using puppy to repair 98se?

[Guest]

my install of 98se got screwed up when i was intsalling 2k onto another drive.. and since then i didn't fix it and 2k screwed up too..

basically i want to do a 'sys c:' which i think would repair it.. but i don't have a 98se bootdisk handy.. so is there any way i can fix it from linux (puppy).. or create a 98se bootdisk (ie stuff on bootdisk.com is exe's which won't run.. can i use wine? (install it to work with the OS running off CD, and wine files on hdd).
or, is there any way i can create a dos-bootable floppy from linux/puppy?

sorry if this is a bit against your ideals.. but i don't think i'm quite ready to abandon M$ just yet.

[MU]

You might try to create the boot-floppies with dosbox:

http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.p ... ght=dosbox

But first you will have to set up dosbox to use your floppy-drive.
I have no floppy, but according to http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/inde ... ms%2FMount , you will need this command:

mount A "/mnt/floppy" -t floppy

Then run the exe from bootdisk.com in Dosbox.

Mark

[Guest]

the exe's from bootdisk.com are windows EXEs and don't work in dosbox.. however, would sys.com work (if i could find it*) with dosbox?
.. as any directory can be made the 'c:' or 'd:' etc, so would it be able to access the boot sector ok?


*if anyone knows when i can get sys.com (98se compatible) then that would be helpful as its a bit of a PITA trying to get it.

[Flash]

You don't say how the two Windows are "screwed up" but could the problem be solved by installing and configuring GRUB as the bootloader?

[Pizzasgood]

*innocent-whistling-while-twiddleing-thumbs*

[Guest]

Flash; i had w98 on drive 1 (cf card) then i formatted drive2 (hdd) and put w2k install files on it.. and installed w2k with the cf card still in and i think it took over th eboot sector and now when it boots its looking for NTLDR or something, pretty sure sys c: type thing would fix it, and u may be right that GRUB could.. but whilst looking it up it says "A Windows/DOS boot disk with CDROM support and a CD with the Windows 9x install on it, or a bootable Windows 9x install CD." under 'requirements'. all i have around is the w98 install files on HDD..
as for how w2k went wrong.. not sure, i think it may be a hard disk problem.. intended to look into it when i have 98 running, as i imagine it will be easier to fix.

Pizzasgood .. thanks v much!

unfortunately, sys d: / sys xyz: doesn't work (as-is) in dosbox... "no system on defualt drive"

thanks for all the great support here by the way guys .. an absolute world away from trying to get help in the knoppix forum /most linux forums!

thinking perhaps the only way is to install wine and hope that it works with the bootdisk.com exe's?
if there is a better way (or if GRUB is workable without bootdisk) then please say..

[Guest]

i finally got wine installed.. but (when running boot disk creation program) i got
"Error

The Current image format is not supported by the disk drive"

i also tried to have a look at grub but all my partitions are fat so it wouldn't play.

so i'm still looking for a solution(?!?)

[GuestToo]

you can get Freedos floppy images here

Normal Bootdisk
This is a standard boot disk, with tools such as FDISK, FORMAT, SYS, etc. It is meant as a basic disk for normal DOS use.
direct download

or

Partition Resizer
contains the basic FreeDOS tools (attrib, fdisk, format, deltree) but also contains Partition Resizer
direct download

unzip the file ... in Puppy, you can unzip it by typing something like
unzip FDSTD.144.imz

you can make a boot floppy from the floppy image file by typing something like
dd if=FDSTD.144 of=/dev/fd0

or you can unzip the file using Windows and make a boot floppy using rawwrite

reboot to boot the floppy

to repair the mbr, type
fdisk /mbr

your computer should boot Win98 now
Win 2000 should not boot

[Guest]

uh, one step forward, two steps back..
got the floppy written (thanks GuestToo) .. but freedos does not see my CF card (fat16).. the bios can see it, as can puppy, but freedos can't.. but it can see my fat32 hdd..

[willhunt]

just change the boot order on your bios options I think that would be the simplest then there's always grub
and terrebyte makes a great prg for this
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html
another great placce for boot problems is
http://www.bootdisk.com
and also there's
http://www.startdisk.com/
also you might really like
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
just a warning though all low level disk operations are risky for old hands
as well as new I would suggest you back up your boot secters first by using the dd command explained earlier you can also use it to restore bootsectors

[othomas]

the first step is get "C" drive working again.

FDISK /MBR
This restores the boot records to the C drive. What I think happened was your 2K install replaced the 98 MBR with it's own, so when you try to boot it can't find the operating system.

Not sure from here but now install GRUB as your bootloader. Does it see both the win98 and 2K systems? Linux? If so, then problem solved..

Also remember when writing to NTFS Linux only supplys partial support, this is due to M$ secrecy not Linux shortcomings.

cheers

[othomas]

Forgot to say "BOOT from your 98 install cd with cd support, and use FDISK off it."

cheers

[LazyLabrador]

Go to:
http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

A dos program : Boot part lets you fix things up (and add linux partitions)