Lost dual boot

[Jan]

I made a big mistake. I took a perfectly working Windows 98/Windows 2000
system and tried to fix the "Can't find NTLDR" problem. Now it boots
only into Win 98, will not accept a reload of Win 2K, and most programs
don't work due to misplaced dlls or 32-bit problems. I really no longer
give a rat's xxx about the original problem. I just want to regain
Windows 2000.

The Windows 2000 software appears to be on the C: drive, but no dual
boot occurs, and the computer just goes straight into Win 98. Here are
some relevant facts:

* I have a boot disk for Win 98.
* I have CDs for Win 98 and Win 2000.
* Win 2000 was originally loaded after installing Win 98.
* Neither CD is bootable.
* There is no boot.ini file shown under the root directory (yes, I
set it to show hidden files). A search does not reveal a boot.ini file.
* Fat 32

I would appreciate step-by-step guidance to restore Win 2K, but I am
relatively experienced with computers.

Thank you,
Jan

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you're going to add Linux to your multi-boot environment then
I strongly recommend you look at a third-party boot loader.
Lilo comes to the mind (about which I know nothing), and XOSL
which is an excellent free product. However, would require
that you become familiar with partition manipulation (which
is actually very easy when you have the right tools).

Pegasus:

You are sharp as hell, and I really appreciate your advice. Now I have a
pair of boots.

There were three slight omissions in the procedure below:

1. In step 1, add that one must copy bootpart.ini to c:\.
2. In step 5, reboot to DOS, do not use a DOS box window.
3. In step 5, type "cd \" prior to running bootpart (I am not sure if
this is necessary, but I did it rather than trust to the path).

Once these steps were taken, the system resumed the dual boot. It took
about fifteen minutes, including all mistakes (plenty on my part).

If you are a male, may you have a thousand children who love you, by a
thousand women who love you, and the money to send them all to college.

If you are a female, may you have a happy family and live until you are
120 years old to give out advice.

I do not think that the legend tells us what sex Pegasus was.

I am also in the process of adding Linux to my system, and I am going to
look again at the url below to see how to add that to the boot choice.

If I triple boot, does that mean I have three feet? I knew a guy once
whose face was 11 inches long--another inch and it would have been a
foot. Enough, enough.

Thanks,
Jan

I made a big mistake. I took a perfectly working Windows 98/Windows 2000
system and tried to fix the "Can't find NTLDR" problem. Now it boots
only into Win 98, will not accept a reload of Win 2K, and most programs
don't work due to misplaced dlls or 32-bit problems. I really no longer
give a rat's xxx about the original problem. I just want to regain
Windows 2000.

The Windows 2000 software appears to be on the C: drive, but no dual
boot occurs, and the computer just goes straight into Win 98. Here are
some relevant facts:

* I have a boot disk for Win 98.
* I have CDs for Win 98 and Win 2000.
* Win 2000 was originally loaded after installing Win 98.
* Neither CD is bootable.
* There is no boot.ini file shown under the root directory (yes, I
set it to show hidden files). A search does not reveal a boot.ini file.
* Fat 32

I would appreciate step-by-step guidance to restore Win 2K, but I am
relatively experienced with computers.

Thank you,
Jan

This is fairly straightforward:

1. Get a free copy of bootpart.ini from
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm

2. Boot into Win98

3. Copy these files from your Win2000 CD to C:\ -
D:\i386\ntldr
D:\i386\ntdetect.com
(I assume that D: is your CD drive)

4. Create c:\boot.ini and paste these lines into it:
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
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

5. Start a DOS prompt and run this command:
bootpart winnt boot:c:
You have now restored the Win2000 boot sector.

6. Run this command:
bootpart win95 c:\win98.sys "Windows 98"
You have now created a Windows boot sector file. You have
also added a "Windows 98" boot item to boot.ini

7. Hide the following files so that you do not delete them by
accident:
c:\boot.ini
c:\ntldr
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\win98.sys