Member Avatar for mike7778

i know that there are countless dual boot threads, but i didn't see the one that i was looking for.

i have win xp pro on my computer. i just installed a hdd out of an old computer that has win 98 on it. i am wondering if it will dual boot without me having to do anything, or am i going to have to start all over.

computer reconizes the drive as being installed, but i have no boot options. just goes straight to win xp.

thanks

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Member Avatar for Colonel Panic

No, you can modify what's know as the boot.ini file and it will allow you to dual boot. If you have never messed with a boot.ini file before, you want to be very careful. If you mess it up, you can make everything unbootable. If you do feel comfortable with it then there are several ways to do it. The best way to get to the boot.ini file is by opening the run box and entering in "msconfig" and hitting enter. There is a tab there that says "BOOT.INI" I recommend doing it this way because there is a wonderful little button there that will check the paths that you enter into the boot.ini file (I wish I had it when I was learning about the boot.ini file....). My guess is that when you are done it will look something like this:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=15
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[Operating Systems]
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional"

Assuming you have a retail or OEM version of Windows XP, make sure you have it on hand before you start because if you mess up the boot.ini you can save yourself with it. You can boot to the CD and at the first screen enter "r" instead of enter to enter the Recovery Console. Its a command based tool for diagnosing and fixing your computer. Once you are in there, you would enter the command "bootcfg /rebuild" and follow the prompts. It will look for Windows installs and will restore your boot.ini with your XP install. Unfortunately it doesn't detect 9x installs, otherwise this would be the way to go for ya.

Let me know if that helps.

Member Avatar for mike7778

ok makes sense. just let me double check--the win 98 is one a completely separate hdd, not a partition. it is reconized as drive G:/ on my computer. do i still do what you are saying?

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