Lost dual boot ability

Basically I have a dual boot system with Windows 98Se on C: partition
and Windows XP on D: partition on the same hard drive. Both partitions
are FAT 32. Installed 98 first, then XP to get the dual boot.
I used EASEUS Partition Master, that was recommended, to resize
my C: partition smaller so that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE
no longer will boot up. I still get the choice at boot up but if I choose
Windows 98, the screen flashes and the same screen returns.

I contacted EASEUS Partition Master. They said you are right, this does
happen, sorry our software caused you problems.

Any help greatly appreciated.:confused

 

Hmm,
It seems that possibly somewhere along the line it didn't fix your boot.ini.
Are you able to get into Windows XP without issue?
If you are can you go to C:\boot.ini and copy it in here please?
Thanks.

 

There are two files,
C:\boot Size 1KB Configuration File 3\29\2006
C:\boot.--- Size 1KB --- File 6\21\2003

but no boot.ini

C:\boot. is:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"


c:\boot.--- is:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"


When the dual boot prompt comes up, the choices are Microsoft Windows
and Microsoft Windows XP Pro.

 

Hi den942,

Elder's on it.

boot to xp
copy the C:\boot file into the c: drive for backup purposes
rename the boot file to boot.ini
reboot

Techsent

 

Before renaming or deleting anything, you may want to check that you've got file extensions displayed.

Open My computer, in the top menu bar, click tools => folder options

under the view tab, make sure that 'Hide extensions for known file types' is un-checked

 

Also, it appears that neither of those files will get you into into 98 as they both refer to the same partition? I might be wrong as my knowledge on the boot.ini file is a little fuzzy, but, you may need to manually create some new entries.
I'm pretty sure Elder_Usr would know the best way to sort it

 

Yeah. Sorry about the leave of absenses there guys, had some issues at home. Okay, yeah. Greasemonkey is right, they are pointing to the same partition, which in turn is the reason why you're having issues. What you need to do is find out which parition is your Windows XP and which one is your windows 98, and then we'll write them up accordingly.

Thanks, keep me posted please.

 

A suggestion - if you are going to rename any system files I suggest you start by adding .old to the current filename first, e.g. boot.ini becomes boot.ini.old. You can then copy that and rename the copy to boot.ini

We don't want to lose anything vital

 

Definately. That's a great suggestion. Just please don't forget to add "Show known file extensions" in your folder options.

 

Unfortunately, I now have worse problems. I tried advice given in a
Microsoft newsgroup. Now I have nothing but a disk boot error. I
tried an XP repair with Repair Console and tried fixing boot errors.
That didn't work. I tried skipping the Repair Console and doing that
repair installation option and it would not allow that to be done.
But, I may yet have some salvation.
Booting to Windows 98 with the Hard Drive Regenerator program I
have, I can do a C:\dir and get this:
--------
Volume in drive C has no lablel
Volume serial number is 0000-0000

Directory of C:\

NTLDR 08-13-01 12:00 p
1 file(s) 222,368 bytes
0 dir(s) 7, 086,080 bytes free

-------
About a year ago I thought this drive was failling and I copied
the whole C: drive to a folder on the second partition on the second
harddrive where I store downloads I don't want to lose.

Doing a E:\dir shows all my Windows XP files still there.


This computer has all of my correspondence and records from a
car accident that has been in litigation over 18 months. I need to
save as much as possible. I have a lot saved on the second hard
drive but I was still using Windows 98SE regularly when this car
accident happened. I'm not sure what might have been on the
C: drive because my(brain) memory sucks and is very spotty.

As always any help greatly appreciated....

 

Your primary concern is to save the documents I think. This could probably be done with a boot disk such as the Ultimate Boot CD, but if you don't already have such a disk, or a second working computer with which you could acquire one, that won't be of much help to you.

One alternative is to remove both drives and take them to a local computer service engineer and ask him to slave them and copy the folders you want to a CD. If you have a friend who would feel confident about slaving drives all the better. I feel this would be a better route for you than trying to rescue W98 and XP. They may be rescuable, or they may not be.

When you recover your information I'm sure you will give more thought to regularly backing up your personal files. Windows is always replaceable, but your own files are not.

 

Bugger...

So now you have a completely unbootable system?
Booting of your HDD regenerator CD shows nothing in C: and you want to try to recover what was on C:?

first things first, at this point do not try to install or write anything to that disc.
hopefully, the actual data hasn't been overwritten and just the references to it erased.

Can you remove that drive and install it into another machine?

If so, then set the jumpers to slave, hook it up into your other machine on a secondary channel and boot the other machine.

Install PC Inspector on the host machine:
http://majorgeeks.com/PC_INSPECTOR_smart_recovery_d5040.html

and use that to search for your lost data.

If there is no host machine available, then you will need to boot off a livecd.
A good Linux based one for disaster recovery & forensics is INSERT:
http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html

Mount the drive & using the tool called foremost you should be able to recover what you need and save it to the second hard drive.

 

Scan disk said it could fix the FAT errors on C:\ by using the second copy
of the FAT table. I did that. Now there is no D: drive on that hard drive
Windows 98se is repaired and working. "My computer" does not show a
D: drive that would contain my Windows XP installation and all the files.
Even from Dos, the partition and files for XP are not listed.
Using a program called Partition Recovery, It shows the C:\ partition
at 9 gig and the rest of the drive as unallocated. The program says
there are no partitions in the unallocated part but there are logical
drives that may have partitions be recovered if I change the unallocated
part to a logical extension of C:. I'm not sure about doing this.

Testdisk shows a partition and files it includes. This was my D: drive.
It says it can reload that partition from the second copy. I really
would hate to lose the info that is on the missing D: partition.
Will this program actually do what it says?