Windows XP and 98

[Doggie]

not sure i posted in the right place but hopefully it is..

I am trying to install Windows 98 on my current XP to dual boot.. but i dont want to start from clean HDD and install one at a time.. i just want to install 98 on my other partition whilst still having my windows xp partition.. how do i install 98 on my other partition? i really need to dual boot but im not quite sure how to.. as i dont wanna risk losing my xp partition

[Skyfrog]

First of all if your XP partition is NTFS you are out of luck. Windows 98 cannot boot from that so you would have to reformat. If your XP partition is FAT32, just follow this guide:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

[Doggie]

yeah i just found out.. and doh! my file sys is ntfs

thanx anyways

[Doggie]

thought i'd start again.. so i have moved my files i need to my 98 partition that is already FAT file sys.. so if i format the current petition which is NTFS to fat, can i then install 98 on one partition and xp on the other? no special things to do to it?

[Skyfrog]

Yes, you can install them in separate partitions. The best way is to install Windows 98 first and then XP, which will detect 98 and configure itself to dual boot. If it were me I would install 98 on the first partition which will be FAT32, and then format the second partition as NTFS and install XP on it. However if you do Windows 98 won't be able to see the XP partition, but in my opinion that is a good thing since your XP system won't be able to be messed with from 98. Windows XP would be able to access both partitions of course. This also let's XP take advantage of the much better NTFS file system.

Another thing is that if you plan to install the same program in each OS, say Microsoft Encarta for example, you can install it to the same location for each OS and save disk space. It would have to be on your FAT32 partition so Windows 98 can access it. Just install the program in 98 first, then boot into XP and install it again to the same location.

[Doggie]

thanks for the advice skyfrog helped a lot

[jdgordon]

if u havnt done it yet, what u could to is install win98 on another hard disk (without the xp 1 in), create 2 partitions on it and install win98 to the 2nd (so its drive D:), then copy the partition to a new partition after the xp partition on the oriognal hard disk. then edit your boot.ini file and add the line D:\ = "Windows BSOD version"

i _THINK_ that will work