Want to redo C: Drive when I have a dual-boot

[weatherman]

Hey everyone. This is what I want to do. I am currently running both Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows 2000 Professional on my computer. What I want to do is format and reload my Windows 98 drive which is drive c. However, if I do that, how will this affect me when trying to do so? The boot.ini file is on the C: Drive and that would get lost when formatting. I am worried that I couldn't get back into Windows 2000 after working on my C: Drive.

[hrjjohn]

How about partitioning C with Partition Magic or similar and then you do not have to worry about the boot loader file and you can keep them separate on 2 virtual drives and do anything you want from then on.

John

[Murf]

Good article HERE (http://windows.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.microsoft.co m%2Fsupport%2Fkb%2Farticles%2FQ285%2F4%2F80.ASP)

[GretaP]

Hi weatherman,

You could do this two (if not more) ways (you'll also need to have the WIN2K install CD to perform either of these):

1) Before formatting the 98SE partition, copy these files to floppy disk:
NTDETECT.COM
NTLDR
BOOT.INI
BOOTSECT.DOS

After formatting and reinstalling WIN98, copy the above files to the C: drive

Put the 2K install CD in, ensure that the boot order in BIOS is set to try booting first from CDROM, boot from the install CD and invoke the Recovery Console (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=229716)
Use the FIXBOOT command.


2) After formatting and reinstalling WIN98, perform an In-Place Upgrade of WIN2K (Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000)

[itspcb]

First post to the forum! Greta P's post and the reference to the Recovery Console made me think. Having just developed a dual boot configuration I have learn't a few things (actually a lot) on the way and invite comment.(I'm not a pro) I started with W98 on a one hard drive , and then installed another hard drive to load W2000. I could not get the CDRom load option to work (see later) but I did find instructions on the w2000 disc to load W2000 using W98, this option does not seem to be mentioned often. It worked fine and I now have a dual drive/dual boot system. But one of my ambitions was to have the security of failure of the one disc, allowing recovery of the other OS, but Boot.ini is on drive c on the first drive so I always need two drives operational to get into W2000, hence my interest in the Recovery Console, I may need it some day, can I load it now and have it ready to run? In fact I presume that in any multi boot system using separate drives you always need two drives operational, is there another way to do it? Seems to negate a supposed reliability improvement.
I also investigated why I could not get the CDRom boot option to work. I think it is because whilst my OS's sees the CDRom correctly, in my machine, in the bios, the DVD drive is nominated as master and the CDRom as slave, so I presume had I used the DVD slot it would have worked.
Thanks to you guys for all your time and contributions
Peter B
uk