Can someone else help? Was changing partition size.

[Dennis]

Tim Meddic originally replied. What he suggested did not work. He
never answered my follow up question. This is all the correspondence:

Tim,
Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what you
say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a message:
Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice is:
1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password request
then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\ prompt.
If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot information
over writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it repaired it but
does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not boot
in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices again.
Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot

partition. The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs
that resize partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny
bit of code to start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your
computer starts up. To repair this you need your XP installation disk.
Configure your BIOS settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the
cd in the drive and boot from it. When it gives you the choice - select
the item: "Repair XP with Recovery Console". After it starts you will
be prompted for the Administrator password, so beforehand you should
know what this is. If you have never configured a password for
Administrator, it will have remained 'blank' and just pressing [ENTER]
when the password is required will be fine. Then you will be faced by
a DOS-style "C:\>" prompt. This is NOT the same as DOS and for a list
of available commands type "help" and press [ENTER] for more help on a
command type the command followed by a /? forward-slash / questionmark
'switch'. So for the 'fixboot' command help would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file

listing the available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98)
should be intact on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with
regards to your boot process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits

and/or any [further] problems.

 

[Tim Meddick]

I'm very sorry, I really do try to look at all the posts I have originally
answered (I have them as 'watched' messages in OE) and try to keep up.
However, in this case I seem to have missed yours, sorry.

I can't find the original thread right now. But I think that I may have
assumed that your XP installation was on the C: partition. I need to know
what drives [letters] you are using with what operating systems are on them.

And, not only for others who are reading this, but also for my benefit, can
you outline the original problem, or the problems you are having now?
(...and please, try to be as exact as possible).

Thanks.


==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Tim Meddic originally replied. What he suggested did not work. He
never answered my follow up question. This is all the correspondence:

Tim,
Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what you
say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a message:
Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice is:
1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password request
then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\ prompt.
If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot information over
writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it repaired it but
does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not boot
in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices again.
Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot

partition. The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs that
resize partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny bit of
code to start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your computer
starts up. To repair this you need your XP installation disk. Configure
your BIOS settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the cd in the
drive and boot from it. When it gives you the choice - select the item:
"Repair XP with Recovery Console". After it starts you will be prompted
for the Administrator password, so beforehand you should know what this
is. If you have never configured a password for Administrator, it will
have remained 'blank' and just pressing [ENTER] when the password is
required will be fine. Then you will be faced by a DOS-style "C:\>"
prompt. This is NOT the same as DOS and for a list of available commands
type "help" and press [ENTER] for more help on a command type the command
followed by a /? forward-slash / questionmark 'switch'. So for the
'fixboot' command help would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file

listing the available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98)
should be intact on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with regards
to your boot process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits

and/or any [further] problems.

 

[Nate Grossman]

I'm very sorry, I really do try to look at all the posts I have originally
answered (I have them as 'watched' messages in OE) and try to keep up.
However, in this case I seem to have missed yours, sorry.

I can't find the original thread right now. But I think that I may have
assumed that your XP installation was on the C: partition. I need to know
what drives [letters] you are using with what operating systems are on them.

And, not only for others who are reading this, but also for my benefit, can
you outline the original problem, or the problems you are having now?
(...and please, try to be as exact as possible).
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...0?q=author:[email protected]#abe2b6d090963f00



Thanks.


==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Tim Meddic originally replied. What he suggested did not work. He
never answered my follow up question. This is all the correspondence:

Tim,
Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what you
say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a message:
Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice is:
1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password request
then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\ prompt.
If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot information over
writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it repaired it but
does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not boot
in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices again.
Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot

partition. The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs that
resize partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny bit of
code to start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your computer
starts up. To repair this you need your XP installation disk. Configure
your BIOS settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the cd in the
drive and boot from it. When it gives you the choice - select the item:
"Repair XP with Recovery Console". After it starts you will be prompted
for the Administrator password, so beforehand you should know what this
is. If you have never configured a password for Administrator, it will
have remained 'blank' and just pressing [ENTER] when the password is
required will be fine. Then you will be faced by a DOS-style "C:\>"
prompt. This is NOT the same as DOS and for a list of available commands
type "help" and press [ENTER] for more help on a command type the command
followed by a /? forward-slash / questionmark 'switch'. So for the
'fixboot' command help would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file

listing the available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98)
should be intact on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with regards
to your boot process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits

and/or any [further] problems.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Nate,
I really don't think that can be the thread that the OP is referring
to.

The last post (included in the text of the re-post he made to begin with) he
made is not in the thread of which you pointed me to.

In other words - I can't see how I /he /we got to: me giving advice on
the RC command FIXBOOT, from the last post (in the thread you pointed me
to) that talks about XP dual booting an XP /Win'98 machine?

I still don't know where he's up to???

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John John - MVP]

Original post:

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master

I used EASEUS Partition Master to resize my C: partition smaller so
that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE no longer will boot up
on C:. Any ideas?

Forget about Fixboot for the time being, fiddling with Fixboot will not
repair your problem, you first have to fix the Windows 98 Bootsect.dos
file, after the file is repaired you will then use the Fixboot command
to return the boot sector to ntldr. At the present time the command
will do nothing for you, the command rewrites the boot sector and
installs ntldr as the boot manager. There is nothing wrong with either
of these, being able to successfully boot to Windows XP confirms that
there is nothing wrong with the boot sector and there is nothing that
Fixboot can fix at this time. I gave you the solution to the problem in
an earlier post, in case you missed it here it is again:


You have to rebuild the Bootsect.dos file. This file contains
information about the partition size and its starting and ending
locations, when you resized the partition the information in the file
became invalid and Windows 98 cannot boot with the invalid partition
information.

To rebuild the file you first have to write a Windows 9x boot sector to
the partition and return the boot mechanism to the Windows 98 IO.sys
file. You can write the boot sector with a Windows 98 startup floppy and
the sys c: command.

After you write the Windows 9x boot sector to the partition you can boot
into the Windows 98 installation and rebuild the bootsect.dos file with
the ancient Debug command:

From Windows 98 start an MS-DOS Prompt and navigate to the root of the
System drive (C:\) and issue the following commands, pressing enter
after each:

debug
L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q

You can run the above commands at the debug screen, but an even easier
way is to just copy them to a file and have debug run them
automatically. Copy the stuff *between* the === lines and save it in a
notepad file as READ.SCR, save the file in an easy to find and navigate
to directory, the root folder of the drive (C:\) is as good a place as
any other:

READ.SCR

============================================
L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q
============================================

Now, from the Windows 98 inatallation start a command prompt session
and navigate to the folder where the READ.SCR file is located (C:\) and
issue the following command:

debug <read.scr

This will create a C:\BOOTSECT.DOS file from the boot sector of the
Windows 98 installation on partition.

Now you have to return the boot mechanism back to ntldr, you have to
write the NT boot sector to the partition. Exit the Windows 98
installation and using your Windows XP CD boot to the Recovery Console
and issue the FIXBOOT command on the active partition (the drive hosting
the Windows 98 installation, C:\), that will write an NT boot sector to
the partition and you should now be able to boot to either of your
operating systems when you boot the computer from the hard drive. If
you find that it doesn't boot then boot to the Recovery Console again
and issue FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. If needed you may also find the
BOOTCFG command to be useful, but bear in mind that the BOOTCFG command
cannot find and add Windows 9x installations to the boot.ini file.

Of course if all of the above is a bit too complicated you can always
try the easy way, use a third party utility to automate the task!

http://thpc.info/dual/bootsectdos.html

John

Tim Meddic originally replied. What he suggested did not work. He
never answered my follow up question. This is all the correspondence:

Tim,
Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what you
say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a message:
Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice is:
1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password request
then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\ prompt.
If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot information
over writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it repaired it but
does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not boot
in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices again.
Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot

partition. The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs
that resize partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny
bit of code to start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your
computer starts up. To repair this you need your XP installation disk.
Configure your BIOS settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the
cd in the drive and boot from it. When it gives you the choice - select
the item: "Repair XP with Recovery Console". After it starts you will
be prompted for the Administrator password, so beforehand you should
know what this is. If you have never configured a password for
Administrator, it will have remained 'blank' and just pressing [ENTER]
when the password is required will be fine. Then you will be faced by
a DOS-style "C:\>" prompt. This is NOT the same as DOS and for a list
of available commands type "help" and press [ENTER] for more help on a
command type the command followed by a /? forward-slash / questionmark
'switch'. So for the 'fixboot' command help would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file

listing the available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98)
should be intact on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with
regards to your boot process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits

and/or any [further] problems.

 

[Dennis]

Original post was: "Changing Partition size" posted on 4-19-2009 at
8:30 am. I don't know how else to direct you to it.

Basically I have a dual boot system with Windows 98Se on C: partition
and Windows XP on Dartition on the same hard drive. Both partitions
are FAT 32. Installed 98 first, then XP to get the dual boot.
I used EASEUS Partition Master, that was recommended here, to resize
my C: partition smaller so that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE
no longer will boot up on C:. I'm scared to try to make D: larger now
after that happened. You told me to do this:

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot partition.
The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs that resize
partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny bit of code to
start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your computer starts up. To
repair this you need your XP installation disk. Configure your BIOS
settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the cd in the drive and boot
from it. When it gives you the choice - select the item: "Repair XP with
Recovery Console". After it starts you will be prompted for the
Administrator password, so beforehand you should know what this is. If you
have never configured a password for Administrator, it will have remained
'blank' and just pressing [ENTER] when the password is required will be
fine. Then you will be faced by a DOS-style "C:\>" prompt. This is NOT
the same as DOS and for a list of available commands type "help" and press
[ENTER] for more help on a command type the command followed by a /?
forward-slash / questionmark 'switch'. So for the 'fixboot' command help
would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file listing the
available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98) should be intact
on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with regards to your boot
process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits and/or any
[further] problems.

But, it didn't work the way you said to do it and I answered with this:

Tim, Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what
you say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a
message: Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice
is: 1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password
request then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\
prompt. If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot
information over writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it
repaired it but does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not
boot in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices
again. Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

So now I get the option at boot up that I can choose which version I
want to boot up. If I choose the Windows98, the screen flashes and
returns to the option window again. If I choose Windows XP it boots
up in Windows XP.
I can't reinstall Windows 98SE because the updates are no longer
available that I know about. EASEUS Partition Maker support says
yes, you are right. If you do that, Windows 98 will no longer
boot up. Sorry that our software caused this problem.

Now I have two computers with dual boot and can not use Windows
98SE on either one. One won't boot to 98 because I added a gig of
memory. The other won't because of the above problem.
I tried the supposed fix to make Windows 98SE boot up with more
than a gig of memory but that has not worked either.

Dennis Q.

I'm very sorry, I really do try to look at all the posts I have originally
answered (I have them as 'watched' messages in OE) and try to keep up.
However, in this case I seem to have missed yours, sorry.

I can't find the original thread right now. But I think that I may have
assumed that your XP installation was on the C: partition. I need to know
what drives [letters] you are using with what operating systems are on them.

And, not only for others who are reading this, but also for my benefit, can
you outline the original problem, or the problems you are having now?
(...and please, try to be as exact as possible).

Thanks.


==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Tim Meddic originally replied. What he suggested did not work. He
never answered my follow up question. This is all the correspondence:

Tim,
Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what you
say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a message:
Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice is:
1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password request
then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\ prompt.
If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot information over
writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it repaired it but
does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not boot
in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices again.
Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot

partition. The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs that
resize partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny bit of
code to start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your computer
starts up. To repair this you need your XP installation disk. Configure
your BIOS settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the cd in the
drive and boot from it. When it gives you the choice - select the item:
"Repair XP with Recovery Console". After it starts you will be prompted
for the Administrator password, so beforehand you should know what this
is. If you have never configured a password for Administrator, it will
have remained 'blank' and just pressing [ENTER] when the password is
required will be fine. Then you will be faced by a DOS-style "C:\>"
prompt. This is NOT the same as DOS and for a list of available commands
type "help" and press [ENTER] for more help on a command type the command
followed by a /? forward-slash / questionmark 'switch'. So for the
'fixboot' command help would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file

listing the available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98)
should be intact on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with regards
to your boot process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits

and/or any [further] problems.

 

[Paul]

Now I have two computers with dual boot and can not use Windows
98SE on either one. One won't boot to 98 because I added a gig of
memory. The other won't because of the above problem.
I tried the supposed fix to make Windows 98SE boot up with more
than a gig of memory but that has not worked either.

Dennis Q.

This is the supposed fix to make Windows 98SE boot up with more than
1GB of memory. I have a relatively clean copy running in Virtual PC
right now, so at least I can verify there is a system.ini file.
The [vcache] and [386enh] headers already exist in my file, so
there should only be two lines to add. There will already
be a number of lines in the [386enh] section.

*******

C:\Windows\system.ini

[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288 (or a lesser number if you want)

[386enh]
MaxPhysPage=40000 (limits physical RAM reported to Win98 to 1GB)

*******

The MaxFileCache is decimal kilobytes, and the number shown equates to 512MB.
Using that limitation, helps prevent an address space limitation from
throwing error messages. Any value from 65536 to 524288 should work,
and not materially affect the speed of vcache.

MaxFileCache is needed, when more than 512MB of memory is present.

MaxPhysPage uses hexadecimal. The value 40000 throws away any memory
above 1GB, which helps to keep Win98SE stable. You can use values
less than that, if you're still having problems. MaxPhysPage makes
sense, if you're in a dual boot environment.

MaxPhysPage is needed, when more than 1GB of memory is present.

System.ini is a hidden file, and you want to keep file extensions visible
when looking in the C:\Windows directory. If you're not careful, using
a text editor, you could end up with something like System.ini.txt, which
you don't want. So no matter which technique you use (msconfig or notepad),
you want to verify all is correct, before doing a reboot.

The last time I did that set of changes, it was done by using a Linux LiveCD
boot disc. I used Knoppix Linux to allow me to edit that. Several months ago,
I installed Win98SE on my Core2 Duo computer. The computer has 2GB of
memory installed (which means I need both changes above). The trick there is...

1) Start the Win98 install
2) When the computer goes to do its first reboot, insert the Linux
disc and boot from that instead. Make the edits to system.ini , then
save and exit. Shut down Linux and reboot. On this boot, allow the
Win98 hard drive to boot, and finish the Win98 install. Since the
system.ini has been modified, Windows won't crash on that first
reboot. (I got this right on the first try, which is a record for me...)

So I have had Win98 (original and SE, since I bought the upgrade),
running on a modern computer. Only one core of my dual core processor
works, but the OS is still pretty fast. I did this test install, just
to prove it could be done. Not all modern motherboards still allow
this, since hardware architectures have moved on, and it is ten years
later.

It is possible you could boot an MSDOS floppy, and edit the system.ini
that way. Whether that is worth contemplating, depends on how much
you know about MSDOS, versus how much you know about Linux.

http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/

Sorry I cannot help with the mess on your other disk. People have
been recommending Easeus, mainly because it is free. I cannot say
how well reviewed or tested it is. Any time you do a major change like that,
you need to have backups.

*******
I can illustrate that with another one of my experiments. I wanted
a "better defrag" (not that I really care, but I needed a project
to work on). I tried the built-in defrag, but it wasn't perfect.

I decided to try robocopy_XP026 version. It can copy files from
one partition to another. But, I wasn't sure this would work, and
there was a risk I could mess up my install. The first step then,
is to back up my C: drive. To do that, I copied every sector from
the drive, into a file. In Linux, I used the "dd" command, to
make one large 76GB file.

sudo dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/media/sda1/mydrive.dd

Since that file system happens to be NTFS, it can handle a 76GB file.
The mydrive.dd contains every sector of my C: drive.

Next, I booted Win2K, and used robocopy, to copy every file from
the WinXP C: drive, to another NTFS partition on my spare drive.
Since WinXP wasn't running, none of the files are "busy".

I cleaned off the C: drive, then robocopied the files back.

In this case, if the WinXP drive was screwed up, I could use
the dd command in Linux again, to put all the sectors back.

That is an example, of being careful while doing an experiment.
Any time the results are uncertain, or the recipe is complicated,
it helps to have a "plan b". As long as I have the "mydrive.dd"
file, I have some hope of backing out.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Dennis]

I checked the System.ini file again. I have:
[vcache]
MaxFileCache=262144

For some reason the MaxPhysPage=40000 was marked with rem to
skip it and had MaxPhysPage=IPPP or something like that. I
took out the rem line and changed it to MaxPhysPage=40000
again. I rebooted and it started up in Windows 98SE! So I
got it working after not having access for about 8 months.
Thanks.
What does changing the MaxFileCache= do? Would it work better
with a number above 262144?

One down, one to go!!

Now I have two computers with dual boot and can not use Windows
98SE on either one. One won't boot to 98 because I added a gig of
memory. The other won't because of the above problem.
I tried the supposed fix to make Windows 98SE boot up with more
than a gig of memory but that has not worked either.

Dennis Q.

This is the supposed fix to make Windows 98SE boot up with more than
1GB of memory. I have a relatively clean copy running in Virtual PC
right now, so at least I can verify there is a system.ini file.
The [vcache] and [386enh] headers already exist in my file, so
there should only be two lines to add. There will already
be a number of lines in the [386enh] section.

*******

C:\Windows\system.ini

[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288 (or a lesser number if you want)

[386enh]
MaxPhysPage=40000 (limits physical RAM reported to Win98 to 1GB)

*******

The MaxFileCache is decimal kilobytes, and the number shown equates to
512MB.
Using that limitation, helps prevent an address space limitation from
throwing error messages. Any value from 65536 to 524288 should work,
and not materially affect the speed of vcache.

MaxFileCache is needed, when more than 512MB of memory is present.

MaxPhysPage uses hexadecimal. The value 40000 throws away any memory
above 1GB, which helps to keep Win98SE stable. You can use values
less than that, if you're still having problems. MaxPhysPage makes
sense, if you're in a dual boot environment.

MaxPhysPage is needed, when more than 1GB of memory is present.

System.ini is a hidden file, and you want to keep file extensions visible
when looking in the C:\Windows directory. If you're not careful, using
a text editor, you could end up with something like System.ini.txt, which
you don't want. So no matter which technique you use (msconfig or notepad),
you want to verify all is correct, before doing a reboot.

The last time I did that set of changes, it was done by using a Linux
LiveCD
boot disc. I used Knoppix Linux to allow me to edit that. Several months
ago,
I installed Win98SE on my Core2 Duo computer. The computer has 2GB of
memory installed (which means I need both changes above). The trick
there is...

1) Start the Win98 install
2) When the computer goes to do its first reboot, insert the Linux
disc and boot from that instead. Make the edits to system.ini , then
save and exit. Shut down Linux and reboot. On this boot, allow the
Win98 hard drive to boot, and finish the Win98 install. Since the
system.ini has been modified, Windows won't crash on that first
reboot. (I got this right on the first try, which is a record for me...)

So I have had Win98 (original and SE, since I bought the upgrade),
running on a modern computer. Only one core of my dual core processor
works, but the OS is still pretty fast. I did this test install, just
to prove it could be done. Not all modern motherboards still allow
this, since hardware architectures have moved on, and it is ten years
later.

It is possible you could boot an MSDOS floppy, and edit the system.ini
that way. Whether that is worth contemplating, depends on how much
you know about MSDOS, versus how much you know about Linux.

http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/

Sorry I cannot help with the mess on your other disk. People have
been recommending Easeus, mainly because it is free. I cannot say
how well reviewed or tested it is. Any time you do a major change like
that,
you need to have backups.

*******
I can illustrate that with another one of my experiments. I wanted
a "better defrag" (not that I really care, but I needed a project
to work on). I tried the built-in defrag, but it wasn't perfect.

I decided to try robocopy_XP026 version. It can copy files from
one partition to another. But, I wasn't sure this would work, and
there was a risk I could mess up my install. The first step then,
is to back up my C: drive. To do that, I copied every sector from
the drive, into a file. In Linux, I used the "dd" command, to
make one large 76GB file.

sudo dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/media/sda1/mydrive.dd

Since that file system happens to be NTFS, it can handle a 76GB file.
The mydrive.dd contains every sector of my C: drive.

Next, I booted Win2K, and used robocopy, to copy every file from
the WinXP C: drive, to another NTFS partition on my spare drive.
Since WinXP wasn't running, none of the files are "busy".

I cleaned off the C: drive, then robocopied the files back.

In this case, if the WinXP drive was screwed up, I could use
the dd command in Linux again, to put all the sectors back.

That is an example, of being careful while doing an experiment.
Any time the results are uncertain, or the recipe is complicated,
it helps to have a "plan b". As long as I have the "mydrive.dd"
file, I have some hope of backing out.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Paul]

I checked the System.ini file again. I have:
[vcache]
MaxFileCache=262144

For some reason the MaxPhysPage=40000 was marked with rem to
skip it and had MaxPhysPage=IPPP or something like that. I
took out the rem line and changed it to MaxPhysPage=40000
again. I rebooted and it started up in Windows 98SE! So I
got it working after not having access for about 8 months.
Thanks.
What does changing the MaxFileCache= do? Would it work better
with a number above 262144?

One down, one to go!!

In Win98, there is supposed to be room for about 800MB of
file cache (Vcache) in the address space. Apparently, the
limitations on the address space are more severe than that.

When you set MaxFileCache, it limits how big the Vcache
can grow. One recommendation I found, suggests to let
Windows control it, and it will shrink and grow as required.

But capping it at 512MB, via MaxFileCache=524288, corrects
for the apparent lack of address space for it.

Just to confuse matters, the other number, the MaxPhysPage,
is in hexadecimal. It is the number of 4KB pages. 0x40000 hex
is equal to 4*65536 = 262144. 262144*4KB = 1GB. So the
40000 limit, says to ignore memory completely, past the
1GB point. That is what I did on my current system, when
testing Win98. I have 2GB installed, the MaxPhysPage ensures
that only 1GB of it is reported to Windows. Then, the
MaxFileCache finishes the job.

(Hexadecimal is base 16. The counting numbers go 0123456789ABCDEF.
The value of each digit grows rapidly, so a five digit number
has values for each digit like this. To convert to decimal, you
multiply the number with its digit value and sum them. In
the example, 65536*4 = 262144. The other four positions are
zero so they don't contribute to the answer.)

65536 4096 256 16 1

0 x 4 0 0 0 0
--- --- -- -- --
sum 262144 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0

Most people use a calculator, to convert hex to decimal
Fortunately, my $12 calculator has that function, and that
is the main reason I bought it. Takes the pain out of conversion.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Dennis]

Well, I guess this thread got dropped again...

Tim Meddic originally replied. What he suggested did not work. He
never answered my follow up question. This is all the correspondence:

Tim,
Finally had time to try this fix. I don't get on the screen what you
say I will get. When I choose "R" for Repair console, I get a message:
Which Windows XP do you want to repair? and my only choice is:
1. E:\Windows XP. If I choose choose 1, I get the password request
then I hit enter. This takes me to E:\Windows prompt, Not C:\ prompt.
If I type in fixboot C:, it says it will repair the boot information
over writing the original info.. I said yes. It says it repaired it but
does not tell me to reboot. I rebooted anyway and I still can not boot
in to Windows 98, the screen flashes and I get the two choices again.
Fortunately Windows XP still worked.

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot

partition. The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs
that resize partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny
bit of code to start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your
computer starts up. To repair this you need your XP installation disk.
Configure your BIOS settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the
cd in the drive and boot from it. When it gives you the choice - select
the item: "Repair XP with Recovery Console". After it starts you will
be prompted for the Administrator password, so beforehand you should
know what this is. If you have never configured a password for
Administrator, it will have remained 'blank' and just pressing [ENTER]
when the password is required will be fine. Then you will be faced by
a DOS-style "C:\>" prompt. This is NOT the same as DOS and for a list
of available commands type "help" and press [ENTER] for more help on a
command type the command followed by a /? forward-slash / questionmark
'switch'. So for the 'fixboot' command help would look like:

fixboot /?

..and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

...at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file

listing the available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98)
should be intact on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with
regards to your boot process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits

and/or any [further] problems.