XP Home & 98SE Dual Boot

Hi to everyone,

This question is about something that i am wondering if can be done. Such as dual booting Windows XP Home (SR1 Updated) and Windows 98SE.

What i am wondering is:

1. Which operating system has to be installed first, as at the moment i have XP Home installed on my C:\ drive?

2. Do i need any extra software such as a bootloader program for this to work?

3. If i format C:\ and then install a new copy of XP Home on C:\.
Can i then install a recent ghost backup copy of my up to date XP Home files, on top of the basic XP installation on C:\?

4. Can i do the same with the 98SE files on the D:\ drive as in question 3?

5. I have my computer networked together with my son's computer (Mine XP Home, his 98SE).
If i do the dual boot on my computer, will it cause any problems with the network setup?
The two computers are linked by two network cards and a cable.

My computer hard drive specs are as follows:

80GB hard drive partitioned off with the:

C:\ drive (XP Home)
D:\ drive (File system backups)
E:\ drive (Ghost Backups)
F:\ drive (Ghost Backups)
G:\ (Recovery, made by the computer maker)
J:\ drive (File system backups)

27GB hard drive partitioned off with the:
K:\ drive (File system backups)
L:\ drive (File system backups)

Thanks in advance.

 

Yes it can, but it is best done W98 first, and the C: disk must NOT be NTFS. It can also be done after the XP insatllation but it is harder. Again the C: disk must be FAT32, and you must have another partition in FAT32 to put the W98 on.
Try this site,
http://www.dougknox.com/
And use site search for dual Boot. for instructions.

 

Hi Huon,

Thanks for the reply.
If i do the dual boot on my computer, i was going to do it with 98SE first as you have said.
It's just that i read so many entries on this forum, that i was starting to get a bit confused about it all.

In one of the posts i read, someone said that there must be two primary partitions for the different operating systems.
But, i remember sometime in the past, i used Partition Magic and it would not allow me to set up two primary partitions on the same drive.
I may be wrong about this, as it was some time ago and i may have done something wrong then.
Can you varify this point at all?

The site that you mentioned is excellent, and it has laid some of my fears aside.
But it is the point about Norton Ghost and my backups, can they be installed from Ghost itself or from a CD backup.
To overwrite all the basic setup files in XP Home and 98SE, as i would hate to have to re-download all of the updates to both operating systems again.
Plus, all of the additional software that i have.

By the way all of my partitions that i have on my computer are FAT32.

Thanks again.

 

FWIW, you can install W98 after the fact, I've done it several times. Do a search for BOOTPART on the Internet, very useful package that does most of the work. Also, look for BOOTSECT, a useful utility to allow you to extract boot sectors.

 

I am uncertain on the Ghost question. I suspect that the ghosted C: image would overwrite the newly installed dual boot, and set you back to where you were, but someone more familiar with that program will have to answer that question more precisely.

 

Hi johnwill and Huon,

Thanks for the replies.
I will wait and see if i get any replies to the Ghost question, as that is the main thing that i am wondering about.

Especially as i have to use a spanned CD set to update 98SE, and i am concerned with whether it will do to the right partition and operating system.
I know that the backup that i have for XP will be ok, as i can boot to the xp partition in Ghost.
And then choose the latest C:\ backup to overwrite the basic Ghost files.
But as i said i am concerned about the 98SE part of this exercise.

Thanks again.

 

If you are using Ghost to restore a drive you should restore the primary partition first (C:\), which contains the boot files.

 

Hi Dan O,

Thanks for the reply.

If i have this right then.

I have to format my C:\ drive, and then install 98SE onto it?
Update it with my spanned Ghost CD set?
Then boot using the XP Home CD?
And when it asks i put XP onto the D:\ drive?
Xp will sort out the boot up problems and set up a boot structure for the two operating systems?
I then put in my Ghost boot disk, and then update XP Home with my backups i have on E:\ to bring it up to date?

Then after all of this has been done, i should have a computer with two operating systems on it.

C:\ - Windows 98SE
D:\ - Windows XP Home
And a choice of boot up options, for which operating system i want to use.

Three more final points to clarify please:

1. Can i use FDISK or something to Format the current XP C:\ drive?

2. Will 98SE install itself from the 98SE CD onto the blank C:\ drive? Or will i have to use a 98 SE boot disk at the same time?

3. Will the network i have at the moment between my XP Home computer and my son's 98SE computer.
Be affected by the drive letter change from C:\ to D:\?

Pardon the basic questions, but it is just to make sure that i have everything correct.

Thanks to all for help.

 

From what I'm reading, you are not going to succeed. When you restore a GHOST image to the C: partition, you'll wipe out the MS-DOS boot files that are part of W98. In addition, since you didn't do the entire physical disk, you'll still be left with the MS-DOS MBR, so you'll end up with a system that doesn't boot at all!

If you want to retain your existing XP installation on C:, you'll have to do the following.

- Convert the C: partition to FAT32. (necessary because W98 can't boot from NTFS)

- Install W98 to the D: drive.

- Use a utility like BOOTSECT to fetch the MBR from the boot drive to later boot MS-DOS (W98).

- Use BOOTPART to fix the XP boot files and BOOT.INI

If you want XP on an NTFS partition, I'd install W98 on C: XP on D:, in that order. You should be able to do that without any extra utilities, though they're mighty handy to have around anyway.

 

Hi johnwill,

I think that this is starting to go over my head a bit, and i am glad that i decided to ask about this before doing anything.
Can you point me to the utility Bootsect?
As i have looked for it on Yahoo and i can't find it, or is it part of 98SE itself?
The utility Bootpart i have found, and i will do some reading about it to find out exactly how it operates.
As i mentioned before all the partitions that i have on my hard drives, are all FAT32 format.

Also is there any more detailed information on any websites, that explain your method step by step please.
As i didn't realise that Ghost operated this way, and i forgot about the boot sectors.
You could have saved me hours of work.

Thanks.

 

If you only want to add 98 to your PC with XP follow these instructions: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

 

Hi Dan O,

Thanks for the link.
It may take a few days reading this all again, and the information that is on the link.
Just to make sure that i can understand it all.

Thanks to all for the help.

 

Here's a place to get Bootsect.

As far as instructions on BOOTPART, the ones on the WinImage site are reasonable.

 

Hi Dan O,

I went to that site that you gave the link for, and i followed the instructions.
But, now i have a dual boot system that when i choose Windows 98SE it just returns to the screen asking what operating system i want to choose.
Do you have any ideas on how i can fix this please.
By the way i can get into Windows XP Home ok.

Thanks in advance.

p.s. The second partition D:\ that i am using for Windows 98SE, i made into a Primary Partition.
Because i failed in doing this procedure once, and i thought that it might be because D:\ was a Logical Partition.

p.p.s
This my Boot file: (A folder with the Notepad icon on it)

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=C:\

[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

This another folder the same as above but called boot

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

This is Boot._ _ _ (I have three small underscore lines after the dot)

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

This is an icon like a lined paper page, with a cog in it:

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=C:\

[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

 

The Debug steps are required. Did you follow the procedure exactly "Repairing the Windows® XP Boot Loader" as listed in the link?