Dual Boot XP and Windows 98se

Hi all

Can anyone tell me how to set up a dual boot with these 2 OS'es.
I have one specific problem. When trying to boot from the windows 98se cd to install it I get a "warning NTLDR is missing" error.

I have done the following.

Formatted the 10gig boot HD.
Partitioned to 3 gig FAT32 for windows 98se.
Partitioned to 7 gig NTFS for windows XP.

I know that 98se has to go in first then XP second. I have done this many times before but forgot how to get around the NTLDR error. I have tried blanking the master boot record and restoring it with Ultimate boot CD to no avail. Any help appreciated need a quick answer if possible.

cheers

van

 

If you have a 98 boot disk, start the computer up and run fdisk /mbr.
You can find a boot disk here.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
Hope this helps.

 

Cheers for the reply but

The computer does not have a floppy drive. I can install one and do as you say and that already crossed my mind but will it work? I used Ultimate boot cd to reset the MBR to zeros, and also ran Diskeraser pro to reset the entire HD to zeros, so there is NOTHING on the HD, and it still says NTLDR is missing. As I understand it that error is a reference to a windows XP installation (or previous installation), but as the HD is formatted there should be no instance of any operating system left at all.
So will that work?
all I can think is that I have partitioned the 10 gig drive to both a fat32 and NTFS partitions. Maybe just using FAT32 in both will work as XP will go in to a FAT32 partition.

Can anyone tell me how to get around this?

I used ranish partion manager and MBRwork from the ultimate boot cd to wipe the MBR. That didnt work, so I used the same programs to rebuild a standard MBR which also didnt work.

Any help appreciated. Someone must know how to do this easy

 

Still seems like a mbr issue. You could download a bootable cd and run the fdisk /mb command. Maybe start over erasing both partitions. Format the drive FAT32 and install 98.
When installing XP use the setup to make another partition and format that how you like.

 

How did you format the 7GB as NTFS? I'm assuming you went through the XP set-up to the point where it formated the partiton, then quit to install the 98? You should reformat everything, partition the drive & format them both as FAT32 (or leave the second partiton unformatted). Then you should have no problem installing Win98, and afterwards formatting the second partition as NTFS during the XP install. That's how I've always done it.

 

Ah, I see now from reading your other post that you used Partition Manager. You should really post everything in a single thread, much easier to keep track of things & keep the info together. I'd still do it as I described above...let 98 create it's own MBR, then let XP format it's partition & modify the MBR as it sees fit. Then it'll work.

 

Get the Drive Fitness Test from Hitachi (works with most brands) or the similar utility from your drive maker (all are free downloads) and do a "zero fill" or "low level format". That actually puts the drive back as it came from the factory.

Various partitioning/formatting programs can leave stuff from prior installs. You can then FDISK and format the drive if you want, but use a generic partitioning and formatting tool rather the one from Win 2k or XP if you are wanting to install 98 first (which is the best way to dual boot w/XP).

You can DL various boot diskettes and CDs that can help with installing. The UBCD for DOS has the Drive Fitness Test on it along with many other disk tools - I highly recommend that everyone has both the UBCD for DOS and the UBCD for Win in their toolboxes.

If you want to buy a formatting/partitioning tool, I recommend Partition Commander from http://www.v-com.com. You can often find legit copies on eBay for cheap and competitive rebates can drastically cut the price as well.
It's CD is self-booting and it can slice and dice hard drives with the best - supports FAT, NTFS and Linux file systems.
.bh.

 

AHA! Thanks for the information both were correct. I eventually managed to work it out, just took me a while. I go through every possible method because I know from experience thats the quickest way to work something out with pc's, presuming you don't have someone to tell you

I just wiped the MBR, partitioned the drive to 2x5gig fat32 and it worked, no NTLDR is missing error. Then I started to install windows98se and it got as far as the "setup is copying files needed for installation onto your computer". When it reached 100% it said "error SB04???? ..... there was an error. If you are using windows NT/NT4 please restart the machine......" forgot exactly what it said but it was to do with windows NT so I presume NTFS. By then I just gave up and put XP back on. I too have got around it before but I couldn't that time. I even pulled the floppy out of another computer and tried a win98 boot disc with only fat32 partitions on the HD. The floppy disc wouldn't boot, but the windows xp startup floppy would.......

I am gonna do some extensive reading online until Ive mastered this again.

thanks though

 

When I was dual booting Windows 98 and Windows 2000 I kept each of them their seperate boot partition:

1. Create 3 partitions
   • Primary boot-partition for Windows 98
   • Primary boot-partition for Windows XP
   • Extended partition for shared storage
2. Set the first primary partition to active boot partition and install Windows 98
3. Set the second primary partition to active boot partition and install Windows XP
4. Configure the boot-manager in Windows XP to include the Windows 98 boot partition. Go to the Recovery Console and run the command bootcfg.