XP/98 dual boot -- possible to keep XP the "C" drive?

[Mitchell Spector]

I've recently installed two new hardisks (120GB and 40GB) and attempting to
create a dual-boot with Windows XP and Windows 98. So far, however,
I've had very little luck. I think once I have one *key* question answered it
will all make sense (more below).

First off, is this set up possible...?

120 GB HD - Boot drive with Windows XP (NTFS) seen as drive "C".
40 GB HD - Secondary drive, Windows 98 (FAT32) seen as drive "D".

I've been trying this and XP fails to automatically create a dual-boot,
and if I run in console mode and do a "BOOTCFG /SCAN" command
it fails to recognize the Windows 98 drive. Back to that key question,
I'm now assuming this is because the FAT32 drive has to be the
bootable device on your IDE chain. Is that right?

I could partition the 120GB as FAT32 and NTFS, but I'm afraid in that
situation my XP partition will end up with the assigned drive lettering
of "D" and some programs may not like this. I don't suppose I could
have XP's Administrative Tools options change the drive lettering,
could I?

The other option is to place the Windows 98 drive on a different IDE
controller (my motherboard has ATA/33 and ATA/66 connectors,
the former of which I've stopped using) and use the BIOS to choose
which drive to boot. That's rather a clumsy method though.

Mitchell Spector

 

[Richard Keirle]

http://www.theeldergeek.com/dual_and_multibooting_xp.htm

regards, Richard

 

[Richard Keirle]

....you perhaps should have divided your larger 120gb drive into several
smaller drives first, using fisk.exe. (watch out for the older fdisk.exe not
recognizing hd's larger than 64mb. Go here to get the newer fdisk.exe :-
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q263044

To use XP's dual boot manager, you have to install W98 first, on say, drive
C: (Fat32)
then boot from your XP cd-rom and you'll get a larger range of install
options when you select the "new installation."
the eldergeek site is very good and explains dual-booting very well.

Seeing as you're dual booting you may want to adjust things so that you've
got a common email message store, address book etc.
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/clone.htm

regards, Richard

 

[Michael Stevens]

I've recently installed two new hardisks (120GB and 40GB) and
attempting to create a dual-boot with Windows XP and Windows 98. So
far, however,
I've had very little luck. I think once I have one *key* question
answered it will all make sense (more below).

First off, is this set up possible...?

120 GB HD - Boot drive with Windows XP (NTFS) seen as drive "C".
40 GB HD - Secondary drive, Windows 98 (FAT32) seen as drive "D".

I've been trying this and XP fails to automatically create a
dual-boot,
and if I run in console mode and do a "BOOTCFG /SCAN" command
it fails to recognize the Windows 98 drive. Back to that key question,
I'm now assuming this is because the FAT32 drive has to be the
bootable device on your IDE chain. Is that right?

I could partition the 120GB as FAT32 and NTFS, but I'm afraid in that
situation my XP partition will end up with the assigned drive
lettering
of "D" and some programs may not like this. I don't suppose I could
have XP's Administrative Tools options change the drive lettering,
could I?

The other option is to place the Windows 98 drive on a different IDE
controller (my motherboard has ATA/33 and ATA/66 connectors,
the former of which I've stopped using) and use the BIOS to choose
which drive to boot. That's rather a clumsy method though.

Mitchell Spector

 

[Michael Stevens]

I've recently installed two new hardisks (120GB and 40GB) and
attempting to create a dual-boot with Windows XP and Windows 98. So
far, however,
I've had very little luck. I think once I have one *key* question
answered it will all make sense (more below).

First off, is this set up possible...?

120 GB HD - Boot drive with Windows XP (NTFS) seen as drive "C".
40 GB HD - Secondary drive, Windows 98 (FAT32) seen as drive "D".

I've been trying this and XP fails to automatically create a
dual-boot,
and if I run in console mode and do a "BOOTCFG /SCAN" command
it fails to recognize the Windows 98 drive. Back to that key question,
I'm now assuming this is because the FAT32 drive has to be the
bootable device on your IDE chain. Is that right?

I could partition the 120GB as FAT32 and NTFS, but I'm afraid in that
situation my XP partition will end up with the assigned drive
lettering
of "D" and some programs may not like this. I don't suppose I could
have XP's Administrative Tools options change the drive lettering,
could I?

The other option is to place the Windows 98 drive on a different IDE
controller (my motherboard has ATA/33 and ATA/66 connectors,
the former of which I've stopped using) and use the BIOS to choose
which drive to boot. That's rather a clumsy method though.

Mitchell Spector

You would need to use a third party boot manager for your proposed
configuration.
The primary hard drive needs to be fat for Window 98, and 98 should be
installed first to use the XP boot manager.

Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address box.
Boot manager Links
BootIT NG from Terabyte
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/
BootMagic that ships with PartitionMagic
http://www.powerquest.com/
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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