Boot.ini and Win xp & 98 dual boot help!

[ThePunkerGuy]

Hi.. can someone please help me here is my problem..
Ok I have windows xp home installed on my c drive and windows 98 installed on my d drive. Both drives are connected to ide controller 1 on the mobo. I had them dual booting and working fine for several months.. now for somereason win 98 got deleted out of the boot.ini file and it now reads

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

So i tried to add win 98 back in there by changing it into this..

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 98"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

well.. when i try to load 98 i get this error

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or currupt.
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the file above.

well that file doesnt even exist on windows 98 is just an xp file.. so it acts like it still wants to load xp or something.. i know all the 98 files are on the d drive i just cant get it to load!! and i dont fell like doing all the work of formating and reainstalling it etc.. just a huge pain.. someone pllease tell me what i am doing wrong.. oh yea i have also tried chaning the boot.ini a million different ways!
thanks.
- Mike

 

[Lonman]

I don't know. Whenever you install the older OS in a manner inconsistent with established methodology, you're pretty much up a creek concerning conventional trouble shooting procedures.

I guess you need to put that hal.dll file wherever it needs to go and see if that helps. It sure won't hurt trying it anyway.