dual boot SCREW UP

[koonthul]

Good ol Norton System Works just totally fried my boot.ini file.

I am dual booting WinXP Prof with 98 SE...now all I can do is run 98 SE, no dual boot selection on startup!!! HELP!!! I don't remember at all what my boot.ini file looked like, nor am I a programer. Is anyone out there doing the same that I am, so that maybe you could shoot me a boot.ini my way? PLEASE HELP, I have lots o important docs in XP that I cant get to in 98, (FAT32 and NTFS...worlds o difference)

Heres the setup, 98 is on my C drive, 13 gig no partitions.
XP Prof is on my other physical drive, 60 gig, divided into 2 partitions of 30 gig each D and E. D has the windows XP files on it.

I know Norton System Works in 98 screwed up the file...it looks a lot different. Basically, it made 98 the only bootable drive within that file... how do I get it back to normal???

Thanks
K

:eek:

[BipolarBill]

Take a look here:

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107101

Editing your BOOT.INI file won't help if NTLDR is broken. Try that tip. ;)

If you need the line for XP, here it is:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP /fastdetect

[Sterling_Aug]

If you have the XP CD, then you can try to do a Repair instead of an Install. Select the Fast Repair when asked.

[koonthul]

I am gonna try booting from the XP cd and doing the repair jobby....I forgot about that option...

The problem with using the power toy fix is that I can't even get to XP, I am stuck in 98 land....oh by the by...that command line you gave me is actually in my boot.ini file...it just doesn't work for some reason. I found the boot.ini file in C:\ --- whats all this about a broken NTLDR or what not? NT Loader? I hope thats not the case...oh well here goes...

[BipolarBill]

whats all this about a broken NTLDR or what Yes it is, but either the repair or FIXBOOT will work.

The other tip is related, but not directly. It's just the second of two tips.

You'll be fine. ;)

[koonthul]

Wooo HOOO!!!

I'm back, thanks to you guys! I combined both steps that you two told me, and it worked just fine. I actually have 3 choices now, which is odd, but I can at least boot to XP...heres how I used your advice...just for my reference and everyone elses...

First I popped in WinXP CD into my drive and made sure BIOS booted to the drive first...

next...I booted from the cd and followed the repair options, getting me all the way to the "DOS like" screen where I freaked out at a "enter admin password"....after several tries i got it right.....which then got me to the prompt "D:\Windows"

Using advice from the fine folks here, I typed in "C:\Fixboot" and then rebooted...VIOLA!!! My choices were back...accept I had an extra, and it was a copy of my Windows XP boot choice. When I chose it, it just restarted my machine...hmmmm...interesting...oh well, I can edit that later!

THANKS GENTLEMAN!

~K :t

[BipolarBill]

Awesome! :cool:

[Anonymous Luser]

just for future reference.. the "DOS like" screen is called a "command line". It is your friend. CLI or GUI? What kind of man are you. :-)