Dual Boot W98SE and XP

[Dougie Nisbet]

I'm about to install XP HOME OEM. I want to parallel run with a W98SE
installation for a while until I'm happy with XP. I have two discs.
Currently W98SE is on the primary master. I'm pondering over the best way
to proceed. (I'm new to XP)

I believe XP has its own boot manager, so I'm assuming that if I install
XP to the free disk XP will at some point detect the 98SE install and
allow me to include it as a bootable drive? Would it be better to change
the 98SE install to be Primary Slave? If I do this, how can I create a
bootable floppy or CD so that I can continue to boot from this if things
go wrong with XP?

Hints and Tips appreciated,

Dougie

 

[Andrew Wright]

You have to leave Win98 as primary master to keep it working.

Just install XP onto the other disk and it will fix everything for you (you
may need to tell XP during the setup to keep Win98, too long ago to remember
exactly).

I have this setup exactly and it works perfectly. When or if you want to get
rid of Win98 it is just a matter of editing the boot configuration. You
could at this time swap the hard disks and make the XP on the master, but I
do not think you will gain anything by that.

One other point to remember Win98 will not be able to see any NTFS
partitions, so if you need to share data between the two OS's you will need
to put it on a FAT32 partition.

Regards
Andrew W.

 

[Dougie Nisbet]

You have to leave Win98 as primary master to keep it working.

ah well, I was bit too eager and have just discovered that the hard way.
My instincts were to move 98SE to the primary slave since in due course I
shall delete it altogether. I assumed XP would recognize that there was a
98SE install on the primary slave but it doesn't. It recognized the other
disk and type during the partitioning and formatting stage of the install
but I don't recall an option for telling it to retain it as a bootable OS.
When I go into the system options for the bootable OSs, it only sees
itself.

It's turned out not to be too much of a problem. The BIOS allows you to
over-ride the bootable device at boot time by hitting F9, and I can also
go into the BIOS setup and change the boot order for devices too. That's
what I've done, and for the moment I've got 98SE as the default system
while I gradually customize the XP install. I'd have preferred a nice
bootable options on boot but it's no big deal.

Next part of the adventure is to get Outlook to retrieve the email from my
Debian Linux box using IMAP. Ho-hum...

Dougie

 

[kenward]

You have to leave Win98 as primary master to keep it working.

Just install XP onto the other disk and it will fix everything for you (you
may need to tell XP during the setup to keep Win98, too long ago to remember
exactly).

I have this setup exactly and it works perfectly. When or if you want to get
rid of Win98 it is just a matter of editing the boot configuration. You
could at this time swap the hard disks and make the XP on the master, but I
do not think you will gain anything by that.

-----End Quoted (and cut) Message-----

Would that it were that simple to remove 9X.

I am gradually working my way through that same process.

Unpicking those NTLDR and HAL errors.

MK


_______________________________________________________________________
Michael Kenward Words for sale

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

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

C: Primary FAT32 Win9x/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 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 Win98
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

 

[Dougie Nisbet]

Greetings --

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

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

I already have Windows 98SE installed so I didn't really want to re-install
it. I want to parallel run it with XP until satisfied that the XP install is
ok. I thought I'd taken a really straightforward approach but XP's boot
manager has not recognized the 98SE disk. I made my
D>

 

[Dougie Nisbet]

Greetings --

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

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

Sorry my last post was such a mess. Windows tried to dazzle me with Filter
Keys (whatever they are) and when I said I didn't want them it sewage into
my keyboard.

I already have 98 installed so I don't want to re-install that. What I've
done is make 98 my primary slave and installed XP on my primary master. I
thought this was simple and straightforward and would according to the docs
at the URLs you posted be the right order to do things. i.e. 98 installed
first. When I installed XP I was surprised that it didn't detect that there
was a 98 installation. What is even more of a pain is that I can't detect it
retrospectively. I'd have thought that it'd be possible to go into Startup
and Recovery and configure the Boot Manager there. It only recognized my XP
install though and can't seem to see the 98 installation on the primary
slave. Which is odd as it can see the FAT32 filesystem and read the files.

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 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)

I can't recall getting asked for this when I installed XP. Have I missed
something? I've installed the Home edition. Is this a Pro thing?

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.

I wonder if that's the problem then. My boot partition is on my primary
master which is formatted as NTFS.

Dougie