MultiBoot - solve this one!!!

[Ger2111]

Hi,
Have I got a peach of a problem for ye! I had a dual boot 98/2000 pc. Drive partitioned into c: and D: both 5GB . Next I went for multi boot and installed XP on the d: drive, the same drive that has '98 on it. Now when I installed XP it made changes to the boot.ini file on the C: drive so that the option to boot into 98 was not given so I edited the Boot.ini file and pointed it to the windows folder which holds the '98 install. Now on boot up I am given the option to boot into 98 but when I do it gives me an error , 'cannot find hal.dll ' Could not load OS........
Any leads??????

 

[wolluf]

Have you read any of the basics of dual/multi-booting (eg, NEVER install 2 operating systems into the same partition)?
btw - you didn't install XP into D:\windows did you (which is where 98 should have been)? If so, your 98 is gone.

If not, then how did you set up dual boot originally? Standard M$ method with 98/2k is to install 98 first on C: drive then install 2k on D: drive. 2k install then builds a boot menu for both operating systems (and creates a file called bootsect.dos to enable it to work). You had 2k on C: and 98 on D: - so just wondering...

What does your boot.ini look like now? What did it look like before you edited it? (eg, normal entry to boot windows 98 looks like C:\="Microsoft Windows" in boot.ini. But your 98 is on D:..

Is there a bootsect.dos file anywhere on your system.

Are you using any other form of boot manager?

 

[Ger2111]

Its fine now , I got it sorted. Installed W2k on c: and XP on D then 98 on D: and everything works swimmingly!!! I know its unorthadox and should 'never be done' but since when can we believe microsoft!
Thanks anyway!

 

[wolluf]

Ger2111

Good luck - but with 98 & XP on same partition, its just a matter of time before you have problems. Its not just Microsoft who advocate NOT putting 2 operating systems on same partition - most serious mult-booters do too.

btw - care to explain how it all works now (eg, are you using 2k/xp boot loader, or third party, or just changing the active partition or what to get into your 3 systems. If you really did install 2k on C: then XP on D: then 98 on D: you MUST have done something else to get it to multi-boot. Apart from anything else, I'd not want someone else reading this thread to think they can just install the 3 o/s as you have and hey presto, it all works).

 

[Ger2111]

Simply renamed the XP installation foplder to winXP, The 98 folder is named windows and the 2kfolder is winnt, then I edited the boot.ini file to point to each folder. Its not my intention to reccomend this type of multi boot , but I am utilising resources to the max and this particular multiboot system is only used as a dumb terminal for testing purposes.

 

[wolluf]

Still don't understand how its booting win98. XP/2k boot loader will only boot 98 if the file bootsect.dos (image of the 98 boot sector) exists in the root of the drive which has the XP/2k boot sector. That file is normally created by XP or 2k when it installs if 98 is already there - which yours wasn't (you can create it by other means, but you never mentioned any).

Sorry to go on - but I'm always interested in multi-boot solutions I've not heard of.

 

[Ger2111]

not a solution as such, I installed W2k on c: and 98 on D: but when I added XP to d: it appeared to corrupt the 98' install, so i reinstalled 98' to the same folder ie d:windows , and all cam up fine. My thinking , however unfounded is that if I installed 98 on the same partition as XP that windows file protection would take care of the XP install and the 98 install would also be fine. And its all going woithout errors.

 

[psybertek]

Removable hard drives .. as many as you need for all os's .. no headaches .. no boot loaders .. and by using ntfs .. you keep all the 98 users out of your ntfs drives .. I have four drives in a raid configuration with the boot drive removable. not technically a duel boot system .. but then it's easier than selecting the os at startup .. although making sure that your drive letters remain intact can be a little cumbersome at first.. I realise I am not actually adding anything to your thread .. just thought you might be interested.


Psybertek
"Computer Junkies never die, They just upload."