Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Dual Boot system help (98se & XP pro)

OK, I need a little help. I currently have a HDD with XP pro on it. I am getting a new HDD and want to make a dual boot system with 98se & XP pro on it. I have read everywhere that I need to install 98 first in its own partition(i.e., C), and then XP into its own(i.e., D).

What I wanted to do was use Ghost to image my current HDD, then remove it. Install the new HDD, partition it and install 98(into C).......but my question is, can I install the IMAGE of my current drive (with XP pro)into the other partition(in D), or do I have to do a clean install of XP from the CD. It would save allot of time to just install the image, but I'm not sure if that will work.

Any help is appreciated.

You can put the ghost on to a different partition but getting it to work is the tricky part. I think you might be able to do like you said then boot from the xp cd-rom and do a boot repair but I have had inconsistent success with that. If you have room on the new drive then try this, do like you said then do a new install on the C: drive. Modify the boot.ini afterwards to point to the D: drive and you should be set.

This one tells you about the boot.ini
MS KB 289022

The OS should work fine but expect a few things to be screwy because of the drive letter change. Unless you really need something from the current XP install you would be better off just doing it from scratch.

By the way, I have never tried what I just recommended

It depends on what filesystem you are using with XP Pro. If you are using NTFS, then yeah, you will need to install 98 first. Otherwise, if you are running Fat32, you can probably install in any order.

I think you would be able to add an entry to the XP Pro's boot.ini that points to the windows install on the other drive (the D: drive) so when it's boot loader begins, it then begins reading from the the bootable image on the D: drive.

However, even if you have NTFS, I do believe the following procedure will work, but is a bit involved...

One final choice is to simply go to your BIOS and choose a different boot order. Many BIOS now let you choose your boot drive. So, you can simply say you want to boot from the D: drive. Yeah, it's a pain since you have to change each time, but ultimatly might be the easiest way to get this dual boot started.

First boot from XP and copy the 98 CD image to the D: drive that you format with a Fat32 file system.

Create or get a win98 boot floppy.

Take the floppy out and set your BIOS to boot from the D: drive. Before you make any changes, write down your boot settings, so you can return them if A) This doesn't work and/or B) we want to return control to the XP boot loader. Then, ensure the machine doesn't boot from the C:\ drive. It should fail to boot totally as long as the D: drive is not yet bootable.

Then boot from the floppy and begin the win98 install, making sure you install to the D: drive. Don't let it format or touch the C: drive. (I like this better than trying to build a boot floppy that contains CD drivers and such, and the install is much faster from an image already on the HD.)

You can then install windows to the D: drive, let it go through the reboots until it is done.

Then, go back to the BIOS and set it back to boot from the C: drive and your Windows XP should boot.

You have a file in C:\ called boot.ini

This file is probably system hidden and read only, so you might need to change some settings.

My two daughters each have a Win98 and Win2000 image on their hard drives. I did install Win98 first, and then Win2k, but you should be able to figure out how to modify the boot.ini to do this. However, make a backup copy of your boot.ini

Anyway MY boot.ini looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

In your case, you will probably have entries similar to the first two, after that you need to add something that looks like: D:\="MS Windows 98"

What my files means is the default O/S on the machine is on the second partition in the \WINNT directory. This is specified in the [boot loader] section
There is a second section called [operating systems] and this is where you can list all of the available O/S's and where they are.

It is in the [operating systems] section where you will list the location of Win98.

Now when the machine boots, you will get a menu to choose which O/S you want.

I believe the default timeout is 30 seconds, but I've changed my machines to 5 seconds. This is specified in the [boot loader] section.

I hope this helps, double check it, your mileage may vary. I'm not responsible if either I'm wrong or you screw up.

I wish you well.

TB

I would just use Partition Magic. Make three partitions on the new drive. The first boot partition is just a small one that allows you to pick which partition you want to boot from. The other two have to two operating systems on them. Use ghost to back up your old drive. Make one of the partitions that same size as the imaged drive was. Then run ghost and put the data back on the new partition. The old HD can be your storage. If you have any space left on the new drive use that as storage also. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I am have great trouble typing anything meaningful today. I will try again later if you have any questions. Good Luck!

Not to go OT, but... Mike! You live! Drop me a PM!

Yes, partition magic will work. My method doesn't repartition any drives. It simply puts WinXP on a drive and Win98 on a different physical drive.

XP will be able to see the Win98 drive, but if XP is on NTFS, win98 will not be able to read or write that.

So any data you want to use on both operating systems will need to be on a Fat32 Filesystem.

TB

PS, I realize I didn't really answer the first question. I guess I wouldn't touch an already working O/S, so that's why I gave a very different answer.

Or, you can just use System Commander to dual boot. Its a great program and works pretty well.

Edit:
System Commander Info

why the hell would you want to install 98?? it's the devil