Dual Booting with Win98SE

[Bill in Co.]

Is it possible to use a second partition on my XP's system drive for
Win98SE, but not go to all the trouble of actually installing it there, but
instead, simply use a partition copy made from my other W98SE computer
(preferably without having to somehow get into its registry and delete the
enum devices key, first).

That way I wouldn't have to reinstall all my applications (ideally).

The idea here being: when I first boot up into Win98SE, windows will look
for new drivers and stuff (and I'd have to remove some unknown devices, I
expect), but ideally I wouldn't have to reinstall all my old applications -
IF this could work.

I know it may be a long shot, but it is even possible?

 

[M.I.5¾]

Is it possible to use a second partition on my XP's system drive for
Win98SE, but not go to all the trouble of actually installing it there,
but instead, simply use a partition copy made from my other W98SE computer
(preferably without having to somehow get into its registry and delete the
enum devices key, first).

That way I wouldn't have to reinstall all my applications (ideally).

The idea here being: when I first boot up into Win98SE, windows will look
for new drivers and stuff (and I'd have to remove some unknown devices, I
expect), but ideally I wouldn't have to reinstall all my old
applications - IF this could work.

I know it may be a long shot, but it is even possible?

Your Win98 installation from another PC *might* work, but at the very least,
you would most likely have to perform a repair install and you would
certainly have to install motherboard chipset drivers. I have known people
get installations like this working, but more likely, you will have to make
a fresh install.

 

[Gerry]

Bill

You are supposed to install Windows 98 before Windows XP.

Have you read this KB Article?

How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306559


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[gerryf]

I to, have got it to work, but not in a long time....if your system is
newer, you may not be able to find drivers.

The real problem with this scenario is that you would be putting windows 98
on the second partition.

Windows 98 can only boot from a first partition.

You would need to image your win98 partition, wipe out your current XP
system, re-image your current system to win98, then install XP to the second
partition. XP can run from a second partition, but needs to install some
boot files to the first partition.

 

[gerryf]

You know, another, better solution for you might be to image that windows 98
disk, then load Virtual PC (free download) on your XP machine.

In Virtual PC, create a new windows 98 virtual machine, then ghost your
current windows 98 image to the Virtual PC one. I think you will have to
actually install windows 98 first, then image it just to set the size of the
vritual machine and to initialize it, but after that, I suspect you could
move the clone to it quite easily.

You might still be wise to load into safemode the first type and clear the
enum keys, then restart, but because the Virtual PC hardware is so generic,
you probably don't need to do that.

After that, you can run your VirtualPC is full screen mode and it would
approximate your old 98 machine....you just need to have enough ram to pull
this off (at least a gb will make you much happier)

 

[Bill in Co.]

I know that, but it's way too late for that. (Oldest first, newest last).
That's fine and dandy if you want to start all over, but I sure as heck do
NOT!

 

[Bill in Co.]

Yeah, ok, it doesn't sound too promising. (I don't even know if there is
such a thing as a "repair install" for Win98SE, actually - but perhaps it
has that, however).

Hmmm. Maybe another idea - a better idea - would be to cleanly install
Win98SE. But then (somehow) figure out a way to get all the other stuff
transferred over after just doing that. Like maybe with PCMover.
Hmmmm....

 

[Bill in Co.]

I to, have got it to work, but not in a long time....if your system is
newer, you may not be able to find drivers.

The real problem with this scenario is that you would be putting windows
98
on the second partition.

Windows 98 can only boot from a first partition.

Well if that is true it would be simpler putting it on a second HD, which I
could do.

You would need to image your win98 partition, wipe out your current XP
system, re-image your current system to win98, then install XP to the
second
partition. XP can run from a second partition, but needs to install some
boot files to the first partition.

Hmmm. Maybe another idea - a better idea - would be to cleanly install
Win98SE. But then (somehow) figure out a way to get all the other stuff
transferred over after just doing that. Like maybe with Laplink's
PCmover. Hmmm....

 

[Bill in Co.]

I've thought about that, but figured it would add too much overhead, and
that it wouldn't really be the same thing as installing W98SE the normal way
(except for needing more memory in VPC), but maybe I'm wrong about that.
Surely there must be some other drawbacks to doing this over a native
Win98SE installation.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I to, have got it to work, but not in a long time....if your system is
newer, you may not be able to find drivers.

The real problem with this scenario is that you would be putting windows
98 on the second partition.

Windows 98 can only boot from a first partition.

You would need to image your win98 partition, wipe out your current XP
system, re-image your current system to win98, then install XP to the
second partition. XP can run from a second partition, but needs to install
some boot files to the first partition.

No problem. Use Partition Magic to shift Windows XP to the back end of the
drive leaving space at the beginning. Shove Win98 in the gap left.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Bill

You are supposed to install Windows 98 before Windows XP.

Have you read this KB Article?

How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306559

However, if you use one of the many third party boot managers, you can
install 98 after XP. Boot Magic (comes with Partition Magic) works
particularly well.