BIG WIN2000/WIN98 dual screwup - Please Help....

[dancray]

It seems almost so stupid I am embarassed, but I really need you guys help on this one.

I was attempting to uninstall win2000 from my system (I recently put it in a dual boot with my Win98) and I was following all the instructions posted on some Windows sites...but the result is now a NIGHTMARE. I am on my roomies computer because I cannot get mine to load win98.

Win2000 was installed on my D drive while Win98 is on my primary C drive...but now when I load up my computer (using the Win98 startup disk)...the process stops at the c: prompt. When I look in the "c" drive, it actually has all the contents of my old D drive which I uninstalled win2000 from. When I look under D in the dos prompt I see all my windows 98 files...by uninstalling Win2000 I somehow reversed my drives...and I have an highpoint 66 driver which is now telling me that my primary drive is D....AARGH.

I attempted to do the type "SYS C:" in the newly created D drive...but all I get is the system transferred message but no meaningful change occurred in my bootup....the old D drive is still reading as my primary...it is confusing because I do not really understand what the "sys C does sos I am not even sure that I did it correctly....maybe I should have typed "sys C:" in the C; drive...

I should also tell you that out of the stupidity....I deleted several files in the D root drive (the drive which housed win2000 before I deleted it) that were called (I believe) autoexc.bat...**.ini...etc...I think they may have been important and there deletion is also contributing to the failure of the "sys c:" not working.

So there you have it...my computer thinks my recently deleted win2000 from the old d drive is the primary partition and refuses to let me load win98 from what used to be my c drive.


I really hope someone can help me...perhaps upload some necessary files to dancray@hotmail.com (if they are not too big) or better yet come up with a solution to convince my computer to unreverse my drives (should i try reinstally win2000 somehow?). I also attempted to reset the boot up sequence in the Abit BE6 setup to choose hdd-1 but it did not work as the d letter is still assigned to drive which contains the win98 files...and I have no idea where or how to tweak my master boot record (I probably deleted that

It is now Sat night here on the west coast and I will check tomorrow to see if anyone has any suggestions (apart from slapping my with a large trout)...thanks in advance....

dumb dumb dan


system specs

abit be 6 with HPT66
maxtor 13gig udma66
seagate 9 gig
matrox g400 dh max
p3-500

[Rick]

What if you physically pull your D drive out. If you leave just the 98 drive in it should be identified as C:. Then you could sys it and hopfully get back to running order. If the MBR is messed up you can also try the fdisk /mbr command from the DOS prompt.

[Jorden]

When you start up your PC, are both drives shown on the UDMA 66 controller screen, or is at least one shown in the actual POST (the start up screen where you can go to the BIOS) as well?

The drive shown in the POST should be your primary drive. And as far as I know, Windows98 doesn't know about the highpoint 66 (card?) until it's well into the OS and the driver has been loaded. Win2k might not have this problem and might see it right at the start, giving you the option to boot from the highpoint card.

Unplugging the Win2k drive would then be the solution

Sys C: transfers the system files for Win98 to the main C:\ directory. These files are usually the command.com, msdos.sys, io.sys, setuplog.txt and a couple of other (hidden) files.

What you could check for is a file called NTDETECT.COM which checks which OS's are present on various drives. Deleting this file could help as well. It would then force Win98 to load.

If nothing helps and you're brave enough, the last item you could try is just a format c: /s (the /s is again for copying the system files to the drive)
For now, good luck

Jord.

[dancray]

unfortunately highpoint only shows one drive, and it says "primary D:", no mention of C drive or my other drive. But as I only have one drive which is ata66...it is thinking that my maxtor drive ata66 is the primary...which is good...but since it thinks it is a "d" drive that is bad as win98 will not load up unless it sees the "c" letter infront of the drive it should load from.

I am thinking of reinstalling win2000 in dos on what is the now new C drive...and hopefully I will be able to revive the dual boot loader again...will that work?

thanks

[dancray]

it gets weirder.

I reinstalled win2000 thru ms-dos...but my original drive win my win 98 files on is still shown as "D" when I am in dos, and when I am actually in win2000 I get

c: seagate drive (the old "d" drive)
d: CD rom
e: CD burner
f: maxtor udma66 drive (the old "c" drive which had win98 in it)

So now I cannot get win98 to load at all and 90% of my programs are in there but won't run because it wants to be in the "c" drive.

I know I am supposed to "When removing Windows 2000 and it’s NT boot loader we have to replace Windows 2000 boot sector with Windows 95/98 boot sector. To do this, users have to use sys (sys c command from Windows 95/98. This will overwrite Windows 2000 boot sector, and will make the system to boot directly to Windows 95/98. "

But I cannot get boot into win98, only in dow using the win98 startup disk...

[dancray]

success...sort of...

I disconnected manually (geeze what a dusty mess in my box) and booted win98...then I did the sys c: thing so it does work properly now....however I had to connect my seagate ata 33 directly into my second ata66 port because my abit bios was not recognizing any hardrives in the startup...

I think I am not going to fiddle with OS for a while.

thanks again.

[cbman]

Dude.... just make sure to put the "Segate" (Original Drive D that got changed to C and ended up being Pseudo C Via screwed up 2K bootloader ala dos screwed disk)

as being a slave.

More than likely you ended up making it a master at one point and when you took out the seagate you had to make the other drive a Master so it would boot and then you tried to put 2 masters on the same channel and then your bios does many funny things.

Been there... done that... have the T-Shirt