How to repair a dual / multiple boot system after re-installing Win98SE

Introduction

As a result of re-installing Windows 98SE any dual / triple boot capability will be lost.

Use this procedure if you want to Re-instate Dual / Triple Boot after re-installing Windows 98SE.

If, however, you want to install Win98SE to dual boot with an already installed WinXP then look here:
Dual-Boot - Add Win98SE to WinXP

The Step by Step Procedure

  1. Repair the WinXP installation so that it is bootable.

    2. This will require you to boot of the WinXP CD and use the recovery option as follows:

    1. Boot up with your WinXP in your CDROM drive.

      2. Ensure that the boot order in the BIOS is set to boot from CDROM before the hard drive.

    2. The WinXP CD will run its set up routine.

      3. Setup is loading files ......... - Wait for it to complete

      NOTE:
      For those who have their hard drives located on raid channels, you will probably need to load your third party RAID drivers. When the XP CD boots up and displays the Windows XP Setup screen with the following text:

      Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver ...

      At this point you can load your RAID drivers and continue with the repair procedure.

      On completion of setup you will eventually get the following message:
      Welcome to Setup message - Press R to select Recovery Console.

    3. Press r or R to select the recovery option.

      4. You will be prompted as follows:

      [1] D:\Windows

      Which Windows installation would you like to log onto
      (To cancel, press ENTER)? 1 - Select as appropriate (in this case 1).

    4. You will now be prompted to enter the administrator password as follows:

      5. Type the administrator password:
      Enter your root password if you set up one, otherwise press the ENTER key.

    5. You will now be placed in command mode in the D:\Windows directory.

      6. Perform the following actions:

      • type fixmbr - This will alter your Master Boot Record and set it up to boot the NT Boot Loader.

        • You may be prompted whether you want to continue - Answer yes(y) to the cautionary prompt.

      • type fixboot - Writes a new partition boot sector to the system partition..

        • You may be prompted whether you want to continue - Answer yes(y) to the cautionary prompt.

      • Type exit

        • The PC will now re-boot. Fix any errors encountered.

  2. When the system restarts, In some cases you may get an "NTLDR is missing..." response.

    3. If you do then take the following corrective action:

    Repeat the steps show above to start the recovery console. Once you are in command mode, perform the following actions:

    • type copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\. - This assumes e: is your CDROM directory.

    • type copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\. - This assumes e: is your CDROM directory.

    • Remove the WinXP CD from the CDROM drive and Type exit

      • The PC will now re-boot. Fix any errors encountered.

  3. Enjoy your dual / multi boot system..

    4. Occasionally you may get a problem resulting in not being able to boot into Win98.
    This usually occurs when you have a corrupt or missing BOOTSECT.DOS. If that happens then carry out the following repair procedure.
    Repair Corrupt or Missing BOOTSECT.DOS
© MAK 2005
End of Document