Multiboot partition backup restore overlays with Windows 98 and XP

I am deploying a new multi-boot system with WIndows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 which needs to copy an existing XP partition from another machine because Microsoft support for XP no longer brings new installs up to date. It is also helpful to copy another existing Windows 98 partition as well from the same source machine as the amount of work required to configure the Windows 98 environment I use is excessive.

At first all the operating systems were installed from the original install discs and had everything working, and working with the nice consolidated menu EasyBCD provides. I installed '98, XP, Vista & 7 and they all worked.

The trouble started as I tried to substitute disc images for XP and Windows 98. At the moment I can start up Windows 98 after having done an FDISK /MBR and SYS C: from the Windows 98 startup floppy disk. I was also able to make a floppy boot disk that bootstraps the XP installation so I can use XP. I have EasyBCD on that XP partition.

Running EasyBCD resulted in a system that cannot be booted at all with an error message along the lines of "Operating system not found".

Thank you for your help,


David Fiori, Jr.
215-584-2214 (cell)
 
I don't quite understand your problem.
EasyBCD is not the boot manager. In your quad-boot W7 bootmgr will be in control and providing the boot menu.
EasyBCD is just managing the contents of W7's BCD (if you instruct it to do anything in there).
Make sure that the W7 partition is flagged "active" in Disk Management, it sounds like you might not be booting from the correct partition.
"Running EasyBCD..." does nothing.
Did you tell EasyBCD to alter the BCD in any way when you ran it ?
 
I am deploying a new multi-boot system with WIndows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 which needs to copy an existing XP partition from another machine because Microsoft support for XP no longer brings new installs up to date. It is also helpful to copy another existing Windows 98 partition as well from the same source machine as the amount of work required to configure the Windows 98 environment I use is excessive.

At first all the operating systems were installed from the original install discs and had everything working, and working with the nice consolidated menu EasyBCD provides. I installed '98, XP, Vista & 7 and they all worked.

The trouble started as I tried to substitute disc images for XP and Windows 98. At the moment I can start up Windows 98 after having done an FDISK /MBR and SYS C: from the Windows 98 startup floppy disk. I was also able to make a floppy boot disk that bootstraps the XP installation so I can use XP. I have EasyBCD on that XP partition.

Running EasyBCD resulted in a system that cannot be booted at all with an error message along the lines of "Operating system not found".

Thank you for your help,


David Fiori, Jr.
215-584-2214 (cell)
I don't quite understand your problem.
EasyBCD is not the boot manager. In your quad-boot W7 bootmgr will be in control and providing the boot menu.
EasyBCD is just managing the contents of W7's BCD (if you instruct it to do anything in there).
Make sure that the W7 partition is flagged "active" in Disk Management, it sounds like you might not be booting from the correct partition.
"Running EasyBCD..." does nothing.
Did you tell EasyBCD to alter the BCD in any way when you ran it ?
I don't quite understand your problem.
EasyBCD is not the boot manager. In your quad-boot W7 bootmgr will be in control and providing the boot menu.
EasyBCD is just managing the contents of W7's BCD (if you instruct it to do anything in there).
Make sure that the W7 partition is flagged "active" in Disk Management, it sounds like you might not be booting from the correct partition.
"Running EasyBCD..." does nothing.
Did you tell EasyBCD to alter the BCD in any way when you ran it ?

Terry,

I can't boot to Win7 since I altered the BCD. I suppose I could reinstall Windows 7 but will I have access to Windows 98 and XP? Windows 7 would have to scan for their existence if it did work, is that what Windows 7 will do?
 
Terry,

I can't boot to Win7 since I altered the BCD. I suppose I could reinstall Windows 7 but will I have access to Windows 98 and XP? Windows 7 would have to scan for their existence if it did work, is that what Windows 7 will do?

I
I don't quite understand your problem.
EasyBCD is not the boot manager. In your quad-boot W7 bootmgr will be in control and providing the boot menu.
EasyBCD is just managing the contents of W7's BCD (if you instruct it to do anything in there).
Make sure that the W7 partition is flagged "active" in Disk Management, it sounds like you might not be booting from the correct partition.
"Running EasyBCD..." does nothing.
Did you tell EasyBCD to alter the BCD in any way when you ran it ?
Terry,

I can't boot to Win7 since I altered the BCD. I suppose I could reinstall Windows 7 but will I have access to Windows 98 and XP? Windows 7 would have to scan for their existence if it did work, is that what Windows 7 will do?

Terry,

With knowledge that Windows 7 is the boot manager I re-installed Windows 7 - twice - and everything is now fixed. If your'e interested here is what happened: the first time I re-installed Windows 7 The result was that I was able to once again boot to all the operating systems installed once again – but in an ugly way even after editing the BCD with EasyBCD. It was ugly because there were two Windows98 selections and only one of them worked, and Windows XP selection and another entry for legacy operating systems brought me to the standard Windows dual boot Window for Windows98 and XP only, and only the XP selection worked in those menus. So believing that my manipulation of the Windows98 boot environment as at fault I reset the Windows 98 system with a FDISK /MBR command. The result was that nothing booted at all with a report that there we no operating systems found. I then reinstalled Windows 7 and the full menu returned but was much cleaner, the only problem being two Windows 7 selections, both of which worked. Editing the BCD with EasyBCD fixed that and I now have everything working once again with an integrated boot menu. More importantly, I am running with restored versions of Windows98 and Windows XP from another machine. So mission accomplished thanks to your help.
 
Well, you seem to have done OK without a lot of input from me, so I'm not sure I warrant much in the way of thanks, but I'm glad that you've got everything sorted to your satisfaction now.
 
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