Hi,
I have an old desktop (NEC) computer with a 20G HDD that I formatted
(FAT32) into two 10G logical drives. Note: This computer also has a FDD.
I have installed WinXP Home Edition in the first (C
partition.
I am thinking about changing the "active" partition (temporary) to D:
partition using a floppy boot disk and "Sector Access" to edit the MBR
partition table where the active partition "flag" is located, making D: the
active partition. Note: I will save the MBR before making changes.
Afterwards, I would like to install Windows 98se into logical drive D:.
The next time I turn on the computer, it should boot up Win98.
I have a good reason for doing this, and I will explain it later.
Am I overlooking something?
Thank You in Advance, John
PS, Remove "ine" from my email address
Generally, you install the more modern Windows OS second. If
you wanted to install Win98 and WinXP, you'd install Win98 first,
then WinXP. The reason for that, is then the MBR issues are
handled automatically for you. The WinXP partition is "active",
WinXP has a second entry in the boot menu, for the Win98 OS,
and WinXP starts to boot, but via the boot menu, you can
switch it to complete booting into Win98.
If you install in the "wrong order", then Win98 is going to
install its MBR boot code in the MBR. Something has to handle
the situation, of there only being one active partition,
and two OSes on the disk. Something has to provide the
boot management function in that case. Windows 98 doesn't know
what "WinXP" is, and hence, it can't know how to handle it
from a boot management point of view.
-----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
MBR (512 bytes) | WinXP Partition | Win98 Partition |
Win98_boot_code | | * Active Flag |
-----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
So if you move the boot flag, and make an empty partition
the active one, then start an install, well, it'll be fun
for a few minutes. But then, your problem will be, how do
you start WinXP ? It's not going to be able to start. And
if you do some kind of "fixmbr" with your WinXP installer
disc (to reload the 440 bytes of boot code in the MBR), that
will solve the WinXP problem, and then you'll have the problem
with Win98.
Maybe you could do that, and then add a line to the WinXP
boot.ini , so the Win98 partition is listed as a boot option.
In any case, if you really cared about the current WinXP install,
you'd back it up entirely. So that, if this experiment
gets stuck at some point, you have a "bare metal" restore
capability to put your hard drive back together.
If I was carrying out the above suggestion, I'd also want
my Win98 installation, to end up on "C:". In the diagram
I drew, the partitions will be enumerated in order. To the
Win98 installer, it could potentially look like:
-----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
MBR (512 bytes) | C: | D: |
| | |
-----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
(I know this, because I've run into the problem of drive
lettering, while installing WinXP using MSDOS.)
To solve this problem, I'd probably make the first partition
invisible, while installing Win98. I'd want to fool Win98
into thinking the first partition isn't there. Then, the
installer enumerates them as:
-----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
MBR (512 bytes) | (Empty space) | C: |
| | |
-----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
To make the first partition seem empty, I'd change the
partition type to 0. You can use PTEDIT32 to do that.
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
(It looks like this.)
http://www.vistax64.com/attachments...n-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif
If I wanted to make the first partition invisible, in that
example, I'd replace "DE" with 0. And then later, put the original
value back, once the "hacking" is complete.
Note that the PTEDIT32 tool also supports changing the boot flag.
Only one partition can be marked active. Any other combination of
byte values is illegal (i.e. you're not supposed to have two partitions
marked with 0x80 flag).
As for what value you put in the boot.ini of the WinXP partition,
to make Win98 boot, I haven't a clue. This page has a few suggestions
on tools or approaches to use.
http://thpc.info/how/editbootini.html
Installing on separate disks (on a desktop computer), makes this
easier to manage. I have WinXP on one disk, Win2K on the other disk,
and can unplug either disk, without affecting the ability of the other
one to boot. When you put two OSes on the same disk, and later decide
to delete one of them, then there can be trouble waiting for you.
Installing Win98 into a virtual machine (i.e. download VPC2007 and
install it inside a VM), is another method to getting Win98 running.
For example, I have my copy of Win98 running right now, in a window,
and can copy and paste files or text strings, between my WinXP desktop
and the Win98 running in a virtual window.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...22-6eb8-4a09-a7f7-f6c7a1f000b5&displaylang=en
Paul
