Moving on a step

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Guest

I bought a Dell computer several years ago, (7) with Windows 98 and added a
new hard drive some years later. I then (2002) installed a legal version of
XP on the new hard drive and ended up with a dual boot system. It seemed like
a good idea at the time. I had the old stuff at the ready. By now I never use
the Win98 any more, but the hard drive (maxtor, of courset..) is dying.
With the posts here I can boot in XP fine, but I cannot remove the WIN98
hard drive.
When I replace the Win98 with the XP disk (I edited the BOOT.INI to remove
the Win98) the system doesn't find an OS.
It must be something simple, no?

cheers, Gideon
 
I bought a Dell computer several years ago, (7) with Windows 98 and added a
new hard drive some years later. I then (2002) installed a legal version of
XP on the new hard drive and ended up with a dual boot system. It seemed like
a good idea at the time. I had the old stuff at the ready. By now I never use
the Win98 any more, but the hard drive (maxtor, of courset..) is dying.
With the posts here I can boot in XP fine, but I cannot remove the WIN98
hard drive.
When I replace the Win98 with the XP disk (I edited the BOOT.INI to remove
the Win98) the system doesn't find an OS.
It must be something simple, no?

cheers, Gideon
Click to expand...

The XP boot manager that gives access to both Win98 and XP are on the
failing hard drive with the Win98 installation. So when you take the Win98
drive out there are no boot files available to boot any operating system.

Also, your XP is set up as being on D: (or some letter other than C:). When
you make that drive the primary drive, all of XP's internal references to
drivers, applications and data storage are going to be invalid.

If this was my system, I would bite the bullet and go for a clean install.
-Backup data and/or pull data off the old XP hard drive later.
-Install the new hard drive. Install XP to it. Install programs and
transfer data from old hard drive to new (or from backup). Wipe old hard
drive (the good one!) and use it for extra storage.
 
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