Dual boot ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nystagmus
  • Start date Start date
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Nystagmus

Hoping someone can help.

I have a dual boot system, Win xp on C drive (all computing needs) and Win
98SE (gaming) on D drive. Win 98SE has become unstable and I want to
reinstall it. The question I have is can I reformat D drive and reinstall
Win 98SE without affecting how the computer boots up with the option of
engaging either Win xp or Win 98SE?

Thanks
Nystagmus
 
Nystagmus said:
Hoping someone can help.

I have a dual boot system, Win xp on C drive (all computing needs) and Win
98SE (gaming) on D drive. Win 98SE has become unstable and I want to
reinstall it. The question I have is can I reformat D drive and reinstall
Win 98SE without affecting how the computer boots up with the option of
engaging either Win xp or Win 98SE?

Thanks
Nystagmus
Click to expand...

After you reinstall Windows 9x over top of XP, XP will no longer boot. To
restore it, boot the XP Pro cd, select the Recovery Console and issue the
'fixboot' and 'fixmbr' commands, this will repair the XP boot sector.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654#3

I prefer to use 3rd party software to create a completely separate Windows
9x partition, that makes the above hassle unnecessary
http://www.bootitng.com
 
I found that installing 98 after XP (or 2000?) recognised that the NT
manager was isntalled and left it intact. However, 2000 or XP was not on C
and 98 was on C. This means that the boot partition was not NTFS. If XP is
on an NTFS partition you may find that you will have to go with the 3rd
party manager before you re-install Windows 98.
 
JasonA said:
I found that installing 98 after XP (or 2000?) recognised that the NT
manager was isntalled and left it intact. However, 2000 or XP was not on C
and 98 was on C. This means that the boot partition was not NTFS. If XP is
on an NTFS partition you may find that you will have to go with the 3rd
party manager before you re-install Windows 98.
Click to expand...
Thank for responding Lee and JasonA,

I think I need to add additional info. With a new 60GB HD I partitioned it
into two drives 30GB each. I installed Win 98SE first onto Drive D (FAT 32)
then installed Win xp (FAT 32) onto Drive C. When I cold boot/restart from
either xp or 98SE I am given the option of either engaging Win xp or Win
98SE.

The problem I have now is that Win 98 SE has become unstable. I am always
getting random errors regardless of what I am doing.

What I want to do is reformat Drive D which has Win 98 SE on it then
reinstall it on Drive D and leave Win xp on Drive C as is. My concern is
that when I cold boot\restart from either xp or 98SE I will no longer have
the option to engage either Win xp or Win 98SE.

So what I want to know is whether or not I can reformat Drive D with 98 SE
only then reinstall it leaving Drive C with Win xp intact? Or is there some
other way I need to go? From my understanding the boot sector is controlled
by Win 98SE not xp.

Thanks again.
Nystagmus
 
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