Ok I'm working on a friends computer...it has a 2000pro install on it. I used partition manager to shrink the NTFS down to a size I could add w98se to in a FAT32 partition. This is all on one hard drive. Win98se will boot upon start-up. If I use a w2k boot floppy, I can get back to the w2k install and it is fully intact. How do I get w2k to ask for a dual-boot? How do I get into w2k without the boot floppy? I read somewhere on the internet that if I used the w2k boot floppy to boot up the system then did something to erase the master boot record it would replace it with the one from w2k and ask if I wanted to boot windows or windows 2000...

Mistake is that 98 needs a fat16/32 primary [first] partition to boot from and can't boot from ntfs UNLESS you follow this document. How to make 98 boot with NTFS [I don't know who the author is] 1. Start with a win98 bootdisk, fdisk 2. Create a partition and make it active, restart and format 3. Install Win NT with NTFS 4. After finishing installation of NT: Reboot with Win98 bootdisk, allow large disks 5. Create a partition and make it active 6. Restart, format, install Win 98 7. After installation do as follows: Start-Run-debug a commandprompt opens, type in exactly this: -L 100 2 0 1 -n bootsect.f32 -rcx -200 -w -q 8. This make a file on your desktop named bootsect.f32. Copy this file to a floppy. 9. Reboot with win98 bootdisk 10. With fdisk, change active partition to NTFS 11. Start Win NT, copy the file bootsect.f.32 to C:\ 12. Edit boot.ini with this at the end: C:\bootsect.f32="Windows 98" 12. Restart and now you have dual boot with fat32 and NTFS.

I have 98se running from a FAT32 partition. 98 boots just fine from the FAT32. The w2k boots (with a floppy) into it's NTFS. w2k was already installed, and I don't have a recovery disk for it. W2k and 98se are both existant on the system in their own seperate partitions, so would the above document apply?

You may glean some useful pointers from this M$ article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;293089

I created this to help people like you, It doesn't have the exact same scenario as you but will still work. Hope that helps. Repairing Windows 2000/XP Bootloader after a reinstalling Windows9X/ME If you have reinstalled Windows9X/ME and lost the bootloader do the following. Boot into Windows9X/ME and turn of your Virus Scan, and other programs running in the background. Place the Windows 2000/XP CD in the CD-ROM and run setup but make sure you chose NEW Install and NOT upgrade. Then let the installation process run until you have the Option for what Partition you want to install 2000/XP on, at this window cancel the setup and take out the 2000/XP CD and reboot the computer and boot into Windows9X/ME. The setup will have created the following files and folders on C:\ drive $win_nt$.~bt Delete this folder $win_nt$.~ls Delete this folder $drvltr$.~_~ Delete this file $ldr$ Delete this file txtsetup.sif Delete this file Bootsect.dos Leave this file alone Ntdetect.com Leave this file alone Ntldr Leave this file alone Boot.ini Edit and save this file as follows. [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS XP HOME [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect C:\ = "Microsoft Windows 98" Please note The partition(2) = D:\ drive partition where you have 2000/XP installed, it will be different if you have it on a different partition or on a second hard drive. Next time you need to reinstall Windows9X/ME , before you do it save the following file to disc: Bootsect.dos, ntdetect.com, ntldr, and the Boot.ini files. Format the partition and just before you run the installation of Windows 9X/ME copy the files back to C:\ drive and you will not have to go through this lengthy process described above.

pimpinaman A procedure which is a tenth of the time is to simply boot the W2K cdrom and go into recover console. Run the utilities fixmbr and fixboot. This restores the W2K mbr boot record that 98 overwrote and refreshes the boot loader files [ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini]. You may need to edit the boot.ini and add the line [C:\="Windows 98"] but I have had it added in some of my testing. XP has the utility bootcfg which will fix this also by going and enumerating all your OS's and setting them up in a multiboot. FYI

Hey JPW that part "Next time you need to reinstall Windows9X/ME , before you do it save the following file to disc: Bootsect.dos, ntdetect.com, ntldr, and the Boot.ini files. Format the partition and just before you run the installation of Windows 9X/ME copy the files back to C:\ drive and you will not have to go through this lengthy process described above." IS NOT CORRECT. You follow this procedure if you install W2K AFTER you installed XP. Since the XP versions of the forementioned files are newer the older w2K versions can't boot XP. Since both these OS's use the same mbr entries just copying off the xp version of these files is all you have to do. This IS NOT THE CASE WITH 98 which overwrites the w2k/xp mbr with its own. You would have to run recovery console and the utility fixmbr before these files are called during boot. FYI