PC will not boot past Boot Magic loading (Dual Boot XP/98SE)

I've never used Boot Magic, but I believe that the C:\ has to be FAT32 with BM.

 

Pete
You say you're able to get to a c promt using a boot disk. Maybe you can start win98 by switching to the windows folder and then type win. If win98 starts you could try installing boot magic on it and see if it straightens things out. Don't know if you would be in for even more trouble doing this or not. Right now, it's the only thing I can think of.

 

I was thinking about this and it seems to me that if you try this you'll get an error about no memory manager or some such thing. Something about Himem.sys requiring emm386.exe. If you do get this error you could try adding it to the config.sys file on the boot floppy in order to load it from there. You could either copy emm386.exe to the boot floppy and load that one or else just load the one in your windows folder.

Device=C:\windows\emm386.exe

Don't know if that will do the trick or not as I've never tried it. Perhaps things will work for you without it though. Just a thought.

 

Pete
If you haven't tried this already, don't bother with my last suggestion. I tried it (loading emm386.exe from the floppy) on a computer I have here but it still wouldn't boot. I didn't receive any memory manager error but instead recieved a vfat error that said something about failed to intialize vfat, a device needed is not available (something like that anyway). I then tried adding a path statement to the autoexec.bat to include windows etc. but still received the same error. Thought I'd post this to save you some time if you receive the emm386.exe error. I'm not really sure where to go from here. Maybe somebody else knows about this or can come up with something else.

 

Pete,
Just a quick thought... if you wind up having to format: install 98 (C:\) then install XP (D:\). You don't need to use BootMagic. XP will handle the dualboot very nicely. The only time you would really need a third party boot manager is if you throw Linux into the mix, or install the OS's out of sequence (oldest first is recommended). HTH

B

 

Pete,
This may be a silly question, but have you tried disabling Boot Magic?
If you can use the boot disk to load, in Dos run C: \BTMAGIC.PQ\CONFIG.BAT and on the Boot Magic config screen disable Boot Magic. (That may be D: if BM isn't in a FAT32 partition on C)

Roger

 

Since you have tried most everything, before you quit, try
fdisk /mbr
from a win98 startup disk. That's the mbr you want since I think all the dualboot stuff is on the root of c: . At least if you can get into win98 you're part way there.

Did you install bootmagic in dos, win98, or XP? Just curious. Have it, but haven't used it; scared!

 

Hi Pete,
I had a real saga with that "Autocheck program not found - Autocheck skipped" message because of Partition Magic. I had to do a repair to XP in the end.
Roger

 

PeteC, Just got to this post, (Jhonny come Lately ) but if I may ask what version of Boot Magic is installed? The reason for asking is, I have PM 8.0 and in the manual for the Boot Magic section it describes how to configure BootMagic to work on an NTFS System.

 

Hi Pete,
Now that 98se boots, would think that a repair/reinstall (which?? - suspect latter) of XP would both restore XP and set up dual boot. Theoretically

Good luck!

 

PeteC, Since I also Dual Boot (C" Win98SE, "D WinXP Pro),this has been rattling my brain box since I first saw it today, so if I may inject some more food for thought before You go the Format Route.

I use this site for a lot of my info on Dual boot because they offer a tremendous amount of information and sources. Have you tried any of these suggested Bootcfg command methods?
http://thpc.info/dual/bootcfg.html

The reason I posted the above info is I'm not sure how the Dual Boot is configured, since you said Win98 was added after XP due to the scanner not being compatible with XP. So Is "C" WinXP and "D" Win98 or not?

I hope you can see my reasoning and that this makes sense and helps.

 

I've used both the Microsoft way of letting XP create an extended and a logical partition for XP, and the Partition Magic/Boot Magic way of making two Primary Partitions with each OS seeing itself as the C Drive.

I've settled on preferring the "separate" way with PM/BM. Too many times, programs and their updates would get confused when installing to the XP D drive and fail to install properly. Also, if something gets messed up on one, you can format and reinstall it without it effecting the boot sector of the other OS (and therefore being forced to repair install the other OS).

I just keep a 7.87GB 98 partition and the rest XP. But both think they're the only OS on the computer.

I did run into a problem when I used Boot Magic to set it up once. I now make both partitions with a PM 8.01 Boot Disc, the first Fat32, the second big one NTFS. I set the FAT32 active, install 98 and update until I'd need to add the internal cards (sound, modem, etc, which I remove first). Then I install PM 8, update it to 8.01 (important, because PM 8.0 had bugs), and set the NTFS partition active. Then I install XP, update it until ready for internal cards, then install PM on XP and set the FAT32 active. Now, on 98 I can install Boot Magic and it will see both OS's properly. I usually rename the OS's to simply Windows XP and Windows 98, and move up XP and make it the default. This way I can just tap enter, or just leave it alone and XP (my usual OS) will boot up. Just in case, I enable advanced partition hiding in the Boot Magic Options. I want those partitions and OS's to keep from messing with each other!

I don't think Boot Magic handles setting things up too well, but works fine if everything's done first, then just set it up as a Boot Menu. Use Partition Magic for the actual work.

As for the current problem, I'd shrug my shoulders and start over, setting it up right from the start.