Remove WinXP Bootloader -- in Win98?

[Recra]

Hi,

I'm working to get good Ghost (Ghost 2003) backup images of all my OS system
partitions.
(WinX ProP, Linux, WinNT4S, Win98SE, and even OS/2.)

I'm imaging them all onto a (P)ATA 250GB drive, housed in an external USB2
enclosure.

Doing the OS juggle dance with all my internal drives (SCSI U2W 20GB's).

Eventually, once they are all imaged, I plan on rebuilding the internal
drives much smarter and cleaner.
(I.e., putting the Windows bootloader onto it's own partition, so can boot
any of the Windows from anywhere.)

I'm now stuck with the Win98 partition. Its on a drive that once, before
doing some shuffling, had WinXP on it -- and has the WinXP bootloader.

I don't want to Ghost it with the bootloader still attached, as I want the
OS images to be completetly "clean".

Is there a way to remove it, from within W98 or DOS? Fdisk /mbr isn't
doing it...

TIA...

 

[Recra]

Hi,

I'm working to get good Ghost (Ghost 2003) backup images of all my OS system
partitions.
(WinX ProP, Linux, WinNT4S, Win98SE, and even OS/2.)

I'm imaging them all onto a (P)ATA 250GB drive, housed in an external USB2
enclosure.

Doing the OS juggle dance with all my internal drives (SCSI U2W 20GB's).

Eventually, once they are all imaged, I plan on rebuilding the internal
drives much smarter and cleaner.
(I.e., putting the Windows bootloader onto it's own partition, so can boot
any of the Windows from anywhere.)

I'm now stuck with the Win98 partition. Its on a drive that once, before
doing some shuffling, had WinXP on it -- and has the WinXP bootloader.

I don't want to Ghost it with the bootloader still attached, as I want the
OS images to be completetly "clean".

Is there a way to remove it, from within W98 or DOS? Fdisk /mbr isn't
doing it...

TIA...

Disregard!

I just found the answer to my own question! (I was google/deja'ing at the
same time.)

Simply make a boot disk, boot up, and give 'er a: SYS C:

 

[Recra]

"Recra" wrote in message ...

I just found the answer to my own question! (I was google/deja'ing at the
same time.)

Simply make a boot disk, boot up, and give 'er a: SYS C:

Yep. That did the trick. W98 is now Ghosted.

One more OS down...

(This is a PITA, but in the end should be worth it.)

 

[H. Debs]

Hi,

I don't know if this is relevant to you, but I learned the hard way
that Ghost 2003 not only restores your files, but your cluster size as
well. Maybe it even restores your file system too (FAT/NTFS) - didn't
try. So if you happily make an image, change the cluster size of the
partition, then restore back to it with Ghost, don't be surprized to
see your cluster size revert back to what it was when you imaged the
partition. That may be ok with you.

One other way is to simply copy ALL files (including all system and
hidden files) with all their security attributes, using something like
xcopy /h/e/x/o/k, to an NTFS backup drive, into a simple folder. It
works on windows (Win9x, Win2K/XP, ...?), don't know about linux.

Hab

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I'm working to get good Ghost (Ghost 2003) backup images of all my OS system
partitions.
(WinX ProP, Linux, WinNT4S, Win98SE, and even OS/2.)

I'm imaging them all onto a (P)ATA 250GB drive, housed in an external USB2
enclosure.

Doing the OS juggle dance with all my internal drives (SCSI U2W 20GB's).

Eventually, once they are all imaged, I plan on rebuilding the internal
drives much smarter and cleaner.
(I.e., putting the Windows bootloader onto it's own partition, so can boot
any of the Windows from anywhere.)

I'm now stuck with the Win98 partition. Its on a drive that once, before
doing some shuffling, had WinXP on it -- and has the WinXP bootloader.

I don't want to Ghost it with the bootloader still attached, as I want the
OS images to be completetly "clean".

Is there a way to remove it, from within W98 or DOS? Fdisk /mbr isn't
doing it...

TIA...

I think your basic idea is great but you use the wrong tools.
Using the Windows native boot loader restricts you in several
ways:
- Your boot partition must be FAT/FAT32. If it is not then
you cannot boot into Win98.
- Your OSs are likely to run off the wrong drive letter.
- Your various partitions are visible to each other.

A far more robust solution would consist of using a proper
boot loader (e.g. XOSL - it's free). It would let you run each
OS in its own partition, completely independent of any of the
other OSs.