win xp startup menu

[jazaya]

Hi All,
I have installed WinXP on one partition and Win98 on another partition.At startup I was given a choice of OS to run.All of a sudden the menu has vanished and I can only run win98,because it was set as default.
Can anyone tell me how to bring the menu back pleeeeeeeease?
Regards

When every thing else fails,read the instruction manual!

 

[WillShakespeare]

hmmm... I believe you can edit the boot.ini file and set the default timeout. I would say your timeout has been set to 0 by accident and that is why it goes straight in.
On your first boot hard drive and partition on the system (usually C-Drive) you will find a hidden and read-only file called boot.ini
Boot into W98 and find that file by turning off the restrictions in Windows Explorer to show hidden files and protected files. Then, edit the file. Look for the entry for timeout (should look like:
[boot loader]
timeout=0 )
and set this to 30 seconds or so.
If this is not the problem, I'm not sure, but there is one other way you can get both partitions back and even have great conrol over your partitions in case you want to image them, back them up, or even resize them. If you download a utility called BootITNG (

http://www.bootitng.com)

and install to a floppy, then boot using the floppy, you can then install to harddrive and it acts like a boot manager. It will automatically find the two installations and you can choose which one to boot up to with a nice blue/grey menu. Plus, if you decide tyo buy it, it is VERY cheap compared to other boot managers such as Partition Magic.

Will

 

[linney]

Follow the good suggestions by "WillShakespeare".
Keep these in mind just incase.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q289/0/22.asp

 

[jazaya]

Ok,
Thanks to all of you for great advice.
I solved the problem by reinstalling WinXP.

When every thing else fails,read the instruction manual!

 

[WillShakespeare]