Dual Boot Problems - removing Win 98 to just leave XP Pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter njjnolan
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njjnolan

I'm running Win 98 SE & XP Pro on my system, but now that i know how
reliable XP is, i want to remove 98 and dual boot XP with Linux.

Can anyone advise me how to go about this?

XP provides some form of boot loader that allows me to easily choose between
my two current OS's, but if i remove 98 (How best to do that?) will this not
mess up my access to XP too? will i have to edit the MBR and how do i do
that? What else do i need to know? Why can't i find any help with this in
Microsoft's own knowledge base?

Thank you

nick
 
Hi Nick,

Boot WinXP Pro, delete the Win98 system folders. Go to the control
panel/system/advanced tab, click on startup and recovery settings. Click the
edit button and remove the line that loads the Win98 installation from the
[operating systems] section. Close saving changes.

You are now done removing Win98. Proceed carefully with your Linux install,
and please note that you will need to use either LILO or GRUB from it to
create the new dual boot. The bootloader in WinXP cannot handle booting a
Linux system. I suggest you backup ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini before
proceeding. You will need them if something goes wrong and you need to
recover the WinXP boot.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
 
Rick

i've done as you suggested, but just by unticking the box "Time to display
list of OS'" works too; it then booted directly into XP.

I'll also take your advice about backing up those XP files - i know GRUB can
handle dual booting 98 & Red Hat, but it leaves me nervous since i know
enough to do some damage but not to recover from it always.

Thanks very much for your help

yours

nick

Rick "Nutcase" Rogers said:
Hi Nick,

Boot WinXP Pro, delete the Win98 system folders. Go to the control
panel/system/advanced tab, click on startup and recovery settings. Click the
edit button and remove the line that loads the Win98 installation from the
[operating systems] section. Close saving changes.

You are now done removing Win98. Proceed carefully with your Linux install,
and please note that you will need to use either LILO or GRUB from it to
create the new dual boot. The bootloader in WinXP cannot handle booting a
Linux system. I suggest you backup ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini before
proceeding. You will need them if something goes wrong and you need to
recover the WinXP boot.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone



njjnolan said:
I'm running Win 98 SE & XP Pro on my system, but now that i know how
reliable XP is, i want to remove 98 and dual boot XP with Linux.

Can anyone advise me how to go about this?

XP provides some form of boot loader that allows me to easily choose
between
my two current OS's, but if i remove 98 (How best to do that?) will this
not
mess up my access to XP too? will i have to edit the MBR and how do i do
that? What else do i need to know? Why can't i find any help with this
in
Microsoft's own knowledge base?

Thank you

nick
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