[GLLUG] Win98SE Puzzler

[STeve Andre']

  On 09/21/10 22:37, Chick Tower wrote:
> My home PC has two IDE hard drives.  Most of my Linux distros are 
> installed on the second one.  On the first one I have Windows 98SE 
> installed in the first (and primary) partition, and three other 
> partitions that I use for Win98 (apps, data, & games) in logical 
> partitions, as well as a couple of Linux installations and my Linux 
> swap disk, also in logical partitions.  I use GRUB to multi-boot, and 
> lately when I try to boot into Win98 it just pops the GRUB menu back up.
>
> I see no error messages on-screen.  I verified that the first 
> partition of the first hard drive is bootable.  I reinstalled GRUB.  
> Using cfdisk, I noticed that the primary partition on the first hard 
> drive was type FAT32 W95, but the other three Win98 partitions were 
> FAT32 W95 LBA, so I changed the primary one to match them.  None of 
> these changes allows me to boot into Win98.
>
> I'm able to boot at least one of the two distros I have installed on 
> the first hard drive (haven't tried the other), so I know the drive is 
> working.  I don't recall doing anything that would have caused this; 
> since I use GRUB, I haven't written to the MBR, other than when I just 
> recently reinstalled GRUB in an attempt to fix this.  I don't recall 
> making any changes to the BIOS settings.  The drive is about nine 
> years old.
>
> If I lose this capability, it's not a big deal, and I suspect I can 
> still access the other partitions to get whatever data and game 
> configurations I think I might need.  It just bothers me.  Has anyone 
> else ever seen something like this, or have any suggestions about what 
> else I can try?  Thanks.
Get a Win98 boot floppy, and see if you can see C: after booting with that.

I dimly remember that I had a problem with a Win98 partition loosing the 
proper
data in the media descriptor byte, and had to be put back before it 
would boot.

Anyway, booting that way will tell you in Win98 itself is OK.

But we're talking of a 9 year old disk, so remember that all hell can break
loose suddenly!

--STeve Andre'