Partition Magic - I've messed it up!

[fatboyjim]

Hi

I was playing with Partition Magic to install Windows 98 SE on my existing machine with Windows 2000 on it

The existing partition was NTFS

I loaded up PMagic, resized my existing partition to about 18 gigs (from 19), made a new partition to install 98 onto

It warned me that I would need to create the partition "Before C:" otherwise it wouldn't work

I did so

Restarted, it did it (took about 20 mins), restarted again and it said invalid system disk

Installed Windows 98 onto new 1gb partition, now what?

How do I get back onto Windows 2000? I want a dual boot

This is the problem: Can't edit boot.ini as it's NTFS (silly me) so 98 can't see it

And also, 98 is seeing a C: of 1GB and has installed itself onto it, where is my 2000 partiton and what letter has it got? (Probably D: with my two CDROMS being moved to E: and F: respectively)

OK, I'm quite tired now so am not my usual self, can somebody point me in the right direction

And sorry for the long post

Thanks,

[David_Jones]

Hi Jim,

Doesn't sound too bad!

I think you now have:

Primary Partition - Win98

Primary Partition - Win2K


I guess it is currently booting up from the first primary partition with Win98, and as you correctly say, Win98 cannot read NTFS out of the box.

Your Win2K partition is probably still there, in perfect order, but you don't see a drive letter under Win98 due to that OS not recognising the NTFS - hence no drive letter.

The reason it is currently booting to Win98 is that it's partition is currently marked as 'Active'. If you make the Win2K partition 'Active' it will boot there instead, and you should be able to read everything, including the Win98 partition.

I don't use PM, but I would imagine that you can boot up to a floppy or the Win98 CD, and access the PM application (perhaps even the PM CD is bootable?).

If so, you should be able to use PM to make the Win2K partition active, remove the floppy / CD, and re-boot.

That should then run Win2K.

HTH,

David.

[andyms18a]

use partition mag from win98 and have it make a boot menu so when you boot you computer it will give you a choise of op sys to load

[fatboyjim]

OK here goes

I restarted in MSDOS, made 18gig Active (it doesn't have a drive letter next to it in FDISK)

Restarted, Win2K booted fine, got to logon screen, I log in using any one of three usernames and it logs out immediately (just says logging in... then saving settings... then goes back to login screen

I guess this is because partition magic told me to put the 98 Partition "Before C:" and Win2000 wants to log into files it thinks are on the C:?

Little help please! (typing this from working Win98)

Cheers

Jim

[fatboyjim]

Ok, here's my idea, but it might screw the whole PC

FDISK in DOS, remove Win98 Partition, set Non-Dos (W2K partition) ACTIVE

Reboot!

What do you reckon? Or do I keep Win98 in case the problem in 2K remains and 98 will be the only way to fix it

Thanks,

Jim

[fatboyjim]

And my last idea is...

I've got a 1GB HDD sitting in a cupboard somewhere here, why don't I just shove that in, install W2K NTFS onto it

Install Nero, then burn all my important stuff from the 20GIG NTFS onto CDs?

I don't see anything that could possibly go wrong with that so I think I'll give it a go while I'm waiting for some replies

Thanks,

Jim

[David_Jones]

Can you back up the disk or partitions with, say, Ghost?

If so, you could so that, and then try out anything with no risk.

As an aside, I have a dual boot, with Win2K and Win98, and Win98 is in a separate primary partition after Win2K (although below the 8Gb cut-off), so it can work that way.

David.

[andyms18a]

boot from the win2k disk and install on your d drive and it will make a bootloder so you can boot both opp sys

[fatboyjim]

OK, latest developments...

I dug out the 1GB HDD, installed W2K NTFS onto it. Plugged in the 20 GB HDD.

The system can see the 20GB drive in W2K, but can only see the 1GB partition! ( F: )

What now?

Jim

[fatboyjim]

Now when I try and log in to W2K on the 20 gig HDD it logs in, says I have a small or no page file, then immediately logs out

Repairing the w2K install doesn't work either as it says it cannot find a windows installation to repair (and I don't have an ERD)

Thanks

Jim

[fatboyjim]

Sorted, installed PM in Win2000 (1gig HDD) and played with it from there (had to assign drive letter to 20 gig drive, resize it, move it, make it active and unhide it)

Thanks for the help,

Jim