Windows 98SE and Windows XP Pro multiboot

noname

I am doing this on an HP Pavillion 6630.

I had windows 98 se installed already and then I installed xp pro and I can't even figure out how to bootup on windows 98 anymore. What is my problem and how do I fix it?
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Q

It sounds like XP overwrote your bootsector with its own.

-Q

noname

so is there ever going to be a way to boot up windows 98 again just as it was?
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Q

Look in C:\boot.ini and see if there's any reference to more then one Windows installation in there.

As to your question, I know SYS C: from a DOS bootdisk will work, but then you'll be without XP.

-Q

Slash

Add to boot.ini the following line:
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows 98"
Congrats you are done...

P.S Unless you've converted to NTFS...

Richard Hawsley

If you installed Window XP to another Partiton then Windows 98 should appear on a boot menu as Microsoft Windows. However if you installed Windows XP on the same partition as Windows 98 then im afraid you have lost Windows 98 as it would have been overwritten by Windows XP.

But if thats not the case and XP was installed on a different partiton do what slash suggested and check to see if the line C:\ = "Microsoft Windows" exists in your boot.ini file.

Richard

noname

Slash wrote:

Add to boot.ini the following line:
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows 98"
Congrats you are done...

P.S Unless you've converted to NTFS...

oh it is FAT32

I will try that and also

windows 98 is C:\windows
windows xp is C:\winnt

and there is no boot.ini unless it is hidden
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Bash

it is hidden... (boot.ini)

Richard Hawsley

OH Dear. Having Windows XP and 98 on the same partition (For you Drive C) isnt very good as your bound to have conflicts with the operating systems. microsoft does strongly recommend against having 2 Operatiing Systems on one Partition as it can lead to all types of trouble. That may explain some of your problems.

Richard

noname

ok well I pressed F8 at just the right time while my computer was booting up and there was a menu, one of the choices was "Return to OS Choice" and so I chose that and there was only Windows XP Professional.

I did find out where the boot.ini was and I got an error:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file

and so now what?
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Richard Hawsley

Well for starters you were doomed from day one as you installed Windows XP on the same partition as Windows 98. The Hal.dll file is responsible for the Hardware Abstraction layer of your pc so unfortunatly you will have to format and reinstall windows or try manually replacing the file. If you wish to multiboot I cant stress this enough Install Windows 98 on one drive then you MUST install Windows XP on ANOTHER drive or partition or you will have so many problems you will be back in this situation.

Hope this helps
Richard

noname

well umm I will give up on this because I was going to just reinstall windows 98 but it keeps coming up with this stupid error I will just give up. I need a windows 95 key now
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nightice

Is it an OEM key you need?

wingzeroismine

Richard Hawsley wrote:

OH Dear. Having Windows XP and 98 on the same partition (For you Drive C) isnt very good as your bound to have conflicts with the operating systems. microsoft does strongly recommend against having 2 Operatiing Systems on one Partition as it can lead to all types of trouble. That may explain some of your problems.

Richard

Hey... I've done NT and 2000 quite nice (my mini does it now), I've done 95 and NT (but you need to watch out for that IE), I've also done NT 4 and Dos/Windows <95. But... NT/2K/XP should automatically detect that a dos based OS is installed and should automatically give it an option in boot.ini... it has for me anyways.