| Author |
Message |
HeirBauer
| | Posted on Friday, May 24, 2002 - 4:49 pm: | |
Okay, here's the deal:
I started with Windows 98 on an 8 gig HD, but needed more space so I bought a 20 gig HD. Installation of the new HD was no problem. Half a year later, I decided to upgrade more of my system, including a new MB and processor, video card, etc. I also thought I'd put in Windows 2000 on my bigger (and faster) HD. Again, no problem. So now, I have a dual boot environment, and my comp asks me what I want to boot up to. Well, I ALWAYS want to boot to 2000, so I want to get rid of Win 98. Also, I want to format the smaller HD anyway to use it as a media drive.
So, here's the problem: I'm not sure how to go about getting rid of Win 98 on my smaller HD without screwing up the boot process. My larger HD is set as the master, but I think I need the other one to boot up. I tried disconnecting the IDE cable from the smaller one and booting up, and it wouldn't boot. This indicates to me that the smaller HD is necessary for some reason. So what do I do? I want to maintain Windows 2000 on the larger HD and be able to run it without the smaller HD. I want to make a new system and use the smaller HD in it. Please help me!
Thanks,
Dave |
E.S.
| | Posted on Friday, May 24, 2002 - 11:27 pm: | |
Look for the hidden files NTDETECT BOOT.INI and NTLDR. Before you move these files over to the larger 2K drive look in win2k control panel and change the boot choice sequence from win98 first to win2k first if you haven't done so already, copy and paste the files to the route of the larger drive. Attempt to boot with just the large drive. If you still have the two choices at boot with just the one drive installed you are in good shape and can edit boot.ini with notepad or word. Let me know if you need more help. |
win
| | Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2002 - 8:41 am: | |
if you are going to keep drive C: as C: and just leave 2000 on the D: drive, you have to leave the boot.ini on C: it has the arc path to get to the operating system on D:. the motherboard is looking to A: (if you have that on first) as the first boot device, then it defaults to C:. some bios's have a setting to change what boots first, but C: is the standard.
you'll also have to delete the arc path for win98 in the boot.ini as well or it'll whine. heh. |
HeirBauer
| | Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2002 - 1:29 pm: | |
Well, the file NTLDR is already on the larger drive, and I can't find one called NTDETECT BOOT.INI. I have one called NTDETECT, and it's already on the larger drive as well. I can't find a file called boot.ini on either drive.
What would happen if I just formatted the smaller drive (the one with win 98) and tried to reboot? When I unplug the drive, it says that it is missing NTLDR or something like that... would I get the same message? If so, would I be able to start windows with boot disks at least, or would I be screwed? |
E.S.
| | Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2002 - 5:21 pm: | |
As win pointed out arc paths are important so if your larger drive is D: for instance you will have to insure that booting from it is possible by changing it to the same IDE cable the smaller drive now resides on as well as removing the smaller drive altogether. You will also have to locate the boot.ini by showing hidden files and folders in the folders options menu. As I stated earlier it will be in the route directory of C:\. |
win
| | Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2002 - 5:31 pm: | |
you installed win 98 before win 2k i hope. if so, boot.ini is in the root directory of C: drive. it may be hidden. i would boot into win 98 and read the C: root. you should see it. if you format the C: drive without saving the ntldr, boot.ini, and ntdetect.com files and changing the boot.ini to reflect that change in drives, win 2k may not boot up, the only choice then is to find a win 2k machine and copy the same files to the win 2k drive, and change the arc path of the boot.ini to reflect the change in boot up sequence.
go to the windows explorer menu and from win 2k, tools menu, then change the properties to show all hidden files. in win 98, go to view, and do it from there. you should then see all files on the drives. |
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