The Hindu Business Line : Booting hitch

Now the Win XP boot loader does not load at startup and the computer always boots into Win 98. How do I fix this problem? Please suggest a solution.

Nitin P.

When installing a multi boot system with Windows 98 and Windows XP, you should install Windows 98 first and then Windows XP, otherwise Windows 98 will overwrite the XP boot loader, as it does not recognise it because XP wasn't there when Win 98 was released.

To tackle this, you need to install the XP boot loader again. To do this, please take the following steps:

Start the Win XP installation as you would do normally, and when the installation screen comes up, select the installation directory as `D:' and select the `Leave the current files system intact' option (don't format).

The installation will copy the files needed to install Win XP to a temporary directory `$WIN_NT$. BT'. Once the files are copied, the installer will write the NT boot loader and restart the computer.

At this point select Windows 98 in the boot menu and boot into Windows 98 and not XP, (you need to press the arrow keys continuously to avoid the system from booting into Windows XP installation automatically).

Once Win 98 is started, you should find a file called boot.ini in the "D:\"

It is a hidden system file, so you will have to remove these attributes. To do this, please click and Start -{gt} Run and type in "Command" and press enter.

In the command prompt, change the directory to D: and type in this command "attrib - h - s boot.ini", now edit the Boot.ini in the D: drive in notepad. The existing Boot.ini will look like this:

[Boot Loader]

Timeout=5

Default=C:\$WIN_NT$. BT\BOOTSECT.DAT

[Operating Systems]

C:\$WIN_NT$. BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup"

D:\="Microsoft Windows"

Please change it as follows;

[Boot Loader]

Timeout=15

Default=D:\

[Operating Systems]

D:\="Microsoft Windows 98"