Separate dual-boot and boot from second drive (Win2K) 1

[watosh]

I have 2 hard drives in my computer. Drive 1 (C) has Win98 OS and is primary boot drive. Drive 2 (D) is Win2000 OS in a dual boot configuration. I originally setup the dual boot by running the Win2k install from Win98 on the C drive and specifying the Win2k OS to be installed on the D drive. It's been working just fine.

The problem that I need assistance with is that I now need to remove the existing C drive with Win98, and just keep the D drive (which will now become C) with Win2k. My goal is to boot using the Win2k that was installed during the dual boot setup. I've set the jumpers on the drive, etc., but the problem is that the boot loader is missing on the Win2k OS, since the previous bootup was from the old primary drive.

The question is this: How do I make the Win2k drive bootable without re-formatting? I can't lose the data in the registry as I have software that has been "activated" online and now the manufacturer is out of business, so no re-activations are possible!


Thanks in advance for your help.

Watosh

 

[wolluf]

To create a boot sector on the 2k drive you need to copy the files ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini to its root (they will be in the root of the 98 drive currently - ntldr & ntdetect.com are also on the 2k install CD in \i386). Also, if its to be the only or master drive in the machine, boot.ini should look like this:-
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

When this is done, boot into recovery console -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;229716

and run fixboot x:, where x: is the 2k drive as seen from recovery console (may be C: or D.

This drive should now boot 2k on its own - but 2k will still almost certainly be on D: (ie, system drive will be D - but should run ok unless it had system files on the 98 C: drive (eg, pagefile) - if this is so, make sure you move them before removing dual boot.

PS. You can also boot that 2k installation from a floppy. Copy the 3 files mentioned above to a newly formatted (in 2k) floppy disk.