Dual boot XP & 98?

Alec · Post by **Alec** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:41 pm

Wonder if anyone can help with using AIS Boot Menu Manager to dual boot XP & 98.

I have each OS installed and running fine on sepearate discs. I'd like to have the option at startup of selecting which OS to use. I've installed Boot Menu Manager on XP. When I reboot I get the option to start either 98 or XP(XP being the default). If I select XP then it starts up fine. But if I select 98 the follwing error is thrown up:
"Windows couldn't start as below file is missing or corrupt
<windows root>\system 32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above"
98 will still bootup fine if I disconnect XP from the ribbon cable.

Any ideas?

Post by **Barry** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:22 pm

I suspect your Windows 98 installation has been made to the D: where as it should have been made to the C: drive. You could switch the master and slave options of both drives to enable Windows 98 to boot. The problem then is your system will not know about Windows XP, this can be repaired by following the instructions on our web-page:

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/Fix%20a%20dual%2 ... system.htm

Basically the installation of Windows XP needs to be started and then aborted the first time the installation asks for a re-boot.

The boot file should look something like this:

Code: Select all

&#91;boot loader&#93;
timeout=30
default=multi&#40;0&#41;disk&#40;0&#41;rdisk&#40;1&#41;partition&#40;3&#41;\WINDOWS
&#91;operating systems&#93;
multi&#40;0&#41;disk&#40;0&#41;rdisk&#40;1&#41;partition&#40;3&#41;\WINDOWS="Live XP Home" /fastdetect
C&#58;\="MS Windows ME" 
C&#58;\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Notice that the Windows 95, 98 & ME style entries in the boot.ini file do not point to a drive (multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)). The symptoms you describe leads me to think that your Windows 98 boot entry has been set-up like a Windows NT, 2000 & XP style entry.

BTW: rather than pulling ribbon cables (which could eventually damage the drive and cable) most motherboards CMOS settings enable booting from multiple drives. During boot up press DEL to enter CMOS settings, one or more of the settings enable different boot options e.g. CD-ROM, Floppy Diskette, and what you want HDD-0 (the usual setting) HDD-1 your slave disk drive.

Please let us know if this helps, if not please post a copy of your boot.ini file.

Barry

Dual boot XP & 98?

Dual boot XP & 98?

Boot problems