Hi,
I'm trying to create a dual boot for my computer with XP and 98 OS. Unfortunately, Windows XP was loaded first before Windows 98 and trying to avoid installing again XP due to so much applications already installed. Here's my setup:

-Windows XP is in the primary NTFS disk(1)
-Windows 98 is in the second FAT32 disk(2)

Any idea how to create a dual boot without using any 3rd party software and without re-installing XP?

Instructions on how to set the boot.ini would help a lot.

I have checked some messages already about this but can't find the right answer.

br/edgar

The simplest method is to reinstall your Win98, it will detect WinXp and add itself to boot menu.

If you want to do it the hard way, you must get a yourself a copy of your Win98 bootsector (I use to do that Norton DiskEdit - select your hard drive, then bootsector, then write to file - I don't remember the exact menus, but this is the methodology, it pretty strightforward. You must be in MS-DOS to do that, although if you have other boot-sector reading utility, this may change). Just give it the name BOOTSECT.DOS and copy it to boot partition.

Next step after that is to modify your boot.ini (the one in the root of primary booting partition) into looking like that (this one is for my dual-boot between win2k and 98se):

[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 /nodebug /sos
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

In your case, you should replace WINNT with WINDOWS (you could leave the switches on, it doesn't hurt). Some people say you have to add after C:\ the name of Bootsector file (like C:\bootsect.dos). If you have Win98 on a separate partition, I think you have to change drive letter to. You may want to play around a little with this settings, as I didn't have tried it at home...

This was a well-discussed topic on old forum, if it's still up, you may want to check it out at http://207.115.70.83/forum/board.php

Welcome to 3DS Forums

And I would also suggest going to the old forums listed above and checking out there. I know it was discussed in great detail many times. Just use the search feature and you should be able to find something.

Hope to see you stick around here.