Restoring XP/98 dual-booting

[Guest]

My system was capable of booting either XP home or 98SE, but I had to wipe
the XP partition recently due to a head crash (wasn't major, only one cluster
damaged). I was able to restore XP from backups I have, but I am now having
problems starting 98.

XP boots normally, 98 doesn't boot at all. There are no error messages and
no logo.sys displayed. My HDD spins for a few seconds, then... nothing.
Only the flashing cursor on a blank screen. It looks like all the necessary
boot files are there (io.sys, msdos.sys, boot.ini, bootsect.dos, command.com,
even config.sys and autoexec.bat) on the C: (98 in on E.

Any ideas to repair this without needing to reinstall 98?

 

[Rich Barry]

If you have Win98 showing up on the E: partition that might be the
problem. From what I understand Win98 only likes the
C:\. You have to position it on the C: as Primary partition. Only way I
know to do that would be to wipe the XP Partition
and start over. Maybe someone else has a better suggestion.

 

[Guest]

If you have Win98 showing up on the E: partition that might be the
problem. From what I understand Win98 only likes the
C:\. You have to position it on the C: as Primary partition. Only way I
know to do that would be to wipe the XP Partition
and start over. Maybe someone else has a better suggestion.

Actually, I was able to install 98SE on the E: after I restored XP on C:, so
it can be installed elsewhere, just as long as MSDOS.SYS shows the right
drive.

I did try to repair the BOOTSECT.DOS file as shown by Doug Knox on his site.
Now when I select "Windows 98" on the BOOT.INI menu, it returns to the menu
instead of freezing at the blank screen.

 

[Rich Barry]

You could try using a Win98SE bootdisk and do a fdisk /mbr from the
A:\ . If Win98 loads up Ok, then use the WinXP Recovery
Console to rebuild the Boot.ini file. At the prompt type: bootcfg
/rebuild For more info on the R.C check here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/ If you need a bootdisk check
here www.bootdisk.com

 

[Guest]

Tried the fdisk, but it didn't work. Selecting Windows 98 from the boot.ini
menu only goes back to the menu.

I'm starting to think that the bootsect.sys file may have been corrupted.
It wasn't backed up and couldn't be restored. I did copy it to my 98
partition before the wipe so restoring that might work. In case it doesn't,
any other suggestions?

 

[Robert Gault]

Tried the fdisk, but it didn't work. Selecting Windows 98 from the boot.ini
menu only goes back to the menu.

I'm starting to think that the bootsect.sys file may have been corrupted.
It wasn't backed up and couldn't be restored. I did copy it to my 98
partition before the wipe so restoring that might work. In case it doesn't,
any other suggestions?

:


<snip>

It is bootsect.dos and restoring it might help. If not, I had
essentially the same problem and did reinstall Win98SE to correct it.
That probably was overkill. The two files likely involved would be
boot.ini and bootsect.dos.

If you don't want to reinstall, I could send you my boot and bootsect files.

 

[Guest]

It is bootsect.dos and restoring it might help. If not, I had
essentially the same problem and did reinstall Win98SE to correct it.
That probably was overkill. The two files likely involved would be
boot.ini and bootsect.dos.

If you don't want to reinstall, I could send you my boot and bootsect files.

Thx for the offer, but I went ahead with the re-install of 98SE anyway. My
main concern was whether the existing 98 configuration would be wiped. It
remained intact for the most part, I only needed to add TCP/IP support to my
WiFi card through the control panel network app.

I'm going to try to copy the boot.ini and bootsect.dos files to another
drive in case I need to restore dual-booting again.