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Hello, I had posted this afew minutes ago, although I typed something incorrectly so I am posting it again to avoid confusion.
I installed a program called MagicBoot 7 on my XP partition on my C: drive, I restarted my computer and then installed Win 98SE on my D: Drive, both drives are partitioned and seperate hardware.
After install of windows 98SE I could not boot into my XP drive so I installed MagicBoot 7 onto my Windows 98 drive. When I rebooted I was given a screen to choose which OS to login to, although either one I chose brought me to a dos screen showing me errors, both boot up selections lead to these errors only regarding Windows 98, I do not see any errors regarding my XP drive.
I used a program called Dr. Dos or Caldera or something like that on a floppy, this was the disk BootMagic had created for me when installing the program BootMagic 7 on XP.
I managed to reinstall 98 onto the secondary partition on my first harddrive. The first partition of the second harddrive is missing, it cannot be seen as it is hidden by MagicBoot 7(this hidden partition is where 98 was originally installed).
Would reinstalling MagicBoot onto this fresh copy of Win 98SE help? By using the settings in one of the programs on the floppy I was able to change the setting of the partition but there was no way to exit the program even though there was a save option, so I had to restart and therefore it didn't unhide the drive, when I boot up from my XP CD I can see it calls the partition 'Inactive OS/2' or something close to that.
I have data on the hidden partition that I would not like to lose and as for my XP drive I won't format and reinstall XP because it too has large amounts of important data.
The drive with XP has 40Gigabytes and the drive with 98se has 20Gigabytes.
I would like to be able to recover my hidden drive without dataloss and get my XP drive to boot again, and I would like it done the simpelist, less time consuming way it can be done.
Your help is very much appreciated!
Thank you.
John
can u get to a c prompt ?
if so type and run fdisk and choose option 4 (check your partition info)this will tell you if that partition is still there(not damaged)and if it is active(must be to boot from).
post back the f disk results
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Yes I can, below is the FDISK info:
-----
Drive 1 [WIN XP]
Partition Type
C: 1 PRI DOS FAT32
2 EXT DOS
Logical Dos Drive Info
D: FAT32
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Drive 2
Partition Type
1 NON DOS
2 EXT DOS
-----
Thats all I found, the other tabs were blank.John
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Ok if I have this right you first lost all ability to boot the computer
then you reinstalled win 98 and were then able to boot but now you cannot boot to the XP drive (or even see it with win 98)if that is correct your problem lies in the fact that you can only have 1 active partition set and when you reinstalled win 98 you made that partition active now you must make the XP partition active instead of the 98 partition (which XP will allow to share it's active status).
does this sound like your proboblem ?
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After another reading of your original post I feel that Magic boot 7 has re written your Master Boot Record (MBR) and that if you can get your system to boot to the XP CD then repair then run the fixmbr command from there ... make sure you repair the right partition ...
Don't know if option 2 will help in f-disk or not I never had to try to make a different partition active after the fact .but give me 2 hour's and i could dig up an old empty harddrive partition it pu XP and 98 on different partition's include some data then mess with fdisk's option 2 and let you know what happen's but that would need more time than my kid's would permit me on a sunday afternoon ...
The thing I think I would try if fdisk/mbr does not work is to install XP over the 98 installation then access your data from there get what you need and then reinstall and start fresh the way you want it
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It is close, but the problem is a little different. You see, my Windows XP drive is active, so why its not booting I do not know, but my original Windows 98se drive is hidden or something, that rescue disk must have messed it up.
I will go back a little further.
I installed Windows XP on drive 1. I then installed Windows 98se on drive 2, both installs were on Partition 1 of each drive. Each drive is seperate hardware.
XP would not boot up at all, so I reinstalled it from the CD, it was working but I found many problems with the OS and programs I had installed beforehand, although I was able boot up Windows 98 on drive 2.
I decided to format and install WinXP, all went fine except now my 98se wasn't in the boot list, now there no longer was a boot list. I installed BootMagic 7 in XP.
Once again after data shifting amongst the partitions, I formatted Drive 2 Partition 1 and reinstalled Windows 98 SE. Great now my XP wouldn't boot. I installed BootMagic 7 in 98. Now I was brought to a boot up list screen and it didn't matter which OS I seleted from the list, I was taken to C: promt after many errors, for example, 'missing command.com'.
I used the MagicBoot 7 rescue disk created in Windows XP. In the PTEDIT.exe program I edited Drive 2's properites of 'Hidden FAT32' to 'FAT32' I saved it, but there was no way of closing the program so I had to reboot, I also booted directly from the disk which told me to reboot and nothing happened? Anyhow, after this I could not find my Drive 2 partition 1 in Dos. although Drive 2 partition 2 was present.
I installed 98se on my logical drive D: on Drive 1 Partition 2, so that I could try and maybe back up data or do some data shifting again to save it. The drive that is missing used to be drive d:, it is no longer present at all, I do not know how to veiw it's contents or recover data.
As far as I know, I think that the Windows 98se install overwrote the boot up files like autoexec.bat or config.sys, that may be why XP won't boot, although as concerning 98 on Drive 2 Partition 1, I am lost.
FDISK shows XP as the active partition, Windows 98 [what I'm using right now] is installed on the second partition of the XP drive 1.
So it is my old 98 partition 1 of drive 2 that is hidden, and as to why XP won't boot, like I said above.
John
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Humm.. Don't want to take up too much of your time, let me try the fixmbr command from the XP CD first. Just a question, since it was a 98 partition, will XP's fixmbr command still repair the MBR? I am guessing it will.
John
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I'm really confused. If you formatted these partitions and installed both OSes just recently, where do you think the data you are trying to save is stored. Just a point for you. If you have two physical HDs each with two partitions the drive letter assignment goes as follows. Drive #1 Primary partition = C:, Drive #2 Primary partition = D:, Drive #1 Extended partition/logical drive = E:, Drive #2 Extended partition/ logical drive = F:.
Drive #2 doesn't have to have a primary partitiion. This drive could be partitioned as an Extended partition, in which case Drive #1 would be C:, D:, Drive #2 E:, F:.
The reason I state all this is because it appears that you may have gotten your partitions confused during all this.
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WOW, you've really got this mucked up!!! One of the problems is that Win98 won't boot from a logical drive in an extended Partition. It needs to be in a Primary DOS Partition. WinXP will boot from either.
If you are only going to have one installation of Win9x, then you don't need BootMagic at all. You can just use the built-in WinXP bootloader. (Much simpler.)
Here's the easiest way to correct the problems...
1) Keep your original copy of Win98 (the one with the data that you don't want to lose.
2) Format the other Win98 partition & don't install anything into it.
3) Reinstall Win98 on top of itself.
4) Reboot with the WinXP CD & choose the option to "repair your existing installation." (If I remember correctly, you will exit out of setup at the first reboot. Just follow the prompts.)
5) At bootup, you should now have a boot menu, enabling you to choose between Win98 & WinXP. The default OS will be WinXP, but that can be changed, if you so desire.
HTH
Dave
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Ok, first of all, regardless of how clear or not I was, both of you misunderstand and the solutions you have provided are not going to work for me.
I had said that I had formatted the partition, not the whole drive, therefore the data is on the other partition. I have 40 gigs of data split up on a 40 and a 20 gig hard drive. I don't need to hear about how I should have backed up a long time ago either, I know this, its just I have been busy.
Anyhow, Windows XPs boot screen did not come up and is not functioning, this is why I installed BootMagic. Regardless, I have done this whole format install procedure for a very long time, it is just that for some reason I am having a severe problem caused by BootMagic, which is why my F: drive is now my E: drive and my E: drive really is hidden. You may want to reread what I wrote before you post again, my problem is very simple, I need to back up the data on the missing partition, it shows it as a non dos, yet before BootMagic it was a dos partition.
Please consider the heading of my post: Need ADVANCED help.
Sorry to be rude, I am just very aggravated by the ignorance of your posts thats all. :|
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And it's interesting that you say this: "One of the problems is that Win98 won't boot from a logical drive in an extended Partition." because the windows 98 of which I am typing to you now is on a logical drive in an extended partition and it boots up fine.
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I do apologize, as Dave as alot of what you say in your post may be helpful, but it is only part of my problem's solution that I already know, what I really need is to get back my drive letter on Drive 2[physical drive 2] primary partition and have it as a dos partition without losing the data on it.
As for OtheHill, I just think you got it mixed up because I went into too much detail, anyhow thank you both for trying, thats all that matters I guess.
John
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Hi John/finalrhyme , mmmmmmm, OtheHill, Dave357, hi everyone
"Please consider the heading of my post: Need ADVANCED help."
"Sorry to be rude, I am just very aggravated by the ignorance of your posts thats all."
The people here are trying to help you at the best of their abilities, in their own free time, with the information you provide.
And therefor insulting or being rude towards them I find it not acceptable!I'm glad to see that before posting what I intended to, you have made your apologizes towards those who have been offering their assistance to yourself.
Therefor I've altered my reply prior to making the actual post. I was p..... off! I am cool now. :-)At the best of my abilities, I suggest to try something like Partition Magic or Ranish Partition Manager (part240.zip) provided by Dan Penny to unhide your real E: partition.
(http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic)
(http://www.cyberus.ca/~danpenny)Yes, OtheHill, they are one and same as far as I can tell.
The Count
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Sorry I had some personal business to take care of and had to leave you ...
fdisk option 2 or 5 may give you the option you are looking for . "Partition Magic" will allow you to change your drive letters don't know much about "Ranish Partition Manager" but if The Count approves of it it must be good
I still feel your best option is to beg - borrow - steal - a drive and put the operating system you want to work with first on it
1 - then "hook it up" and transfer the needed files over to it
2 - then wipe that drive which will allow you to start off with a fresh drive
3 - install the other drive's O/S to it
4 - transfer the needed files over to that drive and wipe it.
5 - You should now have your 3rd drive empty and all your data on the other 2 drives (along with clean O/S
6 - do it one more time with the begged drive (match O/S then transfer files then wipe)
7 - Now you have the begged drive wiped and ready to return to it's owner your data saved and some program's and drivers to install (a pain I know but nothing a good movie or I should say a dozen good movies and a pot of coffee and a free weekend couldn't cure)not the pretiest answer but will save your data ,and if you end up buying a 60 gig Hard drive you can partition it into your present 4 partition size's and let the XP boot loader do the work for you then you can either use your 20 & 40 gig drives for another system, sell it, use it for backup, use it as a paper weight or what ever you need ... you could even partition one in half and try that MagicBoot 7 thing again without worring about comprimising your data when you get it right you can then apply what you learned to your other system and post back the solution you reached along with what you found to be wrong in the first place
But anyway whatever you end up doing look at fdisk option 2 and 5 and see if they work for you
Good Luck ...Time for bed
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Sorry to all of you who are wondering what option 5 is it is only avaiable to those of us that have more than 1 drive in our system's and will allow the user to assign which drive will be called what (c,d,e,f,...)
And if I belive I read right John/Finalrhyme has 2 drives in his system (40 & 20) with a different O/S on each ,and was hoping to better manage his drives without using the bootloader .
Probobly because XP doesn't know about the other drive actually being physical and not just a partition (therefore he can have 2 active partition's ... just not at the same time).
XP was therefore never informed of the O/S contained within the other drive and he probobly access the O/S thru his BIOS by selecting which drive he will boot to by IDE 1 or IDE 0 ...The way I do ,when upgrading to XP Pro almost 2 year's ago I didn't want to run the risk of losing everything and therefore an 80 dollar hard drive installed with my new O/S on it and a BIOS that allowed me to switch simply by rebooting and changing the option was simple and just as quick with no risk of data loss .
Just surmising about your system John/Finalrhyme and if I got it wrong CORRECT ME the last thing I want to do is make this post more confusing for anyone else who happen's by to help you !
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Hi
I won't even pretend to be an expert here, but I have used a custom XP/2000 boot disk to access and rescue W98 / W2k dual boots, as well as linux / windows dual boots.I saw this on a site a while back but can't remember where and would give credit if I could.
Use PM to make your XP partition active if not already.
Get access to an XP unit and unhide all files and system files.
Copy to a freshly formatted floppy the following files:
arcldr.exe
arcsetup.exe
boot.ini
ntdetect.com
config.sys (may not be needed)
io.sys (may not be needed)
msdos.sys (may not be needed)
ntldrNow edit the Boot.ini file in Notepad.
Add lines for additional hard drives / partitions. This will give you the option when you boot from the floppy to choose which HD / partition to boot from.
My custom Boot.ini ( windows 2000) looks like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="2000, hd1, partition 2" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="2000, hd1, partition 3" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT="2000, hd1, partition 4" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="2000, hd2, partition 1" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="2000, hd2, partition 2" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINNT="2000, hd2, partition 3" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINNT="2000, hd2, partition 4" /sos(Obviously XP default install is to "Windows" not "WINNT" )
No guarentees that this will work, but it is cheap and in any case, is a very handy boot disk to have available.
Good luck
joey
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I do know now that the Master Boot Record of my 2nd physical drive is bad, however I do not know how I may access my data to back it up, it seems that I can only choose to delete the drive from FDISK and then set it up again, although loss of data!
Is it possible to back up data from a drive that is hidden with a bad MBR? or seen as an OS/2 drive, would I need some other kind of boot disk to access the files? How would I go about this? If I repair the MBR won't I lose all my data?
These are the answers I think I need to go any further with what I plan to do.
Thanks for all of your help.
John
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Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not the one with the screwed up computer now, am I? My computer (which multi-boots 6 different OS's) is working just fine.
I'd be willing to bet that you're not going to like this.
It sounds like, on one of your multiple re-installs, you installed XP onto Drive 2, Partition 1, overwriting Win98 & changing the partition to NTFS, rather than FAT32. That would not only explain the Non-DOS partition...it would also explain why you didn't get a boot menu after installing XP. There was no other Operating System left.
Dave
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Hi john
No you won't lose your data by just repairing the MBR (ie using boot floppy(s))
You can access your partitions using a live CD like Knoppix (Linux)
Download the ISO image from:
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/knoppix/
and burn to CD.Instructions using Nero, (Again author unknown)
Nero Burning ROM
Version 5.x /6.x
Launch Nero.
Choose File, Burn Image and you'll be presented with a dialog box.
Click on the Files of type: dropdown box and select All Files (*.*).
Select the .ISO file you downloaded then press Open.
Next, Nero will show another dialog box of CD burning options. Accept the defaults:
Type of Image: Data Mode 1
Block size (Bytes): 2048
Image header (Bytes): 0
Image trailer (Bytes): 0)
Choose OK.
The Write CD dialog box should appear next.
Make sure Write, Finalize CD, and Disc-At-Once are checked, then choose Write.Tips:
You must use the “Finalize CD” and “Disc-At-Once” option in Nero, or you will get the error: "FATAL ERROR: Installation of side by side assemblies failed" during setup.
You must specify *.* for the file type to see the .ISO file.
Simply boot up with the CD, Knoppix will load from the CD. Your hard drives will be visible in Knoppix. On the desktop,right click on "hdaX" (replace X with your hard drive #), uncheck Read Only. Copy your files to another location.Good luck
joey
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Dave, I am sorry, but I know for sure that that wasn't the case. I do hope you accepted my apology, my anger wasn't really intended for the board or its users, my mother was pushing buttons before I read your post, I was also tired, not that these excuses excuse me, just letting you know the cause of origin.
Joey, thanks for the info, that should do, after I solve my problem I will post back to confirm.
Once again thank you all for you time and help.
John
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Knoppix shows the hard drive partitions differently than windows. For example, the first partition on the first hard drive would be "hda1", the 2nd partion on HD # 1 would be "hda2"
The first partition on a second hard drive would be "hdb1" and so on....
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