2 OS on same hard drive

[joh1955]

I bought Norton Partition Magic so I could put WIN98 and WINXP on the
same drive. My problem is that : I installed WIN98 first with no
problem but I cannot figure out how to install WINXP so that I can
duel boot. Any help would be appreciated
Bob

 

[Tim]

Just install XP into the second partition. XP install will see Win98 in the
first and automatically create a dual boot config with a boot.ini and ntldr
etc. in your C: drive while correctly placing all else in the XP nominated
partition. Just don't try to put XP in the same partition as Win98, it will
not work...

The above sequence (Win9x first then XP) is the correct sequence.
In this situation you may wish to consider where shared DATA (not software,
don't share software) is placed and use a FAT32 partition just for that. I
always use NTFS for XP...

- Tim

 

[Dr Teeth]

The above sequence (Win9x first then XP) is the correct sequence.

Yes and no. The OP should use BootMagic that comes with PM to select
which OS to boot.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[John]

It can be done. That's exactly the way I have my PC set up.

Boot Win98 and install PartitionMagic (in the Win98 partition). Create the
PartitionMagic floppies when prompted (invaluable).

Boot the PC up using the PartitionMagic Floppy. Resize the Win98 partition
to make room for the WinXP partition. Now create the WinXP partition (make
it a Primary NTFS partition). Hide the Win98 partition. Set the WinXP
partition as active.

Now install WinXP by booting from the WinXP CD and select the WinXP
partition when prompted (let XP reformat it to NTFS even if you already
formatted using partition magic earlier).

Once you get WinXP fully loaded, boot using the PM floppy and hide WinXP and
set Win98 active. Reboot the PC into Win98 and install BootMagic into Win98
partition. Now run Bootmagic and create the boot menu.

As someone else said, it can be useful to created an extended FAT32
partition at the end of the drive to place shared data into. Win98 needs
extra software to see NTFS partitions.

 

[Dr Teeth]

Boot the PC up using the PartitionMagic Floppy.

This isn't necessary. When changing the size of a partition in which
PM is installed, it will reboot the OS and make the changes. I have
four OSs installed here ATM, sometimes five, and have never used a
floppy.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[Nickeldome]

Yes and no. The OP should use BootMagic that comes with PM to select
which OS to boot.

You don't need BootMagic or any other bootmanager to run win98 and XP.
In your boot.ini there will be a reference to 2 bootsectors. One Xp and the
other
'old windows' you can edit the names if you like. Just install as in the above
sequence (Win9x first then XP) and make sure your C: is Fat32.

Nickeldome

 

[Mercury]

You only need PM if you need to make space on the disc drive for a new
partition. The rest of this post is complicating matters unnecessarily.

Why pay for a product that when installed bungs in a buggy layered device
driver (Gear!) that interferes with stable XP use? It took me some time to
discover that PM was shafting my DVD writer and CD writer / crashing XP
solid.

I recommend deinstalling PM immediately you are finished with it - every
time - until this POS has some serious bugs fixed.

If you buy PM you do not get support - unless you pay for it and pay for the
still buggy updates.

 

[th]

You only need PM if you need to make space on the disc drive for a new
partition. The rest of this post is complicating matters unnecessarily.

Really good point there!
If your Win98 is just recently installed and the HD only contains one
partition the simplest thing is to use old FDISK to repartition the disk
and reinstall Win98. With FDISK you only need to create one partition
and leave the rest of the HD unpartitioned. When in the WinXP
installation you can create new partitions and format them as you want.
I recommend to use NTFS with WinXP even if that means that you cannot
read the NTFS partition when running Win98 (or is there some program
that allows reading an NTFS partition from Win98?)

 

[Roger Hunt]

Really good point there!
If your Win98 is just recently installed and the HD only contains one
partition the simplest thing is to use old FDISK to repartition the disk
and reinstall Win98.

Well worth downloading Win ME FDisk.exe from Microsoft.
See MS KB article 263044 - "Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard
Disks Larger than 64 GB".
(open archive, rename fdisk.98s to fdisk.exe, copy to where needed)

With FDISK you only need to create one partition
and leave the rest of the HD unpartitioned. When in the WinXP
installation you can create new partitions and format them as you want.
I recommend to use NTFS with WinXP even if that means that you cannot
read the NTFS partition when running Win98 (or is there some program
that allows reading an NTFS partition from Win98?)

Yes there is, read-only, free, from www.sysinternals.com :
"NTFS for Windows 98 is a NTFS file system driver for Windows 95 and
Windows 98. Once installed, any NTFS drives present on your system will
be fully accessible as native Windows 98 volumes. This version provides
read-only capabilities."
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfswin98.shtml

 

[WoofWoof]

You only need PM if you need to make space on the disc drive for a new
partition. The rest of this post is complicating matters unnecessarily.

Why pay for a product that when installed bungs in a buggy layered device
driver (Gear!) that interferes with stable XP use? It took me some time to
discover that PM was shafting my DVD writer and CD writer / crashing XP
solid.

I recommend deinstalling PM immediately you are finished with it - every
time - until this POS has some serious bugs fixed.

Why *install* PM in the first place? Even if you do want to use PM to
repartition, resize, clone, convert etc there's no need to install it to
Windows.

Just make the PM dos boot floppy (or make a dos boot cd), boot from that
and you have access to all its capabilities. The only thing installing
it to Windows does is to give you a dumbed-down interface to set up any
changes you want. It then reboots into dos mode to do the actual changes
anyway. So why bother and take this risk of upsetting windows - as you
found?

I have used Pm 4 thru' 8 and never installed any version.

I do agree with you though that the only reason PM (or similar) might be
needed in this case is if it's necessary to re-size the existing Win98
partition to create room for XP. (It might, theoretically, be possible
to install XP in the same partition but I wouldn't want to risk it).

Once the free space is made available the rest of the install is a no
brainer and XP will set up the boot manager. Notwithstanding this, many
people elect to use a third part boot manager (such as Boot Magic)
anyway since it lets you fully isolate (hide) the two operating system
partitions from each other (which the XP boot manager won't).

Incidentally, BootitNG (Bing) has a better reputation than PM with many
people for both partition management and boot management.

 

[Dr Teeth]

Why pay for a product that when installed bungs in a buggy layered device
driver (Gear!) that interferes with stable XP use? It took me some time to
discover that PM was shafting my DVD writer and CD writer / crashing XP
solid.

All's rock solidly stable here.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[Dr Teeth]

You don't need BootMagic or any other bootmanager to run win98 and XP.

I know, but with BootManager I don't have to worry about the order I
install my OSs at all.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[none]

Why pay for a product that when installed bungs in a buggy layered device
driver (Gear!) that interferes with stable XP use? It took me some time to
discover that PM was shafting my DVD writer and CD writer / crashing XP
solid.

I was just curious what problems did you have with your DVD/CD writer
after installing PM and how did you find out it was PM? I'm assuming
you're referring to version 8? I wasn't aware that PM loads any apps
at startup during normal operation under Windows. Please let us know.

 

[Tim]

On XP SP2.
PM installed a Gear ASPI driver - forget the exact name. This is I believe a
layered device driver that presents a SCSI (ASPI) interface to IDE devices
at the device level.

With a prior version of Gear installed I found I had a bogus SCSI controller
and CD / DVD devices. IE with the Gear driver it was trying to hide the
original drives and remapping to a new letter. In My Computer I had devices
with conflicting details. The DVD and CD-RW would not work. PM was not the
product that installed this on that occasion. Summary: I new to look for
GEAR.

I struck a similar set of issues with PM - DVD writing would fail, system
would lock up after a CD had been inserted twice, CD / DVD access was
intermittent. After a chat with the Tech that supplied the DVD, I
deinstalled progressively all s/w related to DVD. After all was removed
there was still a hidden device (Gear ASPI or something like that - my
initial reaction was it was a remnant, but the driver was still present)
under Services in the registry and the device indicated it was in the 'list'
of drivers. It was by accident (deinstall all apps recently installed) that
I found it was PM.

I don't know why they have to do this... It is no biggy to create a DOS
device that is a synonym for a HDD that covers all cylinders of the disc so
that the disc can be read at the sector level. It is also no biggy to do it
under Windows. VSS does something like this.

I could be wrong on this, but I was quite careful and persistent in getting
rid of software and checking each step - I had already tried new cables,
different IDE connectors, and another computer to prove the DVD drive was
going 100%.

- Tim

 

[Nickeldome]

I know, but with BootManager I don't have to worry about the order I
install my OSs at all.

Agreed, if the situation won't let you install in the necessary order.
I like System Commander alot more than BootMagic, because it
handles things more intelligent.

Nickeldome

 

[Mercury]

Because the DOS interface is from the ARK! It is attrocious. You can do most
things from in windows. Why should I have to know about disc type numbers?
Start and end cylinders? Thats just lazy for them - its only a few lines of
code to make a much much better UI.

 

[WoofWoof]

Well, certainly, they came up with the Windows install to take care of
people who feel the way you do and who don't mind spending the
considerable extra time that it represents. And yes, given that they are
supplying a windows interface, you have a right to expect it to function
well. (Of course, in an ideal world all software would function without
problems on every machine and every setup).

Personally, I'll stick to the dos version. The interface is fine for me
- it's a utility after all, not an application. I don't know what you
mean by having to know about disk type numbers and start/end cylinders
..... it just ain't so. All you need to know is the same stuff that you
need to know for the windows interface: sizes you want for new
partitions, re-sizing etc. If you want, you can do it by sliders. It's
very simple. (I can't believe, from what you said that you've actually
tried it).

I do one boot which takes maybe 5 seconds (mine's on a bootable cd)
compared with booting to windows , setting it all up and then
rebooting. I'm really not on a crusade here though (even though it might
sound that way). If you are happy with the windows version (... but
you're not) then more power to you.

 

[Tim]

Sounds like I may have used the wrong version....

I'll look into what you are saying. If the DOS version has been revved up
then I will stick with that. I must have fired up an ancient version
somehow.

Do you know if the DOS version is safe with RAID 1 discs?

The only pitfall with the windows version is that it is buggy around what it
will and won't do on system / boot partitions. It says it can, says it
might, and leaves one in hope so that doesn't get used.

Thanks for your comments. I'll definitely look into what you have said.

- Tim

 

[WoofWoof]

Do you know if the DOS version is safe with RAID 1 discs?

Tim, I really don't know that much about raid so I'd hesitate to advise.
You could check the Symantec site and see if there is any tech support
on that issue. Also the ftp.symantec.com is rather good for the latest
manuals of all their products.

 

[John]

This isn't necessary. When changing the size of a partition in which
PM is installed, it will reboot the OS and make the changes. I have
four OSs installed here ATM, sometimes five, and have never used a
floppy.
--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

I've seen PM fail when doing that. So far it's never failed when running
from a floppy.