format/reinstall one OS of a dual boot sys

[anomaly]

I have Win98 (drive C) and Win2k (drive E) in a dual boot situation, on partitions.
I want to format and reinstall Win98. I know I can simply reformat drive C only and do a clean install on it, but will it mess up the Win2k boot loader at all? Or will Win2K be none the wiser, and not know that Win98 went away and came back?
Or will I need to mess with the boot.ini at all?

Thanks

[reboot]

A 98 reinstall will wipe out the boot loader. You should read the article, and subsequent posts in the "Tips and Tricks" section on how to do it.

[anomaly]

I appreciate you pointing me to that section, but.....

I read through it and didn't find my exact situation covered, so I'm not comfortable experimenting with the multitude of ideas in that thread.

[Jomama]

Then dont

[David_Jones]

Probably a silly question, but why don't you effectively ignore Win2K for now, remove the boot loader, re-format and re-install Win98, then replace the boot loader to get back to Win2K after you have finished?

Apologies if I have totally missed the point here!

David.

[mike breck]

I would think that is correct.

Just format C:, reinstall Win98, and then reinstall (or Repair) W2K over the top of itself on D:.

However, something else occurs to me - but I haven't read of anyone doing this - so don't do it unless someone else confirms this can work.

XP installs three files in the root of the C: partition. These files are hidden, read-only, system files boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com.

I think, in theory, if you were to copy these to a floppy disk, and then format C:, reinstall Win98 - AND THEN copy the three XP files
back to the root of C: - everything should be as it was.

That way, you wouldn't have to reinstall or repair W2K.

Would this work?

Any views or opinions?

[casey]

Mike,
that is a very interesting question which I would like to hear an answer to. I have 3 Dual boot systems running.

[homey]

Before you remove Win98, while in the W2k system go to System Tools and make an Emergency Repair Disk. Then you can go ahead and delete the Win 98 system and reinstall it. After you do that, the computer will not see w2k until you do the repair proceedure.

HERE ARE TWO DUAL BOOT SITUATIONS WHICH I HAVE TRIED.

Setting up Dual Boot W2k and Win98 on the same hard drive where W2k is already installed on a NTFS partition

„h You need to have free space available on the hard drive.
„h This works well as Win98 doesn't "see" the NTFS Non-DOS partition and thinks it is using the C: partition.

1. While in the W2k system, make an Emergency Repair Disk from the backup utility.

2. Reboot with a Win98 Boot Disk and enter the Fdisk utility.

3. Create a Primary DOS partition and set it to be the ACTIVE partition.

4. Reboot with a Win98 boot disk and format the new partition.

5. Start the Win98 install and Select Directory C:\Windows. At this time you may get a message about a NTFS system already loaded on this computer and win98 won't be able to access that partition. Select ok.

6. After the Win98 install is complete the computer will not recognize that W2k is installed until the repair process is completed.

7. Insert the W2k cdrom and select Install a new copy of Windows 2000 (Clean Install).

8. Accept the agreement and enter the Product Key. After copying some files, the machine will reboot.

9. Select To Repair a Windows 2000 installation, Press R.

10. Select To Repair a Windows 2000 installation by using the emergency repair process, Press R.

11. Select Manual Repair: To choose from a list of repair options, press M.
*** Select Fast Repair: To perform all repair options, press F.

12. If you have the Emergency Repair Disk, press Enter.

13. Insert the disk labeled: Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Disk into drive A: and press Enter.

14. To have Setup examine the drive, press Enter
*** To skip the drive examination, press Esc.

15. After a reboot, you have a Dual Boot Menu.

Outlook Express error: Outlook Express could not be started because MSOE.DLL could not be found.
Reapply Service Pack 2 to correct the error.

Internet Explorer error: Internet Explorer could not connect. Work offline
Reinstall IE 5.5

***************************************************
To Delete this Win98 installation and remove the Dual Boot configuration

1. Restart the computer with the Win98 Boot Disk and enter the Fdisk utility.

2. Delete the Win98 partition and set the W2k partition to Active.

3. Reboot the computer to a normal W2k operation.

You won't need to repair anything because W2k was originally installed on the C: partition and the files NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI were left intact. The file BOOTSEC.DOS was loaded on the Win98 partition and is no longer needed.


****************************************************

Setting up Dual Boot W2k and Win98 on the same hard drive where W2k is already installed on a FAT32 partition

1. While in the W2k system, make an Emergency Repair Disk from the backup utility.

2. Reboot with a Win98 Boot Disk and enter the Fdisk utility.

3. Create an Extended partition for Win98.You don't create a Primary partition on this hard drive since W2k is already using one which is formatted as FAT32. Leave W2K as using the ACTIVE partition.

4. Reboot and format the new partition.

5. Start the Win98 install and Select Directory D:\Windows.

6. After the Win98 install is complete the computer will not recognize that W2k is installed until the repair process is completed.

7. Insert the W2k cdrom and select Install a new copy of Windows 2000 (Clean Install).

8. Accept the agreement and enter the Product Key. After copying some files, the machine will reboot.

9. Select To Repair a Windows 2000 installation, Press R.

10. Select To Repair a Windows 2000 installation by using the emergency repair process, Press R.

11. Select Manual Repair: To choose from a list of repair options, press M.
*** Select Fast Repair: To perform all repair options, press F.

12. If you have the Emergency Repair Disk, press Enter.

13. Insert the disk labeled: Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Disk into drive A: and press Enter.

14. To have Setup examine the drive, press Enter
*** To skip the drive examination, press Esc.

15. After a reboot, you have a Dual Boot Menu.

****************************************************
To Delete this Win98 installation and remove the Dual Boot configuration

1. Restart the computer with the Win98 Boot Disk and enter the Fdisk utility.

2. Delete the Win98 partition and reboot the computer.

3. I repeat steps 7 through 14 to repair the W2k installation.

4. Edit the boot.ini file to remove the reference to Win98.

[mike breck]

Well done homey. Very informative.

In anomaly's case, I would assume he had installed Win98SE and then W2K afterwards (correct me if that is not the case anomaly). The classic dual-boot scenario.

So in that case boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com would be on the C: drive with Win98SE.

So you are saying that he formats C: and then reinstalls Win98 on C: - then carries out the W2K repair procedure, he will end up with boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect on the W2K partition instead of the Win98SE partition?

What about my idea of just copying the original boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect files back to C: after the the clean install of Win98SE.

Do you think that would work?

BTW all. Disregard my calling the files XP files instead of W2K files. A little faux pax.

[homey]

The two cases which I discussed were situations where the Win98 system was added after W2k. That means W2k already had a copy of NTLR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI on it's partition. If you are going to reinstall Win98, that would be the same situation and the repair process should put those files on the C: partition as well as another file called BOOTSECT.DOS

It would be a good practice to make a w2k boot disk as follows... While in the W2K system, format a floppy disk. Then copy the files NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR and BOOT.INI to that floppy disk.

It would also not hurt to copy those files to the W2k partition.

[mike breck]

So why wouldn't just copying NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR, BOOT.INI,
and BOOTSECT.DOS back to C: after you clean install Win98 work?

[homey]

Sorry, guess I sort of bypassed your question. Just copying those files should work (I never tried it). I think that it would be a good idea to make the Emergency Repair Disk first as insurance.

[mike breck]

Thanks for the reply homey.

However, just out of interest, I posted that question on the W2K/XP forum and Hpro came back and said it won't work.

I'm waiting for him to come back and explain why it won't.

I feel I'm missing something simple, but I can't see what it is.

[anomaly]

Very simple. For WinME or 98
I created a Win2k emergency repair disk (ERD) before proceeding.
I formatted C and installed Win98.
I then changed bios to boot to CD.
I booted to the win2k cd,
It loaded a million drivers then asked if what I wanted to do.
I pressed R for Repair.
I then pressed F for Fast repair, rather than Manual repair.
It prompted for the ERD, I put it in and it proceeded.
It finished and rebooted.
Changed the boot order back to floppy first in the bios.
Remove the ERD floppy.
My boot manager is now fixed and I can get into Win98 and Win2k.
No problem. Wasn't so bad. My new white hairs were unnecessary.

Thanks a million all.


Mike, yes, I had win98 first, then later installed win2k as a dual boot.

I had copied all those boot files onto a disk just in case. But this Repair option in Win2k was fast and easy.

By the way, I could not get the repair option to come up while running the Win2k CD while Win98 was running. You HAVE to boot to the Win2k CD to get the option.
You can install Win2k or upgrade to Win2k while in Win98 but the Repair option was not available.

A link to..............
.MS KB Article Q293401
Doesn't matter whether it's WinME or Win98.

[mike breck]

Nice work anomaly - and thanks for the info.

Alls well, that ends well.