Running a 2nd OS with Vista Home edition (Windows 98?)

[kplumm]

I've lost a magazine I had that talked of having dual OS's. I'd like
to put Windows 98 on my Toshiba laptop if it can be done. Following
various problems I have put Vista and all the Updates on 3 times now,
so I don't want any risks. I read a little bit about Virtual PC and
wondered if there were other options. Also, what happens about
drivers? Will, in 98 mode, the laptop use the Vista drivers?

All advice/ suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows 98 is obsolete and will not install or
run on a new laptop. Contact Toshiba support
Windows Vista troubleshooting assistance.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

I've lost a magazine I had that talked of having dual OS's. I'd like
to put Windows 98 on my Toshiba laptop if it can be done. Following
various problems I have put Vista and all the Updates on 3 times now,
so I don't want any risks. I read a little bit about Virtual PC and
wondered if there were other options. Also, what happens about
drivers? Will, in 98 mode, the laptop use the Vista drivers?

All advice/ suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Windows 98 is obsolete and will not install or
run on a new laptop. Contact Toshiba support
Windows Vista troubleshooting assistance.

How does Windows 98 know that the laptop is new?

 

[Gordon]

Windows 98 will not install or
run on a new laptop.

And your evidence for that is?

 

[Nonny]

And your evidence for that is?

I think he's safe on that one. Especially if it's a Vista laptop.
Many manufacturers don't provide XP drivers, so it's unlikely that the
Mfr will supply Win98 drivers.

 

[Canuck57]

Windows 98 is obsolete and will not install or
run on a new laptop. Contact Toshiba support
Windows Vista troubleshooting assistance.

If he uses a VM like VirtualBox, it presents old NIC and HD setting, it just
might work in a VM. Most VMs abstract the real hardware from the guess OS
in an emulation layer. Can't say I have tried it but it might work. That
is, Windows-98 does not need SATA drivers, just enough smarts to use the
emulation BIOS aught to be enough. For devices like CD-ROM, might want the
VM to provide them as SCSI to Win98.

 

[Canuck57]

Well his only problem could be if the laptop uses sata...then he could
have a real problem finding, if they even exist, the proper Win98 HDD
drivers.
Frank

Frank, you are truly one stupid know nothing twit.

In a VM, it does not present to the guest the raw hardware. It presents an
emulated device.

You would not need SATA drivers if you say presented a ATA or SCSI interface
in the VM.

Go back to your sniping. It is what you do best.

 

[Canuck57]

I think he's safe on that one. Especially if it's a Vista laptop.
Many manufacturers don't provide XP drivers, so it's unlikely that the
Mfr will supply Win98 drivers.

You only need to make sure you can get drivers for the emulator devices in
the VM.

2nd, I have yet to see a mobo I couldn't get XP drivers for. That is, show
me a vendor that produces a Vista only mobo or a Vista only video card? How
about a Vista only hard drive? Is there a Vista only chipset from Via, AMD
or Intel I haven't heard of?

The real truth here is a PC vendor doesn't want to support it. That is
quite a bit different than not being able to get drivers. This is a FUD
line to Heil Vista crowd. If it runs Vista, it will run XP at this point in
time. And it is almost certainly to run XP much faster and be compatible
with older devises Vista no longer supports.

Another point, Dell, HP and others are not going to be so quick to produce a
Vista only PC any time soon. Most businesses only support XP with no near
term plans to expand into Vista. In fact, most businesses I know are
seriously considering skipping Vista like WinMe. Vista is a turd and they
know it.

 

[KDE]

you can probably do it, although there are definitely going to be hurdles to
get win98 to install.

to dual boot, you need a new partition on your hard drive, (use the drive
manager built in with vista) your new partition will have to be formatted
in fat32 as win 98 does not support NTFS. here's where your fun will
begin. Most Win98 disks will not boot. you will need a win98 startup disk,
usually saved to a floppy, however most new laptops no longer have floppy
drives. you can get a boot disk image online, and you may be able to use it
from a sd card or thumb drive (google is your friend). after you have a new
partition restart your laptop, and make sure your BIOS is set to boot from
whatever you have your win98 boot disk saved to. it will boot, and find
your win98 Cd run win 98 setup, carefully making sure you install it only
to your new partition. assuming all goes well, when you are done you will
boot into win 98. The odds that all your hardware (graphics card, sound,
ethernet, wifi), will be supported in win98 are slim so you may end up with
a lame duck OS. you will need to scour the web for specific or generic
win98 drivers for your hardware. To set-up the dual-boot, restart your PC
with the Vista DVD in the drive. When asked - boot from the DVD when
set-up pops up select repair, and then repair start-up. after a few minutes
the PC will be ready to restart and this time will boot back into Vista.
Now download a program called Easy BCD, and run it (in administrator mode)
It will allow you to change your boot loader to give you the dual boot
option when you boot.


Win98 requires so little resources, that it would run great in virtual PC.
That is a much better option.

 

[kplumm]

Ha ha. Christ. Well, anyway, it sounds risky enough to cause a
barney as an issue so I'll leave it well alone.
Thanks anyway. But, boys...

 

[Mark]

I would go with Virtual PC.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Your best bet is to use Virtual PC, as drivers for your laptop to support
Win98 will likely not exist. What specifically were you hoping to use Win98
for? It's pretty easy to set up in a VPC, just like installing to a blank
hard drive (you even need a boot floppy - this too can be emulated).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com