[MDGx]

Looks like your boot.ini is not properly set for dual-boot. Respectively this line, which does nothing:

Quote

D:\"win 98"

Correct entry is:

Quote

D:\="win 98"

Note the equal (=) sign.

Under the [operating systems] section, it needs 2 (or more) lines, 1 for each OS u want to boot into.
Then make sure timeout= is 2 or above, otherwise you may not see the boot menu.
Example [mine: XP + 98 SE]:

Quote

ALL comment lines MUST be located ABOVE 1ST [section] !
/bootlogo
/noguiboot
/KERNEL=LOGOOS.EXE
/SOS
/Execute
/NoExecute=OptIn
/NoExecute=OptOut
/NoExecute=AlwaysOn
/NoExecute=AlwaysOff
/PAE
C:\BOOTSECT.W40="Windows for WorkGroups 3.11 + MS-DOS 6.22" /win95dos
ramdisk(0)\VISTA="Windows Vista" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /DETECTHAL /MININT /rdpath=multi(0)disk(0)cdrom(0)\boot\bootx86.wim /RDSDIHDRPATH=multi(0)disk(0)cdrom(0)\boot\boot.sdi /USENEWLOADER
[boot loader]
nobcd
timeout=7
default=C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
[operating systems]
C:\BOOTSECT.DOS="Windows 98 SE + MS-DOS 7.10" /win95
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WXP="Windows XP Professional SP3" /fastdetect /nodebug /noserialmice /bootlogo /noguiboot /execute /PAE
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Windows XP Recovery Console" /cmdcons
X:\="Reboot Cold"

All lines above the [boot loader] section are comments.

Note that X:\= is a fake drive letter, and this line only forces XP to reboot cold, if you select this option.

This is only an example, you need to adapt it to your hardware specs, like drive/partition letters, directory/folder names etc.

Note that boot.ini does not support LFNs (Long File Names), because the boot sequence does not have the LFN driver loaded in NT4/2000/XP/2003 [a little different in Vista/2008/7].
Therefore you should not use any LFN names in boot.ini.
The only name types you can use in boot.ini are MS-DOS 8.3 SFNs (Short File Names), like (case insensitive):
FOLDERXX
FILENAME.EXT

Boot.ini editors [free(ware)]:

* BOOT.INI Configuration Utility v1.5.0 32-bit for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 tweaks ALL BOOT.INI boot settings, including the UNDOCUMENTED ones [2.47 MB, freeware]:
http://www.mdgx.com/files/BOOTINI.EXE

* EditBINI v1.01.1 16-bit for DOS edits Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 BOOT.INI on NTFS drives/partitions from MS-DOS 5/6/7/8 + Windows 9x/ME:
http://www.terabyteu.../utilities.html
Direct download [74 KB, freeware]:
http://www.terabyteu...ds/editbini.zip
Does NOT work from within Windows NT/2000/XP/2003!

Boto.ini resources:

MSKB: BOOT.INI and ARC Path Naming Conventions and Usage:
http://support.micro....com/?id=102873
MSKB: Available Switches for Windows XP and Server 2003 Boot.ini:
http://support.micro....com/?id=833721
MSKB: How To Edit BOOT.INI:
http://support.micro....com/?id=289022
MSKB: Safe Mode BOOT.INI Parameters:
http://support.micro....com/?id=239780
MSKB: Modify BOOT.INI to Enable Kernel Debugging:
http://support.micro....com/?id=900093

- Hack the Windows NT/2000/XP Boot Loader:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/h/2337
- How to Use and Edit Boot.ini in Windows XP:
http://www.vlaurie.c...les/bootini.htm
- BOOT.INI Options Reference:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...on/bootini.mspx
- Useful BOOT.INI Switches:
http://www.systemsby...iniswitches.htm

HTH

[cannie]

I've learnt a lot from you both.
Thank you very much, jaclaz and MDGx!

[cannie]

I wonder if anybody knows any trick to install Windows 98 after XP.
At first it seems impossible: you must always follow the opposite order.

[jaclaz]

Oh, noes! Again.

What is the problem?

The Windows 98 will overwrite the bootsector with one invoking IO.SYS.

You boot to windows 98 DOS, run bootpart,
BOOTPART WINXP BOOT:C:

bootpart restores the bootsector invoking NTLDR.

Then you run:
BOOTPART WIN98 C:\BOOTSECT.W98 "Windows 98"

bootpart creates a bootsector invoking IO.SYS as C:\bootsect.w98 and adds a line fo it in BOOT.INI.

At next boot you will boot to NTLDR, get to boot.ini and be able to choose between XP and 98.

OF COURSE the C: drive (First Active Primary partition) must use a FAT filesystem.

[quote name='http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm']BOOTPART lets you add partitions to the Windows NT/2K/XP Multiboot menu. Usually, you will only have a MSDOS or Windows 95 entry and one (or several) Windows NT entries on this boot menu.

With BOOTPART, you may add any partition to the menu. You may add an OS/2 Multiboot partition, or a Linux Partition (with Lilo) to this menu.

The only thing I highly suggest is : your active partition on your first hard disk must be a FAT16 primary partition. This may be a small partition.

It seems it's actually impossible add an HPFS partition with OS/2 boot. If you find a workaround, please let me know.

BOOTPART creates a 512 byte file which contains an image of the boot sector that loads the boot sector of the partition. After, this file is declared in C:\BOOT.INI (a text file used by the Windows NT boot menu). The boot sector itself comes from FDFormat and WinImage.[/quote]

Read this:
[url="http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=64978"]http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=64978[/url]

AND linked to site:
[url="http://thpc.info/dualboot.html"]http://thpc.info/dualboot.html[/url]

which covers almost ANY possible scenario.

jaclaz

[cannie]

jaclaz, on Feb 27 2009, 11:26 AM, said:

You boot to windows 98 DOS, run bootpart,
BOOTPART WINXP BOOT:C:

bootpart restores the bootsector invoking NTLDR.

Then you run:
BOOTPART WIN98 C:\BOOTSECT.W98 "Windows 98"

Wonderful and incredibly easy!
Thanks!

[jaclaz]

cannie, on Feb 27 2009, 04:40 PM, said:

Wonderful and incredibly easy!

Yep.

Happy you like it.

jaclaz

[jaclaz]

Just to add to the links by Mdgx, a couple of GUI tools from DX21 mentioned in the past but that can still be found through the Wayback Machine:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=210&st=1

(first one is the same BOOT.INI Configuration Utility v1.5.0)

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 01 March 2009 - 08:19 AM

[Zoinkity]

I have win XP on C:\ and 98 on D:\. After running bootpart it created D:\BOOTSECT.W98 and added the line:

D:\BOOTSECT.W98="Windows 98 Second Edition" /win95

-to XP's boot.ini.

However, if you select 98 from the startup menu, it displays that it either can't find <Windows Directory>\system32\Hal.dll or it is corrupt. I'm guessing this is not as simple as copying XP's Hal.dll to 98's system32 folder... So, what's wrong with it now?

[submix8c]

... "Oh noes!" ...
Read post #12 by jaclaz above. It explains it all...
Is this your problem, by chance?

Quote

OF COURSE the C: drive (First Active Primary partition) must use a FAT filesystem.

And here's the topic that prompted the post -
http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=118623

This post has been edited by submix8c: 14 March 2009 - 09:59 AM

[jaclaz]

I cannot see where it is reported the filesystem used by Zoinkity on his C:\ drive.

Apart from the above and maybe other problems, the point is that BOOT.INI (or if you prefer NTLDR) does not "traverse" drives.

Quote

D:\BOOTSECT.W98

is, as seen by NTLDR, "a suffusion of yellow" :
http://www.thateden.co.uk/dirk/

Provided that the created bootsector is "correct", it MUST reside on C:\

As well the IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM , as well as AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS MUST reside on C:\ (read on First Primary Active partition).

These latter are NOT negotiable, it's the way DOS boots.

(for the sake of simplicity, I am lying , COMMAND.COM can also be somewhere else if it's position is specified in config.sys)


As hinted before, the use of chainloading bootsectors through BOOT.INI is the "old" way to do it, nowadays it is advised to chainload grub4dos' grldr from BOOT.INI and from it chainload directly the kernel file (IO.SYS) bypassing the bootsector alltogether, and offering a wide number of alternate methods to boot, including int his particular case, and IF the C:\ partition is NTFS, booting from a floppy image and then continue booting from D:\ )

Forum:
http://www.boot-land...hp?showforum=66

Guide:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5187
http://diddy.boot-la...os/Grub4dos.htm

Method #5:
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/...ll.htm#method05

jaclaz

[Zoinkity]

Ah, so that's it. Well, concidering my BIOS allows you to mash the ESC key to select the boot drive, it doesn't seem worth the effort to do anything intricate. Thanks for the explaination though.