hard drive problem

[Newguy123]

I have 3 hard drives all together. My first hard drive is a 40gig with 2 partitions, partition 1 has winxp (installed last) then on the same hard drive i have partition 2 has (Win98se installed 1st). For a few weeks it the whole setup worked great until the other day windows stoped asking me if i wanted to boot into winxp or win98se it just automatically booted to win98se. But once in windows it saw both partitions i just couldnt boot into WinXP. like it wasnt even there. I still cannot boot my dual boot hard drive. Now as for my 100gig hard drive which was basically my back up hard drive which worked well now that one doesnt work either. So i put in a new hard drive with WinXP clean install. I hooked up the 100 gig hard drive to see if i could get my files off there because i really need those files and once booted into windows with my WinXP hard drive it shows my 100gig hard drive there but it doesnt let me into it, it just says Hard drive needs to be formated I cannot format this hard drive its got too much stuff on there that i need. Is there anyway i could get into this hard drive and take my stuff off it.

Thanks

Newguy123

[RED Hot Machine]

Check you boot.ini file on you 98 partion it should look similar to this

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"

But with the windows 2000 replaced with xp.

How did you format your 100gig drive with ntfs or fat ?

[Newguy123]

I formatted it with Fat32 Partition.

Do i check that boot.ini in dos or do i have to be booted in windows?

Thanks

Newguy123

[RED Hot Machine]

You can open the file in windows or dos. It has it's attribs set to hidden and is in the root dir.

[Newguy123]

U said to change the Win2000 to Winxp

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"

Like that? Shouldnt it be Win98se?

That would mean i have to access that 100gig hard drive. But i cannot access it because when i try to get into it it tells me to format the hard drive. So i cannot see any of the files on there

Newguy123

[RED Hot Machine]

Have you managed to find the boot.ini on your 40gb disk? The reason I posted my boot.ini file was to give you an idea of what yours should look like, and maybe work out why it would only boot to 98.

Have you tried booting to a dos/98/95 boot disk and access your 100gig drive? Also try running fdisk from a boot disk and seeing what information if brings up.

[Newguy123]

I got the problem fixed with the 40gig hard drive.

now i just need to gain access on my 100gig hard drive because i really need that drive and the only thing its telling me is that i need to reformat it. I tryed to reinstall win98se on it and it hangs in dos with the letter W over the cursor?

Newguy123

[RED Hot Machine]

Have you tried seeing what fdisk finds the hd as?

[Newguy123]

I just tryed Fdisk and it sees the hard drive. Under system it says Unknown and then usage it says 100% but its not a full hard drive because i cannot fill up a 100gig hard drive.

And then when i try to Scandisk it says something with Media and doesnt scandisk.

Should i just reformat it and loose all my stuff or is there a way?

Newguy123

[RED Hot Machine]

It sounds like it has become corrupt. Have you got a copy of norton utils?

If you have try using Disc doctor on it.

Otherwise it looks like a reformat and reinstall job. :(

[Newguy123]

Nope i dont have norton Utilities.

I guess i am stuck and have to reformat.

Newguy123