multiple boot-98/xp -boot.ini?

[deddard]

A problem with multiple boot system, win 98se & XP.

I've set up a machine with the above configuration. Win 98 installed first, then xp. both on the same physical hdd, separate partitions.Win 98 is on fat32, xp is on ntfs

There is a further hdd on the same controller as a slave. Both hdds are removeable (in caddies)

2nd hdd has one partition fat 32, one ntfs - I want to use this hdd for ghosting the first.

Problem: when booting, a message often comes up that the system couldn't boot because ntoskernl is missing or corrupt.
3 fingered salute once or twice usually cures this, so the kernel isn't actually damaged; but I can't figure out why it is doing this - ghost managed to copy partition 1 (fat32) onto cd, but failed on partition 2 - whether this is due to the main problem may be unrelated.

boot.ini* looks like:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/fastdetect
C:\=WINDOWS

Am I missing something? I don't see a problem with this - I know some multiboots add a few extras to the 98(fat32) part of the file, but shouldn't this one work ok?
Another thing - has MS changed boot.ini to something else under XP? I can access the file by going through control panel>system>advanced>startup etc. but a search for boot.ini from explorer doesn't produce the results.

EDIT.......
It also throws up disk errors occasionally on bootup, - as well as occasional cmos checksum errors - so could it be a bios problem? It's a relatively new mobo, and I changed the cmos battery about a month ago due to possible problems.....am I answering my own questions here?:D

[ski]

Recommend that you start from scratch and do the installation all over again, since you may spend more time trying to solve the problem piece by piece.

[Abbadon]

How old / new are those disks? Is it possible that they are hardware-broken? Did you run some sort of disk diagnostic? (thinking this way because of the disk errors).

Might be worthwhile to check that before launching into a complete reinstall of 2 os's. :)

[deddard]

I've ran chkdsk and norton disk doctor over the disks, but there doesn't appear to be any problems that show up, but I am edging towards a hardware problem here I think - I had a couple more 'couldn't start' problems - ntldr couldn't access, and a couple of other boot sector files.
I'll give fixmbr etc a go, but I don't hold out much hope.
When I tried to clone one of the partitions it said that there were bad blocks - not picked up by anything else though.
My head isn't working at the minute, so if anyone can suggest any good FREE disk utilities that can scan the living daylights out of the hdds, I'd appreciate it.
I've got partitionmagic here - I haven't used it for a while, but I seem to recall that there is a checker in there somewhere, I'll have to dig in and see.

I want to be a plumber.or anything, just not a techie:eek:

[ski]

Run the diagnostics at the HD manufs' sites to check the drives.

[Rick]

Visit the drive makers web site
They have some good drive Util's on them..


Also It looks to me like you have window 98 and xp
But only one listed in the boot ini
shouldn't there be a
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="windows 98

Or something to that effect?
Sorry I am not at home to check my links for the correct ini setup
So I may be making a mistake even bringing it up

[Paul Komski]

Boot.ini looks OK as long as XP is on the second partition of the master IDE.

Boot.ini can be a hidden/system file - so alter these attributes in Explorer if you wish to see it appear in the root of the boot partition (the one marked as active).

The reference to Win98 is the entry C:\=WINDOWS - though this is normally written C:\="Windows 98" and what is inside the inverted commas is customisable. Win98 is located by ntldr referring to msdos.sys (a copy of the original Win98 partition boot sector) instead of the current partition boot sector and getting its references quite differently than for a NT-based OS.

Since boot.ini is effectively correct and since ntoskrnl is obviously undamaged and since the problem is intermittent - everything points to hardware being the most likely problem; either a failing drive or a faulty cable/connection of either of the drives. It should be easy to remove the slave to take that drive out of the equation.

I doubt if re-installation would cure the problems but you could run a repair installation of XP if that takes your fancy. One would expect you to only get the ntoskrnl warnings when attempting to boot to XP.

[deddard]

Thanks for the replies - paul komski - you're right about the quotation marks - I just hadn't copied them correctly"
As for what is wrong - I believe it is the HDD hardware. My last bit of rambling turned out to be ok - I ran partition magic from boot, and it's diagnostics picked up lost and shared clusters, it managed to fix some, but kept getting fatal errors after that. I think this drive is a couple of years old, maybe three. It's the first HDD I've had fail - not bad going since I've had a couple around here since 95!
I've removed the offending HDD, and am going to run some diagnostics on the new one just to check, and then do an install onto that.
Not sure whether I'll dual boot or not - I do have partitionmagic/boot magic here, so that may help, but it could also hinder things with Ghost; anyway, I'm rambling - I've got to go study my CCNA and then get back to beating the machine up:D