Running Dual OS: XP & Win98

Oh, I love you guys....

Thank you all for your good help!

I've formatted drive c: (xp), made it primary slave,
and made the 98se primary master.

Reinstalled XP, fixed boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition "


and all is running very very very fine...

THANKS A LOT ! ! !

 

Thanks for the feedback so other can share. That looks good now.

You have no doubt noticed that the boot.ini designates rdisk(1) for the XP system. That points to the secondary physical hard drive.

You can also note that the Win9x is not included as an ARC path statement but instead listed as merely C:\ = "Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition." It could actually say anything you choose between the quotes, it will still boot to Win9x since the directions are taken from the bootsector.dos file found on the root.

While you're ahead of the game, take a look on the root of the C: drive and notice the file bootsector.dos. It's now one of the key bootloader components along with ntldr, ntdetect.com and the boot.ini file.

If you will format a floppy on this computer and copy those 4 files to it, you will be able to use that floppy to boot with when/if one of those files becomes corrupt or gets deleted accidentally.

Best regards.

 

Am I able to burn those on a CD as well, and boot from cd?

 

Definitely, yes! See this.

 

You can but there is a catch. You still need to create it on a floppy in order to extract the image from it to place on the bootable CD. The reason is, it's not as simple as merely copying the files to the CD. It requires that the MBR of the floppy also be copied, which requires the full disk image. I have done it using Nero's option to "Create a Bootable CD" and it works fine, assuming the boot sequence is set to check the cd-rom drive.

If you don't have a floppy drive, you could do the job on some other computer that does have or else copy a disk that someone else has made. That presumes their system is similar to yours.

There are some other ways to pull it off but they get rather complex.

 

Thanks again for a very fast response...
Just burned a bootable cd...

 

Did you test it? Never assume that the CD works. Set your system to boot from the CD and try it. You should be able to run both XP & 98.

DRD

 

it works fine!
boots both 98 & XP in the same way with the same menu.

 

clarification

You aren't booting either 98 or XP; you're booting DOS from the CD. DOS is an OS as are the others. and will boot on any computer that's bootable, even one without a HDD.

 

I think you may be confused Sparrow. He has made an XP bootloader CD not a dos boot CD.

 

surferdude2

You are correct. The boot CD IS booting the windows OSs altho hasn't booted them yet and so is in the DOS twilight zone between the BIOS POST and whatever windows is called up. The disk should have io.sys and msdos.sys on it as well as possibly winboot.sys (another name for io.sys) according to bootsect.dos (I haven't got around to actually making one yet). I wonder if one gets the usual menu (to get a dos prompt) if one taps F8 immediately on choosing xp or holding CTRL on choosing 98?

 

That's not required since they are found on the root of the boot drive. The bootsector.dos file points the boot process to the root and they will be located as needed. Of course it won't hurt to include them for backup if you have room on the floppy. They won't actually be used unless you copy them to the root of the boot drive.

If you will edit the boot.ini file on this floppy, and make the delay time = -1 then it will stay paused indefinitely until you select your choice. Along with the OS, there is an offer to boot to the F8 menu. That's a nice thing for folks who can't seem to time the F8 pressing immediately following POST. No big rush this way and you get the full F8 menu for Safe Mode booting, etc.

 

Here's one I have made that will get you started. Download & run or "Run In Place" and it will ask for a blank floppy to write to. It will create the bootloader floppy. When it completes, write protect the floppy for MBR protection and try it on your computer. I configured it to offer booting the first or second partition of the primary drive (drive(0)). You can alter that as needed for dual booting or secondary drive (drive(1))booting.

BootLoaderFloppyCreator

 

surferdude2

Finally took the trouble to make the disk(s) both ways (with and without DOS on them), and see now that formatting to make a startup disk doesn't work for this purpose (it boots to DOS on A: ), only plain format works. But I can get to dos by choosing either 98 or XP, real DOS in 98, or a crippled dos (a marketing ploy?) in XP.

I don't like spash screens; like to see what's being hidden from us; so I'm used to seeing DOS busy behind the scenes while XP boots, where it's claimed not to exist.