This may give you some clues:

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=63961

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-10, 22:47:

This may give you some clues:

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=63961

yeah i got it working once added to boot menu at all with a advanced guide and was working fine for a bit

then i made a new partition among some other stuff that i dont know what it was or if it would even affect it but now i cant get it detecting my hard drive in setup or anywhere atall, i would install from usb normally as was the only way that worked last time.

but now it dosent find my drive so i cant install it? its same setup as last time and i tried chaning some options that could have been issue but still nothing, im not too sure other then the parition in a completley diffrent area of drive will be causing it

i dont want to delete it but might have to just to see if that happens to be the issue, win98 drive is formatted right its not sata its ide i belive

i do not follow i'm afraid, what do you mean "booted back into usb"?

you have a single, 160gb drive in your laptop?
you already have 7 installed on that hard drive?
and now when you boot into 7 you can see the 98 partition?
but you can't boot 98 itself?

it would probably help if you set out what partitions you have and what's installed to them.

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-12, 18:55:

i do not follow i'm afraid, what do you mean "booted back into usb"? […]
Show full quote

i do not follow i'm afraid, what do you mean "booted back into usb"?

you have a single, 160gb drive in your laptop?
you already have 7 installed on that hard drive?
and now when you boot into 7 you can see the 98 partition?
but you can't boot 98 itself?

it would probably help if you set out what partitions you have and what's installed to them.

because i installed it via usb from the beginning, and i cant acccess the hard drive anymore even tho i could before when installing it in the first place
yes my hard drive is 160gb only hard drive installed in it.
yes i already have 7 installed, i didnt change any boot options or files or any existing partiton but i did have a already empty space and i created a parition there 30gb
and it seeminly stopped working after then not sure if that was the cause but assume so

yes i can see all windows 98 files and everything looks ok in windows 7 but it still does not load propely

so...
- you had 7 installed already
- there was free space so you created a 30gb partition and installed 98 there
- you were able to boot into 98 at that point
- but then you changed something and now you can't boot into 98, you get the error about being unable to find command.com
- but you can still boot into 7
is that right?

have a look at this thread and see if it helps:
Dual boot Windows 98 & Windows 7?

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:06:

so... - you had 7 installed already - there was free space so you created a 30gb partition and installed 98 there - you were abl […]
Show full quote

so...
- you had 7 installed already
- there was free space so you created a 30gb partition and installed 98 there
- you were able to boot into 98 at that point
- but then you changed something and now you can't boot into 98, you get the error about being unable to find command.com
- but you can still boot into 7
is that right?

have a look at this thread and see if it helps:
Dual boot Windows 98 & Windows 7?

not quite the windows 98 is installed into a 2gb partition but the 30gb is unrealted but just so happens after i made it then stopped working as im sure it worked right before i did it
and yes i can still boot into 7, 98 says command.com error and loading to usb (windows 98 install usb) the 98 drive cant be accesed anymore like it could before so dosnet seem to even see it.

gaberilde wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:14:

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:06:

so... - you had 7 installed already - there was free space so you created a 30gb partition and installed 98 there - you were abl […]
Show full quote

so...
- you had 7 installed already
- there was free space so you created a 30gb partition and installed 98 there
- you were able to boot into 98 at that point
- but then you changed something and now you can't boot into 98, you get the error about being unable to find command.com
- but you can still boot into 7
is that right?

have a look at this thread and see if it helps:
Dual boot Windows 98 & Windows 7?

not quite the windows 98 is installed into a 2gb partition but the 30gb is unrealted but just so happens after i made it then stopped working as im sure it worked right before i did it
and yes i can still boot into 7, 98 says command.com error and loading to usb (windows 98 install usb) the 98 drive cant be accesed anymore like it could before so dosnet seem to even see it.

i looked at the thread eariler seems to be same one as in your first post, forgot to mention i set up all the boot stuff already and had it working and hadnt changed until i made the partition then it stopped loading after
i dont want to but should i delete that other partition to see if it fixes it? if so what kind of issue you think it is
seems werid that a parititon would be causing the issue, i didnt change the order of 98 either

if the problem started after you created another partition, that's where i would start.

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:39:

if the problem started after you created another partition, that's where i would start.

thats what i throught,i think my only choice is to delete but i dont want to but will have to just to see if it fixes it, at least its nothing too important just took a while to set it up thats all
deleting now and il say what happens next

Before you wipe it
Run fdisk
And see which partition is active.
Most likely you created a new primary partition, and 7 made it active

myne wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:45:

Before you wipe it Run fdisk And see which partition is active. Most likely you created a new primary partition, and 7 made it a […]
Show full quote

Before you wipe it
Run fdisk
And see which partition is active.
Most likely you created a new primary partition, and 7 made it active

yea tho windows 98 is not primary so i dont think i can set it active i think it was active so i set 7 back to active because i loaded it from 7, but even tho that worked last time it isnt this time
im wiping the 30gb not the 98 also

gaberilde wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:52:

myne wrote on 2024-10-12, 20:45:

Before you wipe it Run fdisk And see which partition is active. Most likely you created a new primary partition, and 7 made it a […]
Show full quote

Before you wipe it
Run fdisk
And see which partition is active.
Most likely you created a new primary partition, and 7 made it active

yea tho windows 98 is not primary so i dont think i can set it active i think it was active so i set 7 back to active because i loaded it from 7, but even tho that worked last time it isnt this time
im wiping the 30gb not the 98 also

i deleted the 30gb and it booted like it was nothing, strange how that parititon was the cause when its completly unrelated. any idea what it could be? in the meantime i might try messing around to see if i can figure out why it could be doing that

if your new partition was a primary one, it could change the partition numbering of logical drives in an extended partition. i thought 98 had to be on a primary partition, but if it was installed on a logical drive in an extended partition, and the 30gb space was at the end of the drive, that might cause what you found.

can you set out how your drive is partitioned - primary partitions, extended partitions, logical drives, free space?

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-13, 09:32:

if your new partition was a primary one, it could change the partition numbering of logical drives in an extended partition. i thought 98 had to be on a primary partition, but if it was installed on a logical drive in an extended partition, and the 30gb space was at the end of the drive, that might cause what you found.

can you set out how your drive is partitioned - primary partitions, extended partitions, logical drives, free space?

no it was the last extended partition (and after 98)
i tried to put 98 as early as possible as knew i would run into issues, after deleting the partition and remaking it as ntfs it still boots without fuss so im going to assume it was due to it having a strange file system tho its werid that it would stop reading the 98 one also when it doesnt even need anything from the other partition and 98 is before it so i would think it would find that first, but maybe not idk? maybe theres some kind of update i can do or patch to maybe try to prevent a issue like this but otherwise im not too sure what i could do? thanks.

sorry forgot to mention my partition layout

1. recovery that came with the computer
2. system for 7 boot
3 windows xp
4 windows 7

all of these are primary then next are extended

windows 98
intended to be windows 2000 but also cant get it working right
windows 7
the drive that is now just a normal ntfs drive but had the werid system before and was causing 98 to not boot

and after that linux which is another primary at the end of the drive

yes this will be a crazy boot setup if i can get it working 🤣

aw nice, good luck with that - glad you got 98 working again.

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-13, 21:20:

aw nice, good luck with that - glad you got 98 working again.

thanks might need to see if theres any disk bug fixes i can install before possibly breaking it again by remaking the other one, but probally not gonna bother for now
wanna get 2000 working but it blue screens into the disk error so i think it maybe needs drivers? xp works so i think it may be possible to use the same drivers for that since they are close together il lookinto it some more

also relised i wrote windows 7 twice the 2nd one is the correct one just after 2000 or what hopefully will be 🤣