[dsenette]

well here's the skinny on the last thing that me and murray just talked over...you can remove the 98 drive from the system and set the XP drive as the master drive in bios....then you would boot to your XP disk (if you don't have one there are ways around that....thanks to murray i believe) and get to the recovery console and run some commands...this would put the boot.ini file on the drive that has XP on it....which means you woulnd't loose any programs or data installed on the XP drive

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That's an interesting discussion. My feeling is (I never tried this, but it's so easy to do, disconnecting c and reboot) that upon installation XP created a boot.ini file which is not used. The BIOS looks first in ide0, primary, for an operating system which is normally assigned to c:. Since the operating system can be assigned to other locations I think that it might look for the default value in the assumed boot.ini file on d:

Just an easy to verify speculation.

[The Skeptic]

That's an interesting discussion. My feeling is (I never tried this, but it's so easy to do, disconnecting c and reboot) that upon installation XP created a boot.ini file which is not used. The BIOS looks first in ide0, primary, for an operating system which is normally assigned to c:. Since the operating system can be assigned to other locations I think that it might look for the default value in the assumed boot.ini file on d:

Just an easy to verify speculation.

[dsenette]

worth a shot eh?

[dsenette]

and easier to verify

jolly....boot into xp and do start , then run, then type "notepad d:\boot.ini" (without the quotes) and tell us what happens

[jollyr]

Will have to wait a bit before I can do that. Am currently at another location and it will be several hours before I can personally get back to the one in question.

Will post content of notepad d:\boot.ini as soon as I can get it. (Someone may be home now and will try to call there and them locally perform task and e-mail me results.)

Thanks again for your patience.

JR

Edited by jollyr, 21 September 2007 - 12:28 PM.

[jollyr]

Got someone to run notepad d:\boot.ini

No file named boot.ini was found.

[dsenette]

ok then the skeptic's options won't work

ok....take the windows 98 drive completely out of the machine for this


If you have your Windows XP disk

• Insert your Windows XP disk into your computer and reboot
• Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device.
  NOTE: You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• When the PC boots, it will boot from the CD...after the first several screens load, you will be given a choice to choose R for Recovery Console. You will be asked to log in.
  NOTE: For Windows XP Home, there is not password, just hit ENTER. For Windows XP pro, ask whomever set up the machine what password they used.

When you see the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt continue to section 3 (Running "ChkDsk")

If you DO NOT have your Windows XP disk

• Download RC.ISO from Here.
• Now burn this ISO image to a CD and boot your computer with it.
  NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD-ROM. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro to another Windows machine and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image
• Once the CD is created, place it in the defunct computer
• Then reboot your broken PC with that CD in the CD-ROM drive.
• Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device.
  NOTE: You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• When the PC boots, it will boot from the CD...after the first several screens load, you will be given a choice to choose R for Recovery Console. You will be asked to log in.
  NOTE: For Windows XP Home, there is not password, just hit ENTER. For Windows XP pro, ask whomever set up the machine what password they used.

Running "ChkDsk"

• At the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt, type
  

  chkdsk /r

• Press ENTER
• Let this scan run UNINTERUPTED untill completed (30 min or so depending on the drive)
• Report any errors in your next reply
• Once the scan is complete, Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console.
• Your computer will now restart, boot from the CD again and continue with the next steps.

Using "Fixboot" and "Fixmbr"

• At the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt, type
  

  Fixboot

• Press ENTER
• Type
  

  Fixmbr

• Press ENTER
• Type
  

  Exit

• Press ENTER
• Your computer will now restart.
• See if it boots into windows now

[jollyr]

Should I expect to boot into Windows 98 or XP after following your instructions?

Am still a bit confused because my c: drive (primary) contains Win98 and my d: drive (secondary) contains XP

JR

[dsenette]

if you do everything right xp should boot

you're wanting to completely remove the 98 drive from the computer and just leave the XP drive in...you may even want to make sure that that drive is jumpered as master and is on the end of the IDE cable...you want to end up with the xp drive as the primary drive and the 98 drive out of the computer completely

[jollyr]

if you do everything right xp should boot

you're wanting to completely remove the 98 drive from the computer and just leave the XP drive in...you may even want to make sure that that drive is jumpered as master and is on the end of the IDE cable...you want to end up with the xp drive as the primary drive and the 98 drive out of the computer completely

Just so I am 100% certain, am I correct in understanding that should I perform all this before going into the procedure you describe using the recovery console, etc...?

Sorry if I seem pedantic but want to avoid having to blow up my entire PC and starting from scratch if at all possible!

JR

[dsenette]

yes you are correct...do the drive removal/moving before the other steps

also..you're not being pedantic...you're being cautious

[jollyr]

OK.

Just one more question... Would there be any problem formatting the Win98 drive before removing it? Would like to use it for a little more storage space once all is said and done.

JR

[dsenette]

Just one more question... Would there be any problem formatting the Win98 drive before removing it? Would like to use it for a little more storage space once all is said and done.

yes there would...hehe if the above steps don't cause windows xp to boot (also might have one other thing to try) then you can put the 98 drive back the way it was and then y ou can at least boot into XP the old way so that you can back up your data

[Murray S.]

So... Even if I swap drives, set their jumpers, alter the BIOS and copy the edited boot.ini file to D, the PC won't boot?

JR

EDIT: Posted this before discussion was complete. Will wait to see how this shakes-out

Nope.

Murray

[dsenette]

all those instructions look kosher to you murray?