Win98/XP dual boot question

I have a system that is a Win98SE/XP dual boot. Win98 is of course, on the C drive, and XP is actually on an entirely different drive. I have numerous disk images of the Win98 volumne which were created prior to the installation of XP. Naturally, if I choose to format, then restore one of these images, XP will not properly load since the boot information for XP is contained on the current installation of Win98 on the C drive. More recent images include this information, as well as an image of the XP Volumne.

My question is: Is there anyway of saving the boot information critical to loading XP, from the C drive, prior to formatting the drive, and being able to transfer it on the Win98 drive after restoring one of these older images, so XP would not have to be reinstalled to recreate the boot info? (Don't ask why I would want to go back to an earlier image....) Thanks!

Milt

 

Maybe this will help.

 

Some very nifty utilities there, but I don't see one (even after chasing the links) that just backs up the O/S boot record, which is what causes the problem with multi-boot when an older O/S is reinstalled, or as in Milt's case, a HD image is restored.

Apart from the O/S boot sector, the critical files are:

bootsect.dos (used for booting W9x)
BOOT.INI
NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM

These can all be copied to to a folder on another drive. A good idea is to format a floppy in XP, and copy all these files to it, to make a boot floppy for XP. This can be useful for other boot problems also.

After a HD restore of C, boot with the floppy, hitting F8 and selecting Safe mode/command prompt for XP. Enter FIXBOOT at the command prompt, and either copy the files from A: to C:, or reboot from the floppy & copy in XP.

It's possible to copy the O/S boot record to a file in W98/DOS, using DEBUG, and I'll post details if anyone's interested..

 

Well I'm interested!

 

"apart from the OS boot sector "...are you refering to boot sector of 98 or XP? I did a search on the utililities also, and downloaded some, but they did not seem to be specific to what I was triying to do. So with these 'critical' files I am able to boot back into XP and copy these back?

I too am interested!

Milt

 

The boot disk MUST be formatted in XP, so it's got a bootsector that loads NTLDR. Yes, the boot disk'll get you back into XP whatever the state of boot files on drive C is. Try it - you don't actually need bootsect.dos for that, but you might as well copy it while you're at it.

The O/S boot sector I was talking about is the partition boot sector on drive C. Boot sectors on other drives are irrelevant. The C boot sector loads NTLDR, which pops up the boot menu, reading BOOT.INI. If you select an NT-type O/S, it'll load NTDETECT.COM and start that O/S loading. If you select W9x, it loads bootsect.dos, which is the one it saved during installation, and runs the boot code which finds IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS boot files which looks for config.sys etc. and eventually runs WIN.COM.

There's often confusion between the MBR and the VBR or volume boot record, also called the O/S boot sector, which is the one I've been talking about. The MBR contains the partition table, and just points to the VBR on the first active partition on the drive. It's the VBR which loads the active O/S, and which gets overwritten when an O/S is installed.

I'll look up the DEBUG stuff tonight. In fact I'd started working on a batch file which would dump or restore the VBR from a DOS boot disk, something like

fixboot dump to create a file backup on the floppy, and

fixboot restore to replace the VBR from the backup file.

I intended to add copying the boot files also, for a FAT32 boot partition only of course.

I got sidetracked trying to make sure the thing was failsafe, and lost the plot a bit. I did test it on my old workhorse PC which multiboots W95 (stop laughing at the back! I've got a reason for that) and W2000, and it worked OK.

 

Got it, thanks Rambler. I figured you were talking about the boot sector on C. I am going to finish redoing changes I am making to the puter, tune it up with recommendations I have got today, and make a new image. Then, reload XP and make the disc. I'll tempoararily go back to an earlier image i might need to see if this all works.

Milt

 

Thanks for that explanation Rambler. Makes much more sense now what was missing from the link I provided, which I just came across in a google.

 

Rambler,
That difference between the MBR and the VBR clears up some other questions I have had in the back of my mind. In the past, (when working with Win98 and Fdisk) prior to retoring a disk image, I always would go through a sequence of:
1.) Fdisk /mbr
2.) Deleting and recreating the partition
3.) Format
4.) Restore the image.

The program I was using was logically based, rather than physical based (i.e. did not actually recreate the partition such as Ghost or DI does), so it made sense to fdisk the MBR to go with the image restore.
However, with the dual boot with XP, I stopped doing this for fear I would cause problems for the XP volumne. But If the critical files are in the VBR, (which is essentially on the root of C, right?), then I question wether Fdisk /mbr pror to an image restore of the C volumne, would really create problems to the XP partition, or not. Does this make sense?

(btw, I have migrated to Drive Image, but many of my older images are with the original program)

Milt

 

There was some useful-looking stuff on that link, nothing wrong with it as a suggestion. As I said, the basic boot disk will work for NT4, W2000, XP and even W2003, with just the three files on it. It must be formatted using the O/S it's intended to boot though.

The commands for dumping the boot sector in DEBUG are:

l 100 2 0 1
n vbr.dat
rcx
0200
w 100
q

meaning:

{l}oad sector from logical drive 2 (A=0,B=1,C=2) to offset 100H
{n}ame the file
{r}egister CX edit
0200 is 512 decimal, the length of data to be written
{w}rite 200H bytes from offset 100H to the file in the current folder
{q}uit

... and you've got a file VBR.DAT containing the bootsector. You can't do any damage with this command set. When I've set up the batch files using the commands in scripts I'll make them available with an explantory TXT file. It'll only work on a FAT partition as I said previously.

 

Hi,
Sorry rambler for kind off Hijacking this tread. I had posted in another section with no results, but this is very close to home.
I am also dual booting 98SE with XP Pro on two separate hard drives 98SE with 3 partitions C – D – E-with E being mainly for backups. And XP as F. with both OS’s on Fat32.
Somehow I managed to get the my doom Virus onto my 98SE system I have two AV’s one running and one as on command only with both up to date. My doom effectively shutting them down.
I only discovered them when I had EZ AV in XP running and unwittingly I had it scan the drives on 98 as well that was how I found out.
I first renamed the two infected files, went back into 98 to see if my AV there would now work but it did not it just hang both, but everything else was working. So not being to smart I went back into XP and deleted the two infected files, that’s when real trouble started. Going back into 98 nothing seems to work beginning with Windows Explorer. I do have the Recycle bins for the 98 drives set to cero in XP.
In Safe Mode it all seems to work OK sfc can’t find any missing or damaged system files, and the AV works as well not finding any more infected files. Windows 98SE is loading as normal it is only when I try to run programs they hang trying to open.
I do have my C drive backed up on E- Backup using DataKeeper but I had done this before setting up my dual boot. I also have a Image of C with Drive Image 2002 but again before the dual boot setup. I don’t know if I can over install 98SE or will that effectively kill my XP Boot. XP is running fine no probs at all. I am using a third party program “Acronis OS Selector†to select which OS I will start up in.
Is there a way I can bring my 98SE back to work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hawk22

 

Hawk,
This is precisely one of the reasons why I rely on disc images. If there is a Virus infection, (I rarely get one) I do try to remove it, but can always just go back to the last image. Anyway, I have not tried Ramblers suggestion for creating the files needed for a boot disc that would enable you to restore your Win98 image, and still be able to reboot to XP. I had not come to this point yet, but had anticipated it coming up if I should need to restore an earlier image prior to XP Pro. Read through the thread and follow his instructions for creating the disc, format your C drive, restore your image, and see if you can use the disc to get back to XP also. If you are unsure, go ahead and make another image of your C drive as it is, with the XP boot info on it-you can always go back to that and try to work your problem from another angle.

You know, I did think of another way around this, since Ramblers post. More involving-but just in case the the boot disc did not work. You want to be able to restore a Win98 image (prior to the virus), and be able to boot into XP, but are concerned about the boot info being gone, right? OK...
1.) Create a current image of your XP partition with all your programs and settings, if you do not have one.
2.) Format C and reinstall your old Win98 image.
3.) Format the partition that contains XP, and do a clean base install of XP, with no concern for additional programs. All you want is to get the boot information to your restored Win98 partition.
4.) Then make a new image of the Win98 partition with the XP boot info, and any additions, changes, or updates you want to make to this image, for future use.
5.) Format the XP paritition again, and restore the current image of XP you just made. Should work shouldn't it?

This is somewhat convoluted, but the newly created image of XP should find the boot information it needs on the Win98 partition, and boot. It sounds like a lot, but I don't think it would really be that big of a deal. Doing a base install of XP is simple, and everything else is just formatting, then creating and installing images.

Anyone care to comment if this would work ok? I plan on using Ramblers idea, but it occurred to me one could always do this also.

Milt