I did a search on the internet for more info on dual boot systems, and your site came up. I read several of your threads pertaining to the subject, but still have problems. I had been following another persons advice as to setting this up,but everything we have tried has failed. Here is the situation.......We have Win98 installed on 1 harddrive(C:), we purchased another larger harddrive and installed it in the computer with the hopes of developing a dual boot system. We installed the New harddrive as Master on IDE1, and the old harddrive as slave on IDE!. We installed the windows XP disc, and selected to format the new drive(F:) and install windows XP at that location. Now, when we reboot, it goes directly to Windows XP, and doesnt even give us the option to choose the C: drive where Win 98 is located. The C: drive shows up within XP, and I can view the files there, through "my computer". I have changed the boot.ini in C: to look like this....
boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 98" /fastdetect
with no positive results,,,any ideas? thanks coadman
[SIZE=1]Edited to fix the smilies.[/SIZE]

Is that to say that win98 is now on drive d: ?

Win 98 will boot only from the first partition on the first drive.

Provided that you haven't altered the win 98 disk at all, swap your master slave settings, and reinstall xp. it should be ok.

No, Windows 98 is, and has always been Drive C:, only thing is I switched it from master to slave on IDE1. Windows XP was installed on Drive F:, and is the master on IDE 1...These are two completely separate harddrives. The older harddrive with Windows 98 installed on it is only 40Gb, the new harddrive with Windows XP installed on it, is 120Gb. Sorry, if I was confusing in my post last night, I was getting very tired from trying to get this lined out,,,,,,any more questions or suggestions?
thanks,
James

The drive letter Windows XP shows you doesn't have to correspond with the drive letter Win98 thinks it has or what ID the hard drive has. You have to put Win98 on the first primary partition on the first hard drive. The first hard drive is the master on the primary IDE controller.

James read Nodsu's post closer. He is correct .
Go to this site
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

I have dual booted with windows 98 before and the line for windows 98 in the boot.ini was never like that
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 98" /fastdetect
It was more like C:\windows ="Microsoft Windows 98"
I believe if you are going to let windows setup the boot loader you will have to install oldest to newest, 98 then XP.