Windows98 and XP duel sys nightmare

I just installed Window98 on a computer that was
allready running XP. I installed it on logical
drive D behind the primary partition and modified
the boot.ini file to look like this:
[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=C:\

[Operating Systems]
multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\= "Microsoft Windows 98 "

The computer boots into win98 just fine, even though the boot.ini file points to C:\windows but
will not boot into XP, saying there is a hardware
configuration problem. I tried to fix this by running the repair setup from the XP cd, but when
it gets to the place to enter the product key my
keyboard doesn't work.
The machine is an Asus P4B with a pentium4 1.6ghz
with 512mb of memory, and I have activated the
XP software. Any help would be greatly apreciated.

 

What drive controller are you using? Did you try multi(0)?

Even though the Win98 Windows folder is on D:, the boot.ini will still point to the Win98 startup files on C:

 

Windows98 and XP duel system nightmare

unifax, thanks for your reply.
The hard disk controllers in the Windows98 device
manager are 1)Primary IDE controller(single fifo)
w/drivers=Iosubsys.506.pdr, vmm 32\ios.vxd,
2)standard dual pci ide controller set to default
w/ driver vmm 32.vxd(Configmgr.vxd}.
3)standard ide/esdi hard disk controller w/drivers
iosubsys\esdi_506.pdr, vmm 32\ios.vxd. All the
drivers are in D:\windows\system.
When I changed the boot.ini to multi0 and tried to
boot into XP I got the following message
"Windows could not start because of the following
ARC Firmware configuration problem: did not properly generate ARC name for HAL and system paths "
I don't know what disk controllers are in XP.
The hard disk in 98 is listed as generic disk
type407, Thanks again, Rod

 

I just installed Window98 on a computer that was
allready running XP.

I can not say for sure but I believe that is the wrong order.

98 has to go on the C: drive and be installed first. Then XP can go where ever.

When 98 is installed after another OS it will ( and does ) destroy any dual boot. No matter which drive you actually put 98 on all of its boot files will be in the root folder of the C: drive.

Win98 does not like being 2nd to anybody.

Even if you install 98, then XP ( or 2K ) and then re-install 98 you may have the same problem you have right now. I don't know about XP but I believe that 2K has a repair function the will make repairs to the Dual Boot.

BillyBob