Reinstalling W98SE on a W2k/W98SE Dual Boot System

[Anonymous]

I had installed Windows 2000 and Windows 98SE on my hard disk...
But when I runned low on hard disk space I deleted the whole Windows 2000 folder and I was only using Windows 98SE...

By mistake I deleted the \"NTLDR\" file.. and now Windows 98 can\'t load..

My questions are:

How can I restore NTLDR so that I can boot back to Windows 98 in that dual bootable system?

Can I put that file from another CPU with W2K installed into a floppy and then copy it to the other hard drive?

Will the replacement W2K files in the floppy be able to be recognized by the hard disk that\'s missing the file?    

Could I use a W2K start up disk to reinstall Windows 98/W2K again?

The problem I have right now is that I tried using a W98SE Bootdisk to reinstall Windows 98, but since it was a dual system it doesn\'t recognize the C: and D: partitions I had before nor can I have acces to the files on the disk from DOS.

Would it help if I used a W2K boot disk instead?


What should I do in this kind of situation?

[rdc]

If you have w2k , why didn\'t you keep w2k and delete win98se . Back up your email and the files you want to back up and reinstall w2k , and as w2k(with sp1 or sp2)  is a much more stable and secure program as win98 , I would prefer to delete the windows folder but then it\'s your computer and your choice .Once you reinstalled w2k you will have your dual boot again , and the default will be w2k in your boo.tini .Then you delete the windows folder
 after backing up the files you want  .
You still will have the choice beween two operating systems untill you delete the line c: =\" Microsoft windows \" in the boot.ini , then you will boot automatically in w2k

[Josetann]

If you boot using a Windows 98 startup floppy (or emergency disk), run \"fdisk /mbr\" (no quotes, of course) and see if that fixes your problem.  You can also optionally try \"sys c:\" if that doesn\'t work.  That should clear out the win2k mbr and let you go straight into win98se again.

[rdc]

Could you explain what fdisk/mbr exactly does do .
It\'s supposed to rewrite your master boot record ok .It should write a new bootsector,but keeping which factors into account  (dual boot?)
What\'s the difference between \"fixboot\" and fdisk/mbr.
Each harddisk has a bootsector,the master boot should be on drive C: in the case of a dual boot system I assume .

[Josetann]

fdisk /mbr will basically wipe out the mbr, taking out any boot managers with it.  So it would only allow you to boot to windows 98.  Which is what he wants, because he took off Windows2000.

[rdc]

tks ,and the resource command fixboot rewrites the bootsector codes , but in case of a dual boot and fixboot c:
does it wipes the dual boot too?

[Josetann]

Fixboot is an NT command (Win2k/WinXP I know, I dunno if it\'s with NT4 or not).  It fixes the mbr for Win2k.  So you want to use fixboot if you have Win2k/WinXP, as it basically fixes Win2k\'s boot loader (which you need, to dualboot win2k/win9x).

So, fdisk /mbr if you have win9x only.  Fixboot if you have an NT os (whether you do a dual-boot or not).

[rdc]

tks , I wasn\'t sure if it repaired a dual boot (bootsector) in w2k or not

[Thilee]

I am trying to do a similar thing .. trying to put Win ME and Win NT on a huge disk. Since I plan to use the NT boot loader to dual boot, I need to know how to extract the boot sector of the Win ME partition. This is how my 20G disk is organized:
Partition 1: 0 - 7.7G : Win NT (NTFS)
Partition 2: 7.8 - 20G: Win ME (FAT32)

If I manage to extract the boot sector of Win ME partition then I can store it under the NT partition as bootsect.dos and add the entry c:=\"Windows ME\" to load WinME..

Thanks!!!
-Thilee

[rdc]

As I understand , you want to have winme on c: and winnt on d: in a dual boot .
I know with w2k and win me , you should start with installing win me on c: and then  install w2k (or winnt ) as win 2k is also an NT program (nt5) .Winnt will then install the dual boot (as w2k does) and you have nothing else to do .But I never had winnt 4 so I cannot be 100 % sure about this .