all so Partition 3 is the C drive. I just run ghost
from a batch file that loads the image onto the first two partitions.

What I want to do is not have to use a floppy disk or CD but somehow press a
button or something to get some sort of boot menu in which I can tell it to
boot off the 3rd partition. The 3rd partition would just load into DOS and
run the batch file so we just didn't have to use a disk any more.

Any ideas?

Try this:
1. Boot into WinXP.
2. Copy these hidden files to the Win98 partition:
c:\ntldr
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\boot.ini
3. Add this line to E:\boot.ini:
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"
4. Boot into DOS.
5. Run this command:
bootpart winnt boot:c:
6. Use fdisk.exe to mark the Win98 partition active.

Note:
- bootpart.exe is available here:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm
http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
- The above approach will only work if the Win98 partition is a
primary partition.
- If Win98 is installed on a logical drive then you must use a
third-party boot manager, e.g. XOSL.
- The above actions are reversed by making the first partition active.

 

[Pavel]

Mr B

Pegasus gave you a very good information. As he pointed out there is an
alternate way by using a boot manager. He also points out that XOSL is one
such Boot manager. It is a good manager but it does require that few files
are copied to hard drive or separate partition as most boot managers do. I
personally use boot manager called OSL2000. It's not free but the advantage
is that it does not use extra partition or diskspace. Not as sophisticated
as XOSL is but very simple and small.

 

[Guest]

Try this:
1. Boot into WinXP.
2. Copy these hidden files to the Win98 partition:
c:\ntldr
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\boot.ini
3. Add this line to E:\boot.ini:
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"
4. Boot into DOS.
5. Run this command:
bootpart winnt boot:c:
6. Use fdisk.exe to mark the Win98 partition active.

Note:
- bootpart.exe is available here:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm
http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
- The above approach will only work if the Win98 partition is a
primary partition.
- If Win98 is installed on a logical drive then you must use a
third-party boot manager, e.g. XOSL.
- The above actions are reversed by making the first partition active.

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a try...

Couple questions...
1) Where in the boot.ini file do I need to add the Windows 98 line? File
currently has a boot loader section and an OS section. I assume it goes
under the OS section but just thought I'd ask.
2) in Step 4, can I just boot off my 98 boot disk that I will copy bootpart
onto?
3) Is there a difference between fdisk to set the partition active versus
using XP's DIsk Management to set it active?

Thanks.

 

[M]

A third party boot manager makes this very easy to achieve, I use XOSL from
http://www2.arnes.si/~fkomar/xosl.org/home.html
There are others available.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a try...

Couple questions...
1) Where in the boot.ini file do I need to add the Windows 98 line? File
currently has a boot loader section and an OS section. I assume it goes
under the OS section but just thought I'd ask.

Make it he last line in boot.ini.

2) in Step 4, can I just boot off my 98 boot disk that I will copy bootpart

Yes.

3) Is there a difference between fdisk to set the partition active versus
using XP's DIsk Management to set it active?

I suspect that XP won't let you change the active partition.

Thanks.

It occurred to me after I sent the first reply that your Win98
partition might not have the Win98 boot files. If so then the
machine will lock up each time you select a Win98 boot.
Here is the modified procedure to resolve this issue:

1. Boot into WinXP.
2. Copy these hidden files to the Win98 partition:
c:\ntldr
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\boot.ini
3. Boot into DOS with your Win98 boot diskette.
4. Run these commands:
sys c:
bootpart win95 c:\win98.sys "Windows 98"
bootpart winnt boot:c:
5. Use fdisk.exe to mark the Win98 partition active.