Two Hard Drives, Dual Boot Problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don Lockwood
  • Start date Start date
D

Don Lockwood

Hey guys,
I have two hard drives. The master runs XP and the slave
runs 98. I reciently changed the master disk OS from
2000pro to XP. After installing XP, my boot.ini was
changed back to single boot. Not to worry, I'll just
change the boot.ini and all will be well with the world.
Not! I added the following line to the existing
file "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)
Windows="98" /fastdetect" When I tried to boot to 98 I
got the following message
"Windows could not start because the following file is
missing or corrupt.
<Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll
OK so I found the missing file in the XP systems files,
copied the file and put it on the slave disk. Rerun, same
message only it wanted a different file.
I ran all combinations of multi(),disk() and rdisk().
With 0,0,0, I got Windows XP booted up then in all others
I got "Could
not start because of a computer disk hardware
configuration problem. Both hard disks have one
partition. Seems like the beast wants XP on both drives.

Any help would be appreciated

Don Lockwood
 
Hey guys,
I have two hard drives. The master runs XP and the slave
runs 98. I reciently changed the master disk OS from
2000pro to XP. After installing XP, my boot.ini was
changed back to single boot. Not to worry, I'll just
change the boot.ini and all will be well with the world.
Not! I added the following line to the existing
file "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)
Windows="98" /fastdetect" When I tried to boot to 98 I
got the following message
"Windows could not start because the following file is
missing or corrupt.
<Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll
OK so I found the missing file in the XP systems files,
copied the file and put it on the slave disk. Rerun, same
message only it wanted a different file.
I ran all combinations of multi(),disk() and rdisk().
With 0,0,0, I got Windows XP booted up then in all others
I got "Could
not start because of a computer disk hardware
configuration problem. Both hard disks have one
partition. Seems like the beast wants XP on both drives.

Any help would be appreciated

Don Lockwood
Click to expand...

How is the master drive formatted? NTFS or FAT32 or? For Win98 to boot from
XP's boot manager, it needs to be FAT32 or FAT16 *and* the Win98 boot files
need to be on that drive. Normally, to use XP's boot manager, Win98 is
installed first and then XP. It is possible (but not supported) to add
Win98 afterwards. MVP Doug Knox has a good article that describes how to do
this: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

Another alternative for working what you have now, is to use a third party
boot manager program. Boot It NG, for example:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/
 
Sharon,
Thanks very much for the very rapid reply. To answer your
question, the file systems on both hard drives are
FAT32. I read the Doug Knox article and it seems to do
the trick for me. There might be a problem however, the
slave drive is a drive that I removed from one of my old
computers and installed on my present one. That drive
had Windows 98 installed and running and it has a number
of files (microsoft word for one) that I need. Since I
changed from 2000pro toXP I have not been able to access
my old OfficeXP files. The message I get is "Microsoft
Word has not been installed for current user. Please run
setup to install the application." This presents a
problem for me, the software on both drives came as a
package from the builder but did not include floppys or
CD Rom support so I can't really run setup. I'm OK
though because my slave drive has Word 97 installed. Im
concerned that if I install Windows 98 on the slave drive
that I'll loose access to Word 97. One other question,
you said that the Windows 98 boot files need to be on the
master disk. Is that right and which files are they?

Well Sharon thank you again for your help.

Kindest regards
Don, Dual Boot Challenged, Lockwood
 
Sharon,
Thanks very much for the very rapid reply. To answer your
question, the file systems on both hard drives are
FAT32. I read the Doug Knox article and it seems to do
the trick for me.
Click to expand...

Very good.
There might be a problem however, the
slave drive is a drive that I removed from one of my old
computers and installed on my present one. That drive
had Windows 98 installed and running and it has a number
of files (microsoft word for one) that I need. Since I
changed from 2000pro toXP I have not been able to access
my old OfficeXP files. The message I get is "Microsoft
Word has not been installed for current user. Please run
setup to install the application." This presents a
problem for me, the software on both drives came as a
package from the builder but did not include floppys or
CD Rom support so I can't really run setup.
Click to expand...

It's very unusual for an OEM not to include a separate CD for Word. If not
supplied as standalone product or a part of Office, it is sometimes
supplied along with Works. You need this CD to get past that notice about
setting up for a particular user.
I'm OK
though because my slave drive has Word 97 installed. Im
concerned that if I install Windows 98 on the slave drive
that I'll loose access to Word 97.
Click to expand...

Not sure why you need to reinstall Windows 98. If you use Doug's "recipe,"
you need to adjust the boot files for Win98. Those boot files will launch
the existing installation and it's installed programs.
One other question,
you said that the Windows 98 boot files need to be on the
master disk. Is that right and which files are they?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's right. Win98 (and most Windows installations) can reside on
almost any drive partition. The boot files, however, need to be on the
drive that the system boots from. As those are processed, the rest of the
operating system starts to load from wherever it's installed at. Doug's
article outlines which files, how to get them where they need to be and how
to fix the XP boot files to round out the whole setup.

If you go with a third party boot manager, it will manage the two operating
systems with their boot files as they are now : XP's on the master and 98's
on the slave.
 
Hi Sharon,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
The world is back on it's proper axis. I have dual boot
on my two disk drives. You may want to make a note
however that some of Doug Knox's fixes went a little off.
First, just doing a "repair" on the "Windows XP Boot
Loader, only lead to a blind ally. I did in fact have to
reload Windows 98 to the slave drive. There was one
other problem with Doug's solution, the fixboot file
(read.scr) appeared to be an executable script that
reconfigured boot.ini. For my application it only
screwed thing up. My final solution was to start with
Boot.ini set for single disk boot and then reload Windows
98 to the slave. This approach left me with 98 being the
default with XP second. I then went into boot.ini and
changed the default to XP. So far I haven't experienced
any problems by not having run "fixboot" as Doug
proposed. Things are working OK so far. Hope it stays
that way. I still have a few drivers to download but
this too shall pass.

Thank you again Sharon and to Doug as well.
Don, no longer dual boot challenged, Lockwood
 
Thank you again Sharon and to Doug as well.
Don, no longer dual boot challenged, Lockwood
Click to expand...

Doug's article is a guideline. Parts need to be altered where necessary and
according to what one is working with. I'm not sure from your description
where his scripts and documentation varied from your setup but am glad to
hear that you got the differences worked out.

Congrats on working this out. I'm glad to hear that you everything setup
and working the way that you want it to.
 
Back
Top