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Thread ID: 46262 2004-06-18 09:04:00 HELP >_< XP boot loader is gone. Jase1 (459) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
245709 2004-06-18 09:04:00 Hi guys

My comp is partition into 3 drives:
1st partition Win98Se (FAT32)(C:)
2nd partition WinXP (NTFS)(F:)
3rd partition (FAT32)(G:) no OS on this one just files.

Just a few minutes ago I reformated my C: which had Win98Se on it, now that I've formated my comp, the comp boots right to Win98Se instead of going through WinXp boot loader.

Is there any way of getting the boot loader back? I would like to get it back without harming/effecting the 2nd partition and the 3rd partition.

How stupid of me :( I should of asked on PF1 before went ahead >_<...arrrrg


Please help guys
Jase1 (459)
245710 2004-06-18 09:09:00 press f8 Megaman (344)
245711 2004-06-18 09:15:00 Pressing F8 won't do anything; it sounds like you've reinstalled Windows 98?

If so, you'll need to get your Windows XP Setup CD, pop it in, boot off it, wait for it to load it's bloated kernel, then find your way through the prompts until you can load the Recovery Console. From here it automatically finds an XP partition, and you login using the administrator's password, then run "fixmbr".
agent (30)
245712 2004-06-18 22:53:00 Thanks guys, sorry to reply so late . Now all I need to do is find my XP cd >_< .

After running "fixmbr" would I need to watch out for a few stuffs?


Thanks
Jase1 (459)
245713 2004-06-18 23:26:00 I don't think so; you just need to quit the Recovery Console ("exit"?) and reboot your PC. agent (30)
245714 2004-06-19 03:29:00 hi

Well, I managed to do what you said though after the reboot, it still goes right to Win98Se, instead of Xp's boot loader :( . So what now?

Any more suggestions?
Jase1 (459)
245715 2004-06-19 05:22:00 your problem has occurred because you can't install win98 after xp
win 98 gets rid of the bootloader (Bills fault) unfortunately it is not a simple thing to fix if you don't know what you are doing.
A simple way that may fix it is to do a repair install with the xp cd.
If not and you have not got much data to back up you can just reinstall
both os being sure to install win98 first.
Some here might have better solution, though.
There's a lot of good info on the dual boot subject in the windows forums too.
tech_meister (5509)
245716 2004-06-19 05:57:00 I doubt a repair install will even find the existing XP partition.

See if u can find a spare 2Gb on your drive. Partition it off and install a fresh copy of XP onto it. This is only temporary.

Then what you have to do is edit the boot.ini file to get it to boot into all 3 OSs, your old XP, 98, and the new XP. This will require a look round in Disk Management to see what partitions are numbered as what etc. A search of the forum will hel pwith boot.ini issues.

Once you've got that working you can delete the new XP partition and merge that 2Gb of space back in. Partition Magic being the tool of choice.
kiki (762)
245717 2004-06-19 05:58:00 So theres nothing else I could do or try? If I reinstall Xp without a reformat...just to make sure my data/files will still be there after installtion? Also would it make XP a bit un-stable?

Btw I also had a system restore point made just before all this happened and have Norton System Work installed on Xp though not on 98Se. Would any info above help at all?


Thanks
Jase1 (459)
245718 2004-06-19 23:49:00 Hi guys, I managed to install XP on 98 and that got me back my old XP . Not everything seem to be a mess so I decided to reformat the whole comp . I did that and now my drives (HDD & CD drives) letters are all mix up, they arent like before . I can change the letter though for other partition and CD drives though, what I really want to change is the partition that have XP installed, and it seems like I'm not allow to do that due to b/c it is where Xp is installed .

So is it actually possible to change the drive letter which XP is install on?
If not how do i actually go about it before installing Xp? Another thing is that I have 2 HDD and one of the partition on the 2nd HDD seem to be always shown with the 1stHDD partitions, it wasnt like this when I partitioned the HDDs >_<


Help? ^^
Jase1 (459)
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