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[lukefromoz]

sorry guys proberly wrong section for question but here it is anyway, how do i partision my system so i can run win 98 of this system aswell as my current winxp. what risk are there too my system from doing this as im not a computer expert (obviously otherwise i would need to ask) and how do you make the system load the windows of chopice up from start up?

If someone can just point me in the right direction that would be great, thanks guys (and girls ).
luke

[Icewolf]

Hm, I think you have to have two partitions on your harddisk. (that is easy)
And then you have to configure a bootloader. (this I have no clue of... )
You then can choose from what OS you want to boot.

[Iain]

It might be worth having a look at virtual pc (now a free download from microsoft) ... load windows 98 into the virtual pc running on your xp !!

Sounds complicated but is very easy .. its how I run the older games .. I have vm's (virtual machines) for dos, windows 98, etc ....

Iain

[The Fifth Horseman]

Virtual PC is an option, and one that works quite well.

Another is to install an extra hard drive that runs Windows 98.
That's what I did. This drive is not normally plugged in (no way it's going to be, with 80, 120 and 250 gb IDE drives plus a DVD recorder already taking up the entire IDE interface), but when I want to run 98 it's a child's play to unplug the other drives and plug this one in.

[gregor]

If you weant to have two systems you will first need to defrag the disk.

After that is done you have to use a programme like Partition magic. that kind of programme will make a new partition and unlike fdisk and similar it will leave all your files intact (f disk formats partition :-/)
theprograme can make new partition only on the psace that was left after defraging the disk.

You will have to create FAT 32 partition.

that said it is imporatntto note that only first 1000 sectors of disk have boot/root capability. so the system has to be installed somewhere in the first 5GB sections of hard disk (at least that is how it used to be with old disks).

once you make the partition ini that area with FAT32 file system you can boot your computer with win98 CD rom.

then you install windows98 to your new FAT32 parition.

If you are already using FAT32 (instead of NTFS) on your WinXP, thne all you need to do is create a parition in those first disk sectors.

for example i had first 2 GB of disk filled with WIN98 then i had 3 GB for linux and then WIN 98 again all the way to the end. i have plenty of disk partitions. i just find it safe if one crashes i can use the other. i also plan to instakk the NTFS, cause FAT 32 goes only up to 130GB (means i still have 30 GB of disk unused - not that i really need it)

all you need to do now is find a bootloader like LILO or any simlilar one. once you install the boot loader you will always get a choice which system to run when you start up your computer.

[Geezer]

Click here for Microsoft's instructions. Pay particular attention to the order in which the operating systems are installed. I have a machine that can actually triple boot between DOS, Win98 and WinXp which is entirely possible if you do things in the right order. What I will describe here is for dual booting, however.

Here is what I did. Start with a disk configuration with at least two partitions.

If you are starting with a clean disk or disks, boot to your Win 98 installation CD or disk. (The BIOS setup program will have an option to switch to "boot from CD" as the first option.) The Win 98 installation options screen should kick in automatically. If it does not and gives you a command prompt .. Run the FDISK program from the Win 98 cd to partition your drives. (Note: If you can't boot to a CD and have a Win 98 emergency disk lying around you can boot using it and then access your CD to run fdisk or you can run fdisk from the emergency disk itself.) Enable LDA if it asks. Create partitions as desired. After the drives are partitioned run the format command on all the partitions i.e. "format c:", "format d:" etc. It will ask how you want the drives to be formatted .. select 32 bit disk access. (fat32)

Install Win98. (Run the setup program)

After Win 98 is installed simply install Win XP from Win 98 making sure that you select the option to install a fresh configuration and NOT an upgrade. (NOTE: I have to admit that I don't remember if you have to have the FULL version of XP or if the UPGRADE version will let you do this.) In other words install Win XP to a directory on the partition that does not have Win 98 on it. The XP installation will take care of setting up the multiple boot configuration. After you have Win XP installed start the machine in XP and go to the control panel and click on the "system" icon and then click on "advanced". Click on the "start up and recovery settings button" and you should see a drop down box that has both operating systems listed with XP as the default. Change the default to whatever you want and make sure to change the "time to display list of operating systems" setting to something like 10-15 seconds. From then on when you boot the ntloader program will present the list of OS choices and count down the number of seconds you selected before it automatically selects the OS that you set as the default.

I prefer this method because it lets XP do the maintenence on the master boot record (MBR) instead of some third party software program. If you are not well versed in these things you may want to go with a third party program just to feel more comfortable.

Note: if you want to convert your XP partition to NTFS you can do that after the OS is installed but be advised that it is irreversible and that you won't be able to see the NTFS partition when running Win 98.

[Japo]

Geezer, in order for you to be able to choose OS at startup, is it necessary to install all OSes in the same partition, or can they be in different ones?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Different ones.

[win98]

I run windows 98 and XP on my older windows games PC as I use XP on it for looking after it and other things.

[lukefromoz]

Hey thanks guys, i downloaded virtual machine and after 4 hours waiting for it to download its installed with my win 98 operating system.
I am ahppy and sad at the moment, i now can shut down to dosmode thru 98 and get my new copy of Battlespire (cost me $10 with 2 vother games at a tender centre) (its a spin off from the elder scroll series if your interested) to run but i need a mouse driver for the dos environment now i use to have one but must of lost it when i moved last year. If anyone has one i would be very happy theres nothing worse then paying for a really old game spending 12 hours finding ways to get it to run just to get stumped by needing a mouse.
Thanks again guy