Dual boot crisis(!)

[Guest]

After previously posting about a Dual Boot Error, the problem just went away. Now it's back, and I tried following the advice I was given and now everything is screwed up

I had a dual boot system with Win98 on the C: drive, XP on the E: drive. I replaced the C: drive with a blank drive, copied ntldr and ntdetect.com, ran fixboot and it didn't work. I tried running XP as a single boot (using same process) and it didn't boot. It keeps saying "NON SYSTEM DISK ..." i.e. it doesn't find the files on the disk for some reason. I have tried changing the boot sectors each time. I also have the problem of not having access to most folders on fixed drives in the Recovery console, even though I am logged in as admin. Sometimes it won’t recognise the CD and tell me that it can't enumerate the drive. I am going to try and move files using Knoppix, since it’s the only OS that seems to work at the moment. Failing that, I will install '98 to the C: (even though I no longer want it), and then if that doesn't work overwrite the current installation of XP (I don't want to format it because I still have some files that I want)

Also, if I where to put a Linux installation on C:, in a format that the OS won't recognise (or for that matter, remove the C: drive), the lettering (?) of drives will change, so that programs that look for things on an absolute path will no longer work. Is there a way to force drive letters to volumes

Thanks, Junklord.

 

[Ross Durie]

Make the first partition active!

--
Ross

After previously posting about a Dual Boot Error, the problem just went

away. Now it's back, and I tried following the advice I was given and now
everything is screwed up.

I had a dual boot system with Win98 on the C: drive, XP on the E: drive. I

replaced the C: drive with a blank drive, copied ntldr and ntdetect.com, ran
fixboot and it didn't work. I tried running XP as a single boot (using same
process) and it didn't boot. It keeps saying "NON SYSTEM DISK ..." i.e. it
doesn't find the files on the disk for some reason. I have tried changing
the boot sectors each time. I also have the problem of not having access to
most folders on fixed drives in the Recovery console, even though I am
logged in as admin. Sometimes it won't recognise the CD and tell me that it
can't enumerate the drive. I am going to try and move files using Knoppix,
since it's the only OS that seems to work at the moment. Failing that, I
will install '98 to the C: (even though I no longer want it), and then if
that doesn't work overwrite the current installation of XP (I don't want to
format it because I still have some files that I want).

Also, if I where to put a Linux installation on C:, in a format that the

OS won't recognise (or for that matter, remove the C: drive), the lettering
(?) of drives will change, so that programs that look for things on an
absolute path will no longer work. Is there a way to force drive letters to
volumes?

 

[Honjo]

What are you trying to do? Do you have two physical drives and W98 reside in one drive and WXP in another physical drive? Are trying to get rid of the W98? Is the partition where WXP reside a logical partition or a primary partition?

Kaz