Computer Question

[Peter Stahl]

I have 2 hard drives. One has Windows 2000 Pro on it the other Windows 98. Is there a way I can boot up with a choice between the 2? I tried hooking them up with the jumpers using the 98 as the primary and I could access the one with 2000. Removed the jumpers and no matter witch one is in either position (Middle or End connector) it boots up on Win 2000 but I can access the other drive.

I would also like to reformat the drive with Win 2000 as I didn't partition it when I first set it up and thought I'd just start over as I haven't put much on it yet. Is there a easy way, like using a DOS command. Been a long time since I used DOS! How do I boot up in DOS mode. I'd unplug the other drive so I didn't accidently erase it.

thanks, Pete

[Ken Garlock]

Hi. With W2K you can not boot up in DOS mode because Windows NT and W2k are not graphic add-ons to DOS as are all Windows 98, except ME.
You can however make a quick and dirty DOS system on a floppy by formating the floppy with the /sys option while running under Windows 98. That will get you to a very basic DOS system. Then you can boot the floppy and access your Win 98 files. You will not be able to access your W2K files since they will be in Fat32 or NTFS format. (NTFS is the corrct choice for W2K systems.)

The best solution for a non MS technican is to get a boot manager like System Commander. I recomend it and I have been using it for 6 or 7 years. System commander will allow you to boot each and every OS that I finds during installion of SC. Plus, if you add an additional OS, SC will detect it and add it to the list of boot options.

Running W2K removes the need to have the OS on the C: drive, the W2K loader uses a file called "boot.ini" to find where W2K is located. It could be on drive E or F, W2K doesn't care. Boot.ini resides on the hardware boot device along with the excutable "ntldr". Also, the boot.ini can be used to define a bootable Win98 on another drive and partition. Take a look at it....

The best solution all around is throw away the Win 98 system.

[Peter Stahl]

thanks Ken. Any idea how I can format my drive so I can partition it. I tried to reload 2000 but I couldn't change the partions that are there now.

thanks, Pete

[Rich Konopka]

thanks Ken. Any idea how I can format my drive so I can partition it. I tried to reload 2000 but I couldn't change the partions that are there now.

thanks, Pete

Pete:

If you boot off of the W2k install CD it will detect exisiting installs. It also will give you the option to reformat/delete the disk partitions. You will lose all of the data if you delete the partition.

If you are looking at a product take a look at Partition Magic. It will allow for you to run both OS systems and move/copy partitions.

HTH

[Rick Knecht]

First configure your PC to boot to the Win98 partition. Go into Disk Manager and change the drive letter for your primary partition to D: (not the standard C:. Now go into the system registry (regedit) and change all of the references from C: to D: for all of the program and ststem files (THIS WILL TAKE SOME DOING!). Reboot the system with the new configuration to verify it will boot.
Now Configure your system to boot to Win2k. i.e. make the Win2k disk your C: drive and your Win98 as the D: drive. Look at the Boot.ini file on the C: Drive. You need to add another line to it to give you the choice of booting to the other partition. It will be drive 1 partition 0, and the directory you have 98 installed into. When you reboot it should now give you a choice of which system to boot to.
THE ABOVE IS NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART. It may be simpler to just configure your system to boot to 98 and have the other drive as D: and then reinstall the 2K OS on the second drive.

Good Luck (You'll probably need it if going the first way)
Rick

[Ed Falis]

If you are looking at a product take a look at Partition Magic. It will allow for you to run both OS systems and move/copy partitions.

HTH

I'll second PartitionMagic if you're planning on multi-booting.

- Ed

[Peter Stahl]

Rich, Rick, Ed,

Thanks for the replys, guess I'll get me a copy of partition magic.

Pete

[Ed Falis]

Pete,

Let us know how you make out. Don't hesitate to ask more questions when you're doing it.

- Ed