Hi, Tarkus.
Yes, that should work fine. Except for the few "system files" that start
the boot process, WinXP (and Win98) can be installed on any volume on any HD
in your computer.
Physically install your second HD (cables, jumpers, BIOS settings, etc.).
Then boot from your WinXP CD-ROM and let Setup run normally, directing the
installation of WinXP to the second HD. Setup will handle the partitioning
and formatting for you, if you like, but it probably will default to putting
the entire 40 GB into a single partition. (See below for a few details.)
Then Setup will proceed to "clean install" WinXP. First, though, when it
detects that Win9x/ME is installed, it will copy the Win9x boot sector to a
new file named C:\bootsect.dos. Then it will overwrite the boot sector on
C: with its own NT-style code, and it will write the "system files" NTLDR,
NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini to C:\. Then it will install WinXP wherever you
tell it.
Each time you reboot, you will see a menu asking whether you want to boot
into Win98 or WinXP; you'll have 30 seconds to decide before it defaults to
one of them. In WinXP, go to System Properties | Advanced | Startup and
Recovery \ Settings. Here you can choose your default system and also
reduce the delay time. (While you're on this page, remove the check box
from Automatically restart, under System failure; otherwise, if WinXP hits a
glitch, your computer may just "randomly" reboot and you won't have a clue
as to why.)
Note that the computer will always start the boot process in the System
Partition (typically C
, and then will branch to wherever C:\boot.ini
points to load your chosen OS.
If you prefer, you can first boot from your MS-DOS boot floppy and run FDISK
to create the partitions you like. You might want to run Format.exe from
that floppy, too, to format your new partition(s) in FAT32. As you probably
know, WinXP can mix and match NTFS and FAT volumes as easily as it mixes
floppies and CDs. But Win9x/ME cannot read, write or even SEE an NTFS
volume. So C: must remain FAT, or Win98 can't even boot; whichever volume
Win98 is installed on must also be FAT; any volume that you want to access
from Win98 must be FAT. So long as you continue to dual-boot, you probably
will want to format all volumes FAT32, just for maximum compatibility.
Microsoft has limited WinXP's ability to format FAT32 to volumes smaller
than 32 GB, but it has no trouble using larger volumes formatted FAT32 by
Win98. So if you want your new 40 GB HD to have a single 40 GB volume
formatted FAT32, you should partition and format it from MS-DOS or Win98
before you run WinXP Setup.
Once you have WinXP up and running, be sure to find and study the built-in
utility, Disk Management. At the Run prompt, type: diskmgmt.msc This
program is what you should use to create, delete and format partitions,
except for the System and Boot volumes, which are created and formatted
before or during Setup. It also manages your CD/DVD drives, USB "flash"
drives, digital cameras and other devices that can be assigned a "drive"
letter. See Disk Management's Help file for details.
RC
