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Windows 98 / ME: How to install Windows 98 after Windows XP

If one of the hard drives you have already installed Windows XP,, and you want to install Windows 98, without breaking the work of Windows XP,, the problem may not be as easy as we would like. But it has a solution.

You will need to save and restore the MBR of the primary section (in other words, drive C), and then add the Windows 9x in the boot.ini file. Below we consider these actions.

Creating a logical drive

Prepare the logical drive to install Windows 9x. It is better to install operating systems on different logical drives. For example, if you have one drive the C, which is under Windows XP, created with the help of Partition Magic logical drive D with the FAT16 or FAT32 file system. On this CD you will install Windows 9x.

Disk C: (the primary DOS partition) must also be formatted with FAT, otherwise Windows 9x will not be able to install it io.sys files, autoexec.bat, necessary for loading. But on all other drives (except the C: and that which you are going to install Windows 9x), you can use NTFS. For example, if Windows XP is installed on D: with the NTFS file system, and the disks C: and E: formatted to FAT32, you can install Windows 98 on the C: or E :.

The first method: the program debug

Boot from a floppy disk, run the installation of Windows 9x and select the prepared logical drive. When the installation is completed, it will only boot Windows 9x. Now you need to restore the Windows XP boot loader.

Under Windows 9x run "Notepad" and paste the following text:

L 100 2 0 3
R BX
0
R CX
600
NC:\BOOTSECT.DOS
W
Q

Be sure to press Enter after the letter Q. Save this file as C: \ boot.dbg, then run MS-DOS Prompt and enter "debug <C: \ boot.dbg". console program will be started, which will copy the boot sector of the C: drive in bootsect.dos file.


debug program

Now boot from the installation CD-ROM Windows XP, wait until the program loads the necessary files to it, and select "System Restore" (Repair Console). You will need to choose the installed system (usually installed only one copy of Windows, so the choice is obvious), and enter the administrator password. In Windows XP Home the default administrator password is not set, so just press Enter. In XP Professional, enter the password that you specified during installation.

At the command prompt, type FIXBOOT. The program will restore the master boot record (MBR), boot record of the C: drive and create a boot menu.

The second way: Norton Disk Editor

Instead, the program debug, you can use a disk editor of the Norton Utilities (file diskedit.exe). Boot from the floppy disk and start the editor. When he starts to scan the disk, stop it by pressing Esc (check disk, we do not need). Then choose Object> Boot Record and Tools> Write Object To> A File. Specify the name of the file C: \ bootsect.dos. The remaining steps (installation of Windows 98, start FIXBOOT) performed similarly to the previous case.


Norton Disk Editor

Similar problems arise when you reinstall Windows 9x, if in addition to it on a computer running Windows 2000 / XP. Windows 9x Setup "overwrites" the MBR, and load Windows XP becomes impossible. In this case, you need only run FIXBOOT (debug program and use Disk Editor is not necessary).