Need Help Setting Up Dual Boot

Hi All,

I built a new PC a while back with a new HD with XP on it, but I still have my old HD with W98se (Still installed on it).

The old HD is mounted in the case, but I haven't tried to hook it up......If I used it for a slave drive, would that automatically make my system a dual boot?

I hope I posted this in the correct forum.

 

Thanks for help Pete,

Seems more involved than I thought.

I have some info that I stored on a compressed disc (Floppy), but I understand that I cannot open it with XP......Is that true?......Or is there a workaround?

 

Yes, I tried to find a way to mount the drive, but I had no luck.

The file was compressed with W95 compression tool, and the files are .bmp as far as I know.......(I had to have some documents scanned and made into electronic form so I could send them to someone....I have no scanner).

I tried a Google search on the subject, but the info I got sounded like it was impossible to mount a drive onto XP that was compressed with W95,98.

 

Pardon my ignorance Pete, but what does m/c mean?

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I just had a thought......

Would it be ok to unhook the drive w/XP, and hook up the drive w/W98se?

At least just long enough to get the info I'm after?

 

Just a thought here.......could he install the 98 drive (master or slave), boot to XP and edit the boot.ini file, then copy it to the root of 98 and have a dual boot?

I'm dual booting 98 and XP but on the same drive, so not sure what the boot.ini would look like. This is the way it looks on mine;

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\= "Windows 98 "

I can put a second drive in and add a line to the boot.ini, then boot to it.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Maxtor" /fastdetect
C:\= "Windows 98 "

I'm guessing on his it would need to show both disk info. Maybe something like this?

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Windows 98 "

 

I don't think it will be as simple as editing the boot.ini file. I think it will be necessary to also run the Repair Console and do a FIXBOOT command and a FIXMBR just for good measure. Even then, it may still require moving the IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS files to the root of the boot drive.

Nothing is easy anymore.

 

Dual boot is very easy to set up from the beginning, but difficult to change later.

Here is a suggestion that I think might work:

Open the Boot.ini file for XP and add the following at the end:

d:\= "Windows 98 "​

changing the drive letter to the one that has Win 98 on it.

This should allow you to boot to the Win98 partition, but it may not work correctly because of hardware differences as mentioned earlier.

NOTE: The Boot.ini file is hidden and is flagged Read-Only. You need to change this forst.

DRD

 

Follow up......

I unhooked the XP HD and connected the W98 HD with little problems.

I managed to uncompress the file I was looking for and copy it to the XP drive after swapping the connections again.

I'll give the dual boot process some thought after I buy a video card........Seems that my onboard video driver doesn't like W98se for some reason (Updated or not).

 

Good to hear of your success, James. Thanks for posting back.