I have posted several posts regarding on how to boot win98 and win2k on two different hard drives both in the same pc, both hard drive initially having installed in them win2k. So here is the whole story: Before doing anything, whenever i reboot i had the choice to choose which hard drive i wanted to reboot into, both having win2k. If i choose to go to any of the hard drives, i was still able to access the files in the other hard drive. i physically removed one of the win2k drives and continued to format the other (of 20 gb) using FAT32. Then i installed win 98 in it. After installation was complete i inserted back again the other hard drive. Upon restarting i was directly taken to the win98 drive without choice. Once there i could not acces the win2k drive. I used Boot-us to create a floopy disk that would help me to access any of the two operation systems. upon creating the disk i restarted having the disk inside and a screen asking me which hard drive thus operation system i wanted to select appeared. If i selected win98 it will take me without problems to the win98 hard drive. However if i selected to go to the win2k hard drive an error message would appear saying NTDLR missing... I really neede to access the file in the win2k drive so i proceeded by installing win2k in the hard drive whcih now had win98. The installation asked me if i wanted to upgrade the operation system. I choose yes and the i choose to install a fresh copy of win2k and change the drive format to NTSF. Everything went fine but upon restarting i had two choices, either to go to the hard drive with win2k recently installed in it or to go to a "windows installation" one. If i choose to go to the win2k i have no problems and i am able to access the files from the other hard drive (the one whcih remained unchnaged throughout the whole process). If i choose to go to the "windows installation" one nothing will happen. I think this "windows installation" choice refers to the old win98 installation... Anyways as i said before i could access the hard drive with all my files form the one which had windows 2000 recently reinstalled in it. However i am not able to run some programs in the unchanged hard drive. I guess is because i am using the operation system in the other hard drive in which the programs are not installed... So my questions are these: - Could i be able to install win98 once again (by formatting once again the hard drive and installign win98 in it)and be able to either boot from the hard drive containing win2k or win98 by using boot-us? - How can i access the operation system in the other hard drive(the one which remained unchanged). Can i add it to the choices that appear when i reboot the computer and if so how? Please take in count that i dont want to loose any information on the drive which remained unchanged... Thank you so much for any help!!!!!!!

Quite a long post but you don't state what file system is on the Win2000 disk. If NTFS and you do get Win98 installed and dual booting, you still won't be able to access those files without a third party viewer.

the win2k disk is on NTFS, i use boot us to try to choose between the disks.... i got the message: NTDLR missing

"gustavo"... Your're still hackning your way thru the forest - even though the way out was posted in other threads you started a little while back... (You can achieve the dual-boot without any add-in boot-manger utils, without any "boot-floppy utils".) To recap the path I outlined for you: Presuming that you can boot OK to the W2K (120Gig?) drive when it's set as (Primary) Master (in EIDE-1). Boot to it and copy the boot.ini to a floppy. You can also copy the ntldr and ntdetect.com too - but that's not essential. Lock this floppy and keep it to hand. Now set the 20gig as Primary Master to the 120Gig (then set as Primary Slave). Install '98 to the 20Gig. Then copy the contents of the floppy you made earlier to the c: root of the '98 drive. Open that boot.in (i.e. the copy now on the '98 drive) and edit it (via notepad/wordpad) so as to change the value rdisk(0) to read rdisk(1). Save changes and exit. Then start a fresh W2K installation (standard W2K CD boot or the 4 floppies + CD - not from within '98 itself). Install it to the '98 drive as: c:\temp\winnt-t or c:\temp\windowst. The proffered folder name for W2K may be either winnt or windows... Either way append the -t to winnt or the t to windows - whichever it is. At the first reboot, cancel the W2K installation and remove all disks. Reboot. You should now come up with a standard W2K boot-menu. It will (should) list the cancelled W2K installation - set as default OS to boot; the version on the 120Gig drive; the '98 installation on the Master drive. Boot to the W2K version on the 120Gig drive; set it as default OS to boot. Reboot to verify you can boot by default to that version; also reboot to verify you can boot to '98. Presuming that both OS are OK... then via Explorer in either OS, locate and delete the c:\temp\winnt-t (or c:\temp\windowst) folder from the '98/20gig drive. Also locate/delete any folders/files on the '98/20gig drive that start with the $ symbol. These are left-overs from the cancelled W2K installation on the '98 (20gig/Master) drive. They are no longer needed - delete them. Also edit out the referece(s) to the cancelled W2K installation on the '98 drive in the boot.ini "on the '98 drive". Reboot to both OS in turn to verify you can still do so. Presuming so, then boot to whichever OS you used to delete the c:\temp installation and defrag that drive. Finally boot to W2K (if not already there) and make a fresh/new ERD for W2K. Keep it safe and current (up-to-date). Job done. If you read back into your intial post on this whole walk in the woods you will find the above info - along with a slightly more detailed explanation of what is actually happening at the various steps of the way out of the woods... It will also include a caveat about possible effects on the W2K performance that "may" occur if the '98 drive is noticeably slower than the W2K drive, and the '98/20Gig drive is set as Master to the 120Gig/W2K drive. However as your main concern here is to access data on the 120Gig - whilst also able to run '98 (and games various...?) I think you can live with whatever slight drop in W2K performance there may be. At any time in the future you can reset the 120gig drive to be Primary Master again and boot to it as before. When you do this, there will be no access to '98/20Gig drive (if that's then set as Slave). I think I also posted you a link (in your earlier thread) to an older post where I detailed the how/why of dual-boots (single/dual-drives; either OS already present)? Might be worth another visit read? It may help you unsderstand what's what in the realms of dual/multi-boots...? viz: http://www.computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/21665.html - post #5

Remember too that '98 cannot access (even see) ntfs areas, so it will not be able to access any data in the 120Gig/W2K (ntfs) drive. Howver W2K (on the 120Gig drive) will be able see/access the '98 drive. W2K can access fat16/fat32/ntfs. If you wish to have any shared/common access data areas they must be either fat32, or fat16. If fat16 then they cannot be larger than 2Gig. This limit applies even though W2K can handle fat16 upto 4Gig. - since '98 cannot handle fat16 over 2Gig.

pardon my ignorance but how do you change which ahrd drive is the master and which is the slave? and will that affect the drivers in any way? By the way i understand everything else you are talking about :) no needs to worry. I am off to read all the stuff you have all posted in the several posts :) Nothing i do will erase the data in the hard drive i want to keep win2k rigth? Thanks!

Drives have jumpers at the end of the drive where all the connector are located. These jumpers allow the drive to be set to various "modes": typically - Master (perhaps Master no Slave, or Single Master), Slave, and Master with Slave. Whichever position that jumper is set to determines how that drive will be regarded within the PC. Contrary to at least one of the posters in the links below, it does not matter where each drive is physically located on the ribbon-connector - when using this system of (Master/Slave) jumpers. There is frequently (on all current and most recent drives) another position marked CS or cable-select. This setting does require that the Master and Slave drives be correctly located on the ribbon: i.e. drives status (Master of Slave) "is dependant" on where it is on the drive. Rather than sending you off down that particular track in the forest (and probably confusing you futher as result)... stay with the jumpers approach as already described. The links below detail more fully installing a drive in various modes. http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/ata_install_tshoot.html http://freepctech.com/pc/001/installing_ide_devices.shtml http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_connect_ide_hd.html http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/43/ A drive set as Master is the drive that will be the bootable drive (providing it has a properly installed/configured OS installed on it). A drive set as a Slave cannot boot the PC on its own - and thus cannot boot up an OS: only the Master drive can boot the PC (or a boot-floppy or bootable CD). But if (as in a dual/multi-boot system) the OS installed on the Slaved drive has the required (boot/start-up) files (for its installed OS) on the Master drive (in the active Primary partition) it can then boot to that OS - via the Master drive configuration. When you set up a dual/multi-boot (without using an add-in boot-util) this is what you are actually doing. You're establishing/installing the required boot/start-up files for all installed M$ OS in one location - the active Primary partition on the Master drive. The actual system files (the OS itself) for each installed OS can be elsewhere - and frequently/usually are... If a bootable drive normally that has normally been set as Master is set to the laved position, and then provision is made to boot it via the new Master drive's configuration, that Slaved drive can always be restored to its Master state and boot as before. Changing a given Master drive's status (i.e. seting it to Slave) does not (should not) affect its ability to boot (if could do so before the changes were made). Nor should any data etc. be affected - unless one is really careless - or just plain unlucky! Each time you move/reset jumpers - check fully you have the jumpers for each drive involved in the correct place. Otherwise one drive (or or both drives) may not be found/detected by the bios and thus the system may not boot... "Mosaddique" gave you a very detailed how to set up a dual-boot arrangement where one OS (W2K in this case) is already present. Albeit yours is ntfs format and that does muddy the waters slightly but you have a second drive so there are viable ways to do achieve it - and mosaddique's routine covered it?. It isn't one I generally follow (and I indicated more less why in one of my responses in your initial thread in this whole saga)- but it does work. Have a good read: take your time: understand what you're doing and why/how it works. If in doubt... stop and check carefully before proceeding. Do NOT install anything to the 120Gig drive until you are fully able to boot to it via a properly configured dual-boot arrangement (be that along the lines I've described, or via an add-in boot-manager util).