Probably will not help but: I had an issue with dual boot XP and Win98 not long ago, used BootPart from Winimage to fix it. It fixed an XP bootloader error similar to yours but was not trying to boot to a different Partition but between two HDs. It needed the XP boot sector fixed on the XP primary drive. That may not help but it should not be much different than you booting from different primary partitions on same drive.

Added: found my notes, booted from a Win98 DOS 7 floppy drive and used: BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:C:
to get back to XP booting proper then modified the boot.ini to also point to the Win98 drive D: drive.
fixed: That may not help in your case with two separate controllers but it did fix mine with both drives on same controller with a messed up XP MBR, and without using the XP disk and recovery console crappy method.

Horun wrote on 2020-05-23, 14:19:

Probably will not help but: I had an issue with dual boot XP and Win98 not long ago, used BootPart from Winimage to fix it. It f […]
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Probably will not help but: I had an issue with dual boot XP and Win98 not long ago, used BootPart from Winimage to fix it. It fixed an XP bootloader error similar to yours but was not trying to boot to a different Partition but between two HDs. It needed the XP boot sector fixed on the XP primary drive. That may not help but it should not be much different than you booting from different primary partitions on same drive.

Added: found my notes, booted from a Win98 DOS 7 floppy drive and used: BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:C:
to get back to XP booting proper then modified the boot.ini to also point to the Win98 drive D: drive.
fixed: That may not help in your case with two separate controllers but it did fix mine with both drives on same controller with a messed up XP MBR, and without using the XP disk and recovery console crappy method.

So you are able to boot Win98SE which is on a second physical hard drive (but the same controller) by adding what exactly to your boot.ini file? And BootPart from WinImage does what? Creates a bootsect.w98 file? I use the Linux program 'dd' for that, which has a Windows port.

I'm also not trying to boot to a different partition. I am trying to boot to another HDD on another SCSI controller. In my case, and based on the BIOSes' SCSI boot order, I can either have the AHA-2940U2W boot first or the Adaptec RAID ARRAY boot first.

If the Adaptec RAID array boots first, I need to find a way to properly tell the boot loader to (as an option) boot Win98SE on another HDD on the AHA-2940U2W. As XP and W2K are also installed on the AHA-2940U2W, it will may need to boot a second NT boot loader which then calls the Win98SE partition via the bootsect.w98 file on XP C:\. Although it would be nice to skip that second boot loader and load the Win98SE partition from the Array's boot loader.

For the above scenario, I tried to coppied the boot sector for the AHA-2940U2W's Win98SE drive onto Adaptec RAID C:\ and added an option to the boot.ini file, but it is probably thinking this Win98SE partition is on the RAID, which it is not. I'm not sure how to fix that. I get a black screen with a single underscore when I boot with this method. I probably need to tell the RAID's boot.ini file to boot to the AHA-2940U2W XP partition first. But what is the command for that? I suspect multi(1)disk(0) or scsi(1)disk(0) in the boot.ini file.

Alternately, if the AHA-2940U2W is chosen to boot first (BIOS setting), I am able to boot Win98SE as part of this drive's nt boot loader, but I also need to tell this drive's nt boot loader to boot to the nt boot loader on the Adaptec RAID array (W2K & XP) as an option. I suspect I need to use either multi(1)disk(0) or scsi(1)disk(0) for booting the [secondary] ARRAY when the AHA-2940U2W is the primary boot controller.

feipoa wrote on 2020-05-23, 21:57:

So you are able to boot Win98SE which is on a second physical hard drive (but the same controller) by adding what exactly to your boot.ini file? And BootPart from WinImage does what? Creates a bootsect.w98 file? I use the Linux program 'dd' for that, which has a Windows port.

I'm also not trying to boot to a different partition. I am trying to boot to another HDD on another SCSI controller. In my case, and based on the BIOSes' SCSI boot order, I can either have the AHA-2940U2W boot first or the Adaptec RAID ARRAY boot first.

If the Adaptec RAID array boots first, I need to find a way to properly tell the boot loader to (as an option) boot Win98SE on another HDD on the AHA-2940U2W. As XP and W2K are also installed on the AHA-2940U2W, it will may need to boot a second NT boot loader which then calls the Win98SE partition via the bootsect.w98 file on XP C:\. Although it would be nice to skip that second boot loader and load the Win98SE partition from the Array's boot loader.

While messing with the two drives something from Win98 screwed the XP MBR so got a hang on booting from XP drive, would not even get the boot.ini menu, got a NTloader erro but the file was there. Used Bootpart to restore the XP MBR which does not appear to be the problem you have. Yes two HD on one controller. The lines were like this:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 98SE"

I think you to boot from two different scsi controllers you may have to use something like:
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect
scsi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 98SE"
assuming the drives are on scsi ID0 and the first partition is where the MBR is.
I noted in MS doc Q102873 they mention using the following under RISC-based circumstances, not sure if any of it applies :
SYSTEMPARTITION scsi(X)disk(Y)rdisk(Z)partition(W)
OSLOADER scsi(X)disk(Y)rdisk(Z)partition(W)\os\<nt_dir>\osloader.exe
OSLOADPARTITION scsi(X)disk(Y)rdisk(Z)partition(W)
OSLOADFILENAME \<winnt_dir>
https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/102/Q102873/

added: there are good examples in Q102873 of using multiple scsi adapters and the requirement for copy+rename the DOS SCSI driver to NTBOOTDD.SYS on partition one of each drive corresponding to the actual scsi driver needed for that controller.

I couldn't make any sense out of the examples in A102873. The assignments for rdisk(), disk(), partition() seem almost arbitrary in his example of multiple SCSI host controllers. And having to recopy the RAID ARRAY driver or the 2940U2W driver to NTBOOTDD.SYS depending on which HDD gets booted is ridiculous. I also have my doubts that a SCSI RAID system can use scsi() as the disk() argument uses a specific SCSI ID, whereas the stripe array uses ID's 0 and 1. Unfortunately, none of those articles or examples online show a case where Win9x is being booted from the non-primary host controller.

This is my boot.ini file on the XP partition of the SCSI RAID ARRAY:

1[boot loader]
2timeout=5
3default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4[operating systems]
5multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on RAID" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
6multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on RAID" /fastdetect
7C:\bootsect.array="Windows 98 on RAID - compatibility mode"
8C:\bootsect.w98="Windows 98 - on AHA-2940U2W"
9C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Recovery Console" /cmdcons

I have never been able to use something like multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 98SE" to boot Win9x from the nt boot loader. Have you? In every instance, the boot sector for the Win9x drive had to be copied to a file, e.g. bootsect.w98, and placed in XP's root drive. This is also how Windows XP installation sets it when you install XP onto a new partition when Win9x is already installed. But since I now want to boot Win9x from Partition3 on the AHA-2940U2W controller, I have no idea how to frame this arguement. Perhaps this method only works if Win9x is located on the primary boot HDD? Is there a way around it?

I can boot Win9x from C:\bootsect.array as shown above, but there aren't any RAID Win9x drivers, so it runs in slow compatibility mode. C:\bootsect.w98 doesn't work and I'd be very interested to know if there is a way to fix that as it could come in handy for some of my other systems, particularly those with a SCSI2SD controller which allows for a 7 virtual HDD's on one SD card.

My current workaround for the problem with this RAID ARRAY is to have the AHA-2940U2W controller setup as the primary boot device from within the BIOS. XP's boot loader on the AHA-2940U2W HDD can load XP and W2K from the RAID ARRAY. The trick is to stick with multi() and adjust rdisk() to rdisk(1). The boot.ini file on the AHA-2940U2W XP partition looks like this:

1[boot loader]
2timeout=5
3default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4[operating systems]
5multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on AHA-2940U2W" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
6multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on AHA-2940U2W" /fastdetect
7multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on RAID" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
8multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on RAID" /fastdetect
9C:\bootsect.w98="Windows 98"
10C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Ultimately, I would be removing these options from the boot.ini:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on AHA-2940U2W" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on AHA-2940U2W" /fastdetect

But I would much prefer to use the RAID ARRAY as the primary boot device and figure out how to get it to boot Win9x on a secondary controller (the 2940U2W). Anybody have any ideas?

The other thing that bothers me with this setup is having multiple partitions in Windows Explorer. The goal is to just use:

WinXP on RAID
W2K on RAID
Win98SE on 2940U2W

But as it is, I have:

WinXP on RAID
W2K on RAID
Win98SE on RAID (compatibility mode)
WinXP on 2940U2W
W2K on 2940U2W
Win98SE on 2940U2W

But if I am left using the 2940U2W controller as the primary boot controller, I don't think I'll be able to hide it's XP partition. If I did that, nothing would boot. Another reason why I'd like to use the RAID ARRAY as the primary boot controller and get it to boot Win98SE on the 2940U2W. Help? I'm pretty sure it would be on multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\*** but not sure what would go after that.

You could give "xfdisk" a try and see if it helps.
I used it ages ago to hide NT partitions from Win98 while booting, IIRC...
It even supports booting from logical partitions:
https://www.mecronome.de/xfdisk/index.php

Partition Magic works fine for me at hiding partitions. My main concern for this thread is how to setup the boot.ini file such that the Windows XP boot loader on my RAID host controller will boot Windows 98SE on a separate host controller/hard drive.

As your requirement is quite specific, you might get some additional information on creating / editing an also specific bootsect.w98 file yourself:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060709042509/ht … ootsectdos.html

This also describes how to create BOOTSECT and shows the script:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040211080928/ht … -dual-boot.html
and a little more info on BOOTSECT
https://web.archive.org/web/20040202052601/ht … directboot.html

***WARNING***
***WALL OF TEXT FOLLOWS***

Thanks for the links. I have read them all, but no dice. I also read https://web.archive.org/web/20060709042330/ht … otsequence.html

On the first dbryan example, he states that

1DOS must be installed on a primary partition (not a logical partition within an extended partition) on the same hard drive as the NTFS boot partition (what the BIOS sees as Drive 0).

This is not my circumstance.

In the second dbryan example, he has the primary boot partition setup as FAT16. He is also only using one HDD and one hard drive controller. My condition is very different.

Bootpart has a similar warning:

1With BOOTPART, you may add any partition to the menu. You may add an OS/2 Multiboot partition, or a Linux Partition (with Lilo) to this menu.
2
3The only thing I highly suggest is : your active partition on your first hard disk must be a FAT16 primary partition. This may be a small partition.

Looking at the hard drive real-estate, Windows 98SE is my 3rd partition on each hard drive. While I normally do put Win9x as the first partition, the system in question is one that I've had setup for 15 years or so and don't want to re-install everything. It originally just had XP on it, but when I took the system out of regular use, I added W2K to another partition for testing purposes, then adding Win98SE to a 3rd partition. This has worked fine for me , that is making a copy of the Win9x boot sector and adding it to boot.ini when there is only one HDD. But now I want to boot the Win98SE partition on a second HDD and second controller.

I suppose I could use bootpart to create the Win98se boot sector anyway and see if it works, though I doubt it will be any different than the bootsect.w98 file the dd program creates. I can also try btsect25, but from the read up, bsect.bat requires that C:\ be the Win9x partition, meaning that Win9x is the first and active partition. This is not the case and using bsect will destroy the current XP boot sector.

The thpc articles are probably the most relevant, but there has been no similar example to what I a after. It mentions that,

1NTLDR converts the pathway to the ARC format before using it. For example:
2C:\Bootsect.dos will become multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\bootsect.dos

Not sure if this helps me any though, since bootsect.w98 or bootsect.dos or .whatever must still reside on the ARRAY controller, and the desired W98 partition is on the secondary AHA-2940U2W controller, partition3.

I also read:

1When looking for an Active partition, the Microsoft version of the MBR limits its search to just four Primary partitions and does not search for an Active partition in the Logical partitions. This means the partition marked Active must be a Primary partition and it must also be on the Primary Master disk. Thus the system partition, containing the boot files, cannot be on a second hard disk. A boot partition (where OS main files reside) can be any Primary or Logical partition on any hard disk (but some OSs and BIOSs do have a size limitation). 

Bootsect.w98 is on the boot partition, but since the HDD real-estate looks like this (all primary partitions):

ARRAY XP - this is the active system partition as determined by the computer's BIOS
ARRAY W2K
ARRAY W9X (compatibility mode only)

2940U2W XP
2940U2W W2K
2940U2W W9X - the partition to be booted from ARRAY XP's boot loader

This would put the Win98SE partition I am trying to boot from as the 6th primary partition, so the Microsoft MBR won't be able to boot it? There's a limitation of 4 it can boot from as noted above? So if I format the 2940U2W's HDD and just put Win98SE on it, the ARRAY's XP boot loader will be able to boot it? Doing this is scary at this point because I need the 2940U2W HDD left in tact as it is my current fall-back option.

Also read:

1NTLDR loads & runs the OS Sector Boot Code from the Bootsect file which points to that OS's boot file (Io.sys for 9x) which gets the OS pathway:

Maybe be that information residing within bootsect.w98 file or the Io.sys file isn't being properly "pointed" to? And could this be because there are more than 4 primary partitions? I don't understand the 4 primary drive limitation because I can get the ARRAY XP loader to boot W2K from the 2940U2W, which would be the 5th primary partition.

Also read:

1Third-party boot utility usually [create their] own non-Microsoft MBR. Boot managers typically hide all active Primary partitions of any hard disk, with the exception of the active partition selected for booting.

I am trying to avoid third-party boot utilities at this stage, for the explicit reason the the article warns against later:

1Some users may feel a third-party boot utility will resolve all problems. However, they'll still need to know most of the above. Also, if a problem develops when using a third-party boot utility, another level of repair is necessary and that repair is not always successful. Repairing a 'natural' dual-boot is relatively easy and usually successful. 

Any ideas or comments on these findings?

Below is the result from dd --list
The command used to copy the bootsector for the AHA-2940U2W's Win98SE partition is: dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition3 of=bootsect.w98 bs=512 count=1

And the result from bootpart v2.60

I'm not sure why both hard drives are listed as active (contain an asterik *).

I'm not quite sure how to create the bootsect.w98 with bootpart. I have the impression that the first HDD must be a FAT disk. Anyway, according to the readme, the command should be:

1BOOTPART WIN95 C:\BOOTSECT.W95 "Windows 95"
2BOOTPART REWRITEROOT:C:
3
4The last line (REWRITEROOT:C:) MUST BE EXECUTED UNDER MSDOS, and moves the
5MS-Dos IO.* and MSDOS.* files to the beginning of the root directory.

I'm not sure how bootpart is going to know which drive to take the Win98SE partition boot sector from. And I'm also 99% sure this won't work as desired. It is talking about putting MS-DOS files onto the C drive, which it won't be able to read because it is NTFS.

The bootpart readme is poorly written and without sufficient example. I'm moving on now and will be reading this next: Method #2: Use a second hard disk to install Win9x/Me on an NTFS system (XP/2K/NT): https://web.archive.org/web/20060505073707/ht … l9xonntfs2.html

The method entailed in that last link should work, but requires Win98SE on the second physical HDD to become the primary and active partition, and of type FAT. The result would be almost the same as me setting the AHA-2940U2W as the primary boot device in the BIOS, but without using the AHA-2940U2W's XP boot loader. Instead I need to tell my XP installation to create a boot.ini file on the FAT32 partition, as well as create a bootsect.xp image of the XP partition.

1Summary of procedure: (Advanced users)
2The XP/2K hard disk (NTFS) is removed and another hard disk (FAT/32) is installed as the Primary Master (with an Active C: drive). Win9x is installed on the FAT/32 disk. An image of the Win9x boot sector is now saved to C:\Bootsect.dat, and XP/2K boot files are copied to C:. The XP/2K disk is now reconnected, but NOT as Primary Master. The XP/2K's Recovery Console is then used to create an XP/2K boot sector on the Win9x disk, and a new Boot.ini is also created there. Finally, a Win9x line is added to the new Boot.ini. Finished. 

Perhaps if I didn't already have my operating systems setup I'd try this method, but the way it is, I see little benefit. I am just going to set AHA-2940U2W as the primary boot device and use it's XP loader to load Win98SE on AHA-2940U2W, to load XP on the ARRAY, and to load W2K on the ARRAY. I have to live with two XP partitions being visible, but will hide the Win98SE partition on the ARRAY and hide the W2K installation on the AHA-2940U2W. But I will remove the option to boot the AHA-2940U2W's XP partition from the boot.ini file.

This was the boot.ini file on the HDD of the SCSI RAID controller that will no longer be used because I couldn't get the xp boot loader to boot the Win98SE partition on another HDD. I'm removing the SCSI RAID as the primary boot device from the BIOS:

1default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
2[operating systems]
3multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on RAID" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
4multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on RAID" /fastdetect
5C:\bootsect.array="Windows 98 on RAID in compatibility mode"
6multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on AHA-2940U2W controller" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
7multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on AHA-2940U2W controller" /fastdetect
8C:\bootsect.w98="Windows 98 on AHA-2940U2W controller (does not boot)"
9C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Recovery Console" /cmdcons

This was the boot.ini file on the HDD of the AHA-2940U2W controller that is used when the AHA-2940U2W is set as the primary boot device in the BIOS:

1default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
2[operating systems]
3multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on AHA-2940U2W" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
4multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on AHA-2940U2W" /fastdetect
5multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on RAID" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
6multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on RAID" /fastdetect
7C:\bootsect.w98="Windows 98 on AHA-2940U2W"
8C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Recovery Console" /cmdcons

I have removed entries from the boot.ini file on the HDD of the AHA-2940U2W controller:

1default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
2[operating systems]
3multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on RAID controller" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
4multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 on RAID controller" /fastdetect
5C:\bootsect.w98="Windows 98 on AHA-2940U2W controller"
6C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Recovery Console" /cmdcons

I'm using Partition Magic to hide the RAID's Win98SE partition and the AHA-2940U2W's W2K partition. I will rename the AHA-2940U2W's XP partition to something more pronounced so that I don't accidentally think it is the partition I'm using when in XP on the ARRAY, perhaps "boot loader". Kind of sucks admitting defeat here. Perhaps the answer will come along in due course.

It appears as if the PQMagic hidden partitions still show up when I boot to Windows 2000. I'm not sure why this is. I needed to go into the W2K/XP Disk Manager and remove the drive letters for the drives I want to not show up in Windows Explorer. I unhide the AHA-2940U2W's W2K partition, but left the ARRAY's Win98 partition hidden because I don't think there is a feature in Win98SE to remove the drive letter from a drive. Does such a feature exist for W98?

Attached is the final view of what W2K and XP see. PQMagic won't let me hide the AHA-2940U2W XP partition since it is active. XP's Disk Manager console won't let me remove the drive letter either since it is the partition with ntldr, boot.ini, etc. Perhaps there is a 3rd-party application which remove the drive letter from this AHA-2940U2W XP active partition? I don't know. But to circumvent this, I have made hidden all the folders on AHA-2940U2W XP active partition and renamed the drive to "BootLoader". This is my best workaround for the time being.

For those who have actually read this far, all this effort was because the PCI 64-bit SCSI RAIDport III add-on card (Adaptec/Dell ARO-1130U2) for my Dell Precision Workstation 410 (dual slot 1) doesn't have Win9x drivers. This thread can be considered a continuation of this thread: Re: Adaptec ARO-1130U2 SCSI RAID controller drivers for Windows 98SE

If anybody ultimately tries the TweakHomePC (thpc) for Method #2: Use a second hard disk to install Win9x/Me on an NTFS system (XP/2K/NT) https://web.archive.org/web/20060505073707/ht … l9xonntfs2.html , I'd be interested to know how you make out.

Good Work ! That should help anyone trying to use two controllers and booting three or more OS. I only dual boot so it has been much easier ;p