[cannie]

Modified paragraph G.- WHAT TO DO IF EVERYTHING FAILS, to beware against the possibility of omitting the hidden boot files when rebuilding the primary partitions.
It may happen very easily because the hidden files are not shown by the XP explorer unless you configure it properly, and if you don't see you can't copy them.

HTH

[cannie]

Paragraph C4 has been rewritten into C7 and C8 to include the use of Deltree.exe under Windows XP and in order to a better understanding.

HTH

[cannie]

Modified paragraph A to include the option of cloning Windows 98 not only into a different unit into the extended partition but also to another primary partition by simply using XXCOPY.EXE, introducing also several improvements in the redaction of the text for a better understanding of it.



HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 27 September 2009 - 02:40 AM

[cannie]

Taking into consideration that the boot CD is only used when the OS fails, the F3 option of building a boot CD using the doubleboot screen has been removed because F1 and F2 options are considerably more secure.

Paragraph A has been rebuilt for better results, and also the redaction of the initial paragraph has been corrected and improved.

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 01 October 2009 - 01:37 AM

[cannie]

Rebuilt the last paragraph "What to do if everything fails" to correct some detected omissions which could mean problems for newbies.

Also improved the text in several other points for a better help to users.

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 04 October 2009 - 01:37 AM

[EyesOfARaven]

herbalist, on Sep 30 2008, 01:38 AM, said:

I've been experimenting with using archiving utilities for backing up and Does anyone know of a utility that can save and restore a copy of the MBR, preferably one that works in DOS or Windows? On one PC, I'm using the 2K bootloader. The one I'm working on will use Grub when I get it finished.
Rick

Why backup and restore the MBR when the MBR is the same on all Windows 98 installations (or for that matter, all DOS-based Windows). Run "fdisk /mbr" to write a new MBR, and you could omit the DOS boot files from the image to save a bit of space, and make your boot media, whatever it may be, DOS 7.10, and thusly doing a sys C: or what-have-you will put 98-compatible DOS on the disk. You probably would want to still backup autoexec.bat and config.sys, but this would save you from putting command.com, msdos.sys, and io.sys into your archive (not much space saved, but it's something).

Edit: I didn't read that you were using non-DOS MBRs, but this process will work for anyone who isn't.

This post has been edited by EyesOfARaven: 04 October 2009 - 06:29 PM

[dencorso]

herbalist, on Sep 30 2008, 01:38 AM, said:

I've been experimenting with using archiving utilities for backing up and Does anyone know of a utility that can save and restore a copy of the MBR, preferably one that works in DOS or Windows? On one PC, I'm using the 2K bootloader. The one I'm working on will use Grub when I get it finished.

Sorry, Rick, I somehow missed that post of yours.
I use DIY DataRecovery's MBRTool. It does what you want, but does not use a raw format, so you cannot use the saved archives to manually put the MBR back, should you ever want to do so. But it can also save the whole of the 1st track of every HDD (up to four), which is handy.
However, there is more to save, so I also save raw images of the MBR and of each MBR-like structures in the Extended Partition chain. I do that with WinHex, but your favorite hexeditor should do it as well.
As for the boot manager, don't go over to Grub, go to Grub4DOS instead, it's much more poweful and versatile. Please do read the Grub4DOS Guide to learn more about it.

@EyesOfARaven: Because fdisk/MBR restores the MBR's boot code, not the actual Partition Table, which contains the addresses of every partition in an HDD, and are unique to each installation, nor the Windows Disk Signature, which is unique to each HDD, and used by the NT-family OSes to assignthe drive letters, and thus of interest for those of us who multiboot with XP or 2k.

[jaclaz]

There are N programs capable of backing up/restoring a RAW bootsector or MBR.

Under DOS DEBUG is as good as any other. (there are scripts for it).

One of the "forgotten" pages with some useful things for DOS lovers:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021016205201/...wnloads/rec.htm

If you know what you are doing:
http://www.partition...m/utilities.htm

Under windows, MBRFIX, or MBRWIZ (dos version also available) or HDHACKER or dsfo/dsfi of the DSFOK toolkit among tens of other ones do it allright.

jaclaz

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

jaclaz, on Oct 5 2009, 02:44 AM, said:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021016205201/...wnloads/rec.htm

Nice work as usual. I just updated Post#28 with that page you found. It has working downloads directly from the web.archive.org archives of the old dos.li5.org site. Anyone who still needs it can grab SrcTools and some other stuff as of this writing.

[jaclaz]

CharlotteTheHarlot, on Oct 5 2009, 09:29 AM, said:

I just updated Post#28 with that page you found.

There are some issues with the Forum software, that kind of link does not work right now.

See here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/broken-links-for...19.html&hl=
http://www.msfn.org/board/broken-links-for...19-page-15.html

These kinds of links appear to be the only ones working:

http://www.msfn.org/board/create-easily-second-win98-xp-same-computer-t118623.html&st=27
http://www.msfn.org/board/create-easily-second-win98-xp-same-computer-t118623-page-27.html
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=118623&st=27

http://www.msfn.org/board/create-easily-se....html&st=27
http://www.msfn.org/board/create-easily-se...23-page-27.html
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...18623&st=27


jaclaz

[cannie]

Paragraph G modified, improved and renamed to HOW TO REBUILD TOTALLY YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Several minor corrections in other points.

HTH

[cannie]

Some corrections into the first paragraph and also into paragraph B1, and a change in the subtitle to "using Windows 98 to clone, maintain, repair and rebuild Windows XP", for an easier understanding.

Some minor improvements of the text in other points.

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 14 October 2009 - 11:46 AM

[cannie]

Improved the text edition of the first post using colors to separe more clearly the concepts for a better comprehension.

Several corrections in the text concerning the possibility of using the interactive mode of fdisk in all cases, to help newbies who don't know the partition number of the cloned XP unit before running DOS.

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 10 November 2009 - 05:26 PM

[cannie]

Trying to make the first post better: essential improvements in the shape, some text corrections, three new paragraphs, color titles and different font sizes to make the text "lighter" for any reader, taking into account that after so many succesive additions it became considerably complex.

Greetings.

HTH

[MDGx]

Techw0rm's SRC Tools [last known versions] also here [9 KB]:
http://www.mdgx.com/files/SRCTOOLS.ZIP

I use xclone for DOS [works from within a DOS box/window] (freeware):
http://ftp.sunet.se/...tl/xclone13.zip
Supports LFNs from within Windows.
Xclone can be used from native DOS [outside Windows] with DOSLfn [free, open source] loaded in memory:
http://adoxa.110mb.com/doslfn/
which enables LFNs support.
Xclone can copy entire disks/partitions to the destination of your choice.
Errorlevel is minimum by default, does not stop when it encounters the "unmovable" swap file or similar "locked" files.

HTH

[os2fan2]

You could use MaDdOg's "chooseos", which adds support for multiple Win9x boot into NTLDR's boot.ini.

http://www.maddogsw.com/bootchooser/

You then install the different Windows into different directory names on diffeent drives, eg

c:\win95, d:\win98

This is because regardless of where you install Windows9x , it creates a corresponding directory on the c:\ drive, eg

install it to h:\legacy, will add boot files also to c:\legacy.

[cannie]

Corrected omission at paragraph F1 in the first post (added "Copy all the boot floppy files to the CD root using the Nero windows").

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 01 December 2009 - 04:34 PM

[cannie]

Modified H1 to recommend using in the cloned partition the same FS used in the original primary one, after some experiences using NTFS/FAT32 in order to know what is the best solution (when using a Live CD the only thing that you use from Windows 98 is the DOS floppy), and also the convenience of keeping a backup of everything whenever you resize the used partition.


HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 11 December 2009 - 06:29 AM

[cannie]

In order to make it easier the use of boot floppy to rebuild the boot sectors, or booting from Live CD for file manager operations, the text of the first post has been modified to replace BIOS changes by the use of F12 at boot. This way the switch is faster and only valid for the current operation.

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 11 December 2009 - 06:48 AM

[jaclaz]

cannie, on Dec 11 2009, 01:44 PM, said:

In order to make it easier the use of boot floppy to rebuild the boot sectors, or booting from Live CD for file manager operations, the text of the first post has been modified to replace BIOS changes by the use of F12 at boot.

Hmm, on many motherboards you can press F12 till the end of time, but you WON'T be able to change boot order , and on some that have this feature the key is F11 and I am almost sure I had a laptop that used F2 :
http://en.wikipedia....ing_from_a_disk

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 11 December 2009 - 09:31 AM