dual booting of windows xp over windows 98

[roel]

I have windows 98 OS installed in Drive C: . Then i have another drive
and i am planning to partition it 2 partitions (D & E) and i want to
install windows xp in the second drive. How should i proceed ? If i
install the windows xp with a bootable disk will it detect my windows
98 OS in the C DRIVE? I want to make sure also that if i proceed
installing the XP in D drive it will not in anyway overwrites or mess
up my OS in DRIVE C, because i have many important programs and data in
that OS. Please help. Is it safe to install to XP over windows 98 in c
drive ?

 

[Ron Martell]

I have windows 98 OS installed in Drive C: . Then i have another drive
and i am planning to partition it 2 partitions (D & E) and i want to
install windows xp in the second drive. How should i proceed ? If i
install the windows xp with a bootable disk will it detect my windows
98 OS in the C DRIVE? I want to make sure also that if i proceed
installing the XP in D drive it will not in anyway overwrites or mess
up my OS in DRIVE C, because i have many important programs and data in
that OS. Please help. Is it safe to install to XP over windows 98 in c
drive ?

When you start to install Windows XP it will give you a choice as to
which of the available drives/partitions you want it to install on.

If you choose a partition on the second hard drive it will install
there, but will place some boot files onto drive C: Then when you
boot your computer you will get a menu allowing you to choose which
version of Windows to boot.

If you choose to install Windows XP onto drive C: and if your Windows
XP is not an OEM version then it will install as an upgrade of your
Windows 98 and you will end up with Windows XP as your only operating
system but with all of your application programs, user data files, and
program configuration settings from Windows 98 carried over to Windows
XP. However if you do this without first having an adequate backup
of your Windows 98 then Murphy's Law pretty much guarantees that there
will be some sort of a problem.

If you decide to go the upgrade route then you should create a backup
image of your Windows 98 partition onto the second hard drive using
Ghost (Symantec), Image for Windows/DOS (www.bootitng.com) or some
such similar product.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Mike Mueller]

Set your computer to boot from CD- no startup disk is needed

XP setup will detect that 98 is there, and give you the
options of replacing it or adding XP as another OS.
If you choose to replace, you will get options to either
upgrade or clean install
If you choose to add XP as another OS, you will get choice
of where to put it. You will also have options on
partitioning and formatting that 2nd drive

Upgrade installs almost never go off without issues. Many
software packages install different versions of the same
files depending on the OS.

No matter how you install XP, there will be a handful of
files on the C drive, as they are necessary during bootup to
let the computer know where XP is located

As usual, back up all important items before installing any
OS



:I have windows 98 OS installed in Drive C: . Then i have
another drive
: and i am planning to partition it 2 partitions (D & E) and
i want to
: install windows xp in the second drive. How should i
proceed ? If i
: install the windows xp with a bootable disk will it detect
my windows
: 98 OS in the C DRIVE? I want to make sure also that if i
proceed
: installing the XP in D drive it will not in anyway
overwrites or mess
: up my OS in DRIVE C, because i have many important
programs and data in
: that OS. Please help. Is it safe to install to XP over
windows 98 in c
: drive ?
:

 

[R. McCarty]

Good points - I seem to remember reading that an upgrade is
more akin to lifting up the existing OS and replacing it with XP.
I've done a number of upgrades where the user has an OEM
9X/ME and didn't have source disks for things like Office and
Quicken...I think the key to an upgrade is doing the prep work
like running the upgrade advisor and removing non-compliant
applications.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have windows 98 OS installed in Drive C: . Then i have another drive
and i am planning to partition it 2 partitions (D & E) and i want to
install windows xp in the second drive. How should i proceed ? If i
install the windows xp with a bootable disk will it detect my windows
98 OS in the C DRIVE? I want to make sure also that if i proceed
installing the XP in D drive it will not in anyway overwrites or mess
up my OS in DRIVE C, because i have many important programs and data in
that OS. Please help. Is it safe to install to XP over windows 98 in c
drive ?

The simplest way I've found to dual boot between Win9x/Me and WinXP
would be to partition your drive(s) roughly as follows:

C: Primary FAT32 Win9x/Me/Legacy Apps
D: Extended NTFS WinXP/Modern Apps

Adjust the partition sizes according to your actual hard drive(s)
size and the amount of space you'd like to allocate to each OS and its
applications.

Create the partitions using Win9x's FDISK so you can enable large
disk support (FAT32). (No need for 3rd party partitioning
utilities/boot managers and their frequent complications.)

Install Win9x/Me first, being sure to select "C:\Windows" (or
D:\Windows, if you prefer) when asked for the default Windows
directory. When you subsequently install WinXP, be sure to specify
"D:\Winnt" (or "D:\Windows," "C:\Winnt" as referred/applicable) when
asked for the default Windows directory, to place it in the other
partition. The WinXP installation routine will automatically set up a
Multi-boot menu for you. The default settings for this menu can be
readily edited from within WinXP. NOTE: If you elect to place
Win9x/Me on the "D:" drive, you'll _have_ to leave the "C:" drive as
FAT32.

This method can be adapted to using 2 physical hard drives by
placing the boot partition (C:, which still must be FAT32) and either
of the operating systems on the Primary Master hard drive, and the
second operating system on the second hard drive.

It is also possible to have a 3rd partition for shared
applications, but it would be necessary for such a partition to be
formatted in the common file format (FAT32). The applications would
also have to be installed into each OS (to ensure proper system file
placement and registry updates), one at a time, but the bulk of the
program files could be located on this common partition. I do not,
however, actually recommend doing this as, if you were to uninstall
such an application from one OS, you may not be able to gracefully
uninstall it from the second OS, having already deleted crucial
installation data during the first uninstall action.

Just about everything you need to know (URLs may wrap):

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q217/2/10.ASP

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gettingstarted/multiboot.asp



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Stephen Whitlock]

The easiest to install XP on a 98 machine is to boot to windows 98 and
the insert the XP CD and allow it to autorun you will then be presented
with the option to either upgrade or intsall a new copy. Somewhere there
is an option to allow you to choose the install partition which should
be selected. A word of warning if you do a new install avoid installing
XP to the 98 partition as it will probably cause problems over a period
of time. When the system reboots it will then allow you to create and
format partitions on the second drive in the system. I personnally have
never found the need to backup a 98 system while installing XP but if
there is critical data on the 98 system then backup. The easiest way
(all be it the slowest) is to get spare hard disk and copy the entire
contents for the 98 disk to the spare, however the Windows folder will
have to be copied seperately as the swap file (win386.swp usually in the
Windows folder) will not copy, you will probablly need to select the
option to view all files.