China DOS Union

I want to add 98 to win2000. 2000 is on drive C, and I’m planning to install 98 on drive D. There’s no problem with that. The main thing is that after 98 is installed, I want to restore the 2000/98 dual boot as quickly as possible. Other than copying the 2000 files once, is there any other way? (It takes too long.) Thanks!

Take a look at moderator ko’s posts in this section...

I looked already, but the download link in it won’t connect.

Actually, you don’t need those files (meaning the enhanced tools under DOS). If you have them it’s just a bit more convenient. If you look at the replies under that thread, you’ll find that other people used the same method too (just without using my tools), and doing it completely by hand works as well.

Done!! It really is very simple. I extracted the files into any folder (with those two files inside), first used a 98 boot disk, then sys a: c: , then entered the extracted folder and ran winnt.exe, chose install, and when it said it couldn’t find the file, I pressed f3 to exit, then rebooted, edited boot.ini, removed the extra installation option, and removed the installation directory too, and that was enough.
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KO says: Of course, if you use my batch file, it’ll be even simpler! Hehe...

And for your situation: win2000 is installed on drive C, and you want to install win98 on drive D. I think you can do this.

1。 Install win2000 on drive C.
2。 Boot with a win98 boot disk and execute the sys C: command.
3。 Boot from drive C, and under DOS install win98 to drive D.
4。 After rebooting, run winnt.exe again, choose install, and when it says it can’t find the file, press f3 to exit, then reboot again, edit boot.ini, remove the extra installation option, and remove the installation directory too.

As for boot.ini, you can write it like this:

Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server"
D:\="Microsoft Windows"

I guess this should work.
I haven’t tried it. You can give it a try.

This thing goes in the root directory of drive C.

As for the batch file I wrote, it’s fine if you don’t use it.

copy ntldr c:\>NUL －－－－＞you don’t need this line
copy ntdetect.com c:\>NUL －－－－＞you don’t need this line either, because these two files are already on your C drive
winnt
attrib -h -s -r -a c:\boot.ini>NUL －－－＞this is so you can modify the contents of boot.ini
tdel c:\$win_nt$.~bt/s/y/q －－－＞for this, you can use the deltree command to delete this directory
tdel c:\inf000.swp/y/q －－－－＞for this, you can use the deltree command to delete this file
copy boot.ini c:\>NUL －－－＞for this, you can directly modify the boot.ini on drive C to the contents I wrote
above.
shutdown -r

I just can’t find the two files you mentioned. Also, the batch file you wrote is for modifying boot.ini and deleting the temporary directory under DOS, right?

copy ntldr c:\>NUL －－－－＞you don’t need this line
copy ntdetect.com c:\>NUL －－－－＞you don’t need this line, because these two files are already on your C drive
winnt
attrib -h -s -r -a c:\boot.ini>NUL －－－＞this is so you can modify the contents of boot.ini
tdel c:\$win_nt$.~bt/s/y/q －－－＞for this, you can use the deltree command to delete this directory
tdel c:\inf000.swp/y/q －－－－＞for this, you can use the deltree command to delete this file
copy boot.ini c:\>NUL

What is this NUL? copy boot.ini c:\>NUL copy boot.ini to the NUL directory on drive C? I’m getting dizzy just looking at it, hehe. ：） Please be sure to tell me. I often can’t even find the files I copy myself. Please understand, I’m just starting to learn DOS! Since 98 is already installed, then I can just change what needs changing and delete what needs deleting under Windows, right? I don’t have to use your batch file, right? But to learn a bit more, please give me a link. I’ll go get what you mentioned in your “Quickly Restore 2000” article and study it carefully as you said!


I restored XP like this before, but failed: 98 was on c, XP on d. I reinstalled 98, then in 98 I copied the boot backup from when it was a dual system back to drive c. There was nothing wrong at all in boot.ini, but there still was no dual-boot menu. In the end I had no choice but to copy XP all over again. But once, it did happen that after I copied the backup to drive c, everything was normal. I still haven’t figured out why. Same files, different results.

I went and looked again at your “Small DOS Application Tips－－Quickly Restore win2k (or XP) Boot Startup” , is it like this: first I back up the 2000 boot files: ntldr, ntdetect.com, bootfont.bin, then directly copy the contents of your setup.bat and create a .bat file, put it on any drive－run it－press F3 to exit, put the 2000 backup back onto drive c, then modify boot.ini and that’s OK, right!
There were too many mistakes in my last post, now I understand. Just please tell me what NUL means. It’s in both copy and modify commands. Thanks!

NUL is a special “device” under DOS. It is nothing at all, an “empty” device.
“＞” is a command symbol under DOS, called the redirection symbol, (also called the redirector), and it is used to redirect input and output devices.
Normally, the results of our commands are displayed on the screen, but when we don’t need them displayed on the screen, we use the redirection symbol to send the output to NUL.
That way, we won’t see the result of the command execution.
This is done to make things look cleaner (so the screen won’t show too much information we don’t want to see).
It doesn’t matter if you don’t use it. Just write copy ntldr c:\ directly instead of copy ntldr c:\>NUL. There won’t be any bad effect on the execution of the command.

Doing it this way is too troublesome`~~~

After installing 98, you only need to boot the installation with the 2000 CD. When “repair OR install” appears, just choose repair~~~

Big brother: Is there anything wrong with restoring it this way?
I went and looked again at your: “Small DOS Application Tips－－Quickly Restore win2k (or XP) Boot Startup” , is it like this: first I back up the 2000 boot files: ntldr, ntdetect.com, bootfont.bin, then directly copy the contents of your setup.bat and create a .bat file, put it on any drive－run it－press F3 to exit, put the 2000 backup back onto drive c, then modify boot.ini and that’s OK, right?

First, since those three files are all on drive C in your case (ntldr, ntdetect.com, bootfont.bin), there is no need to back them up, and no need to put them back onto drive C.
Second, the winnt.exe mentioned in setup.bat must be there.
Third, the file DOSNET.INF must also be there.
Other than that, there’s nothing else.

Note:
If you were reinstalling win98 onto drive C (meaning a complete reinstall after formatting drive C), then you would need to back up those three files and restore them at the end.
But right now you’re installing win98 on drive D, that is, first boot with a win98 boot disk and execute the SYS A: C: command. Then boot from drive C and install win98 to drive D under DOS. In this case you do not need to back up those three files, because they are still on drive C.
That is to say, if you did not format drive c (and did not delete those three files), then there is no need to back up those three files.

Many thanks, moderator

Brother 雨浪飘零, what you said makes a lot of sense. For many newbies, simplicity is the most important thing. I myself am also a newbie. I’d like to know how exactly brother 雨浪飘零’s method is used?