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"Dual Booting with XP and '98"

OK, I have XP installed, and I want 98 on a separate partition (which is prepared - 2GB).

I want to be able to put 98 on the 2gb partition without having to re-install XP.

Anyone help?

Right, you need a GRUB boot floppy. Um... search google for how to do this from a Windows computer, it's pretty easy but I've never had to do it myself. I once found step-by-step instructions, but while searching for a 3.5" victim I found my old grub floppy :-)

Right, so, you've got your disk. Now, assuming you have both Windows's installed and working, put your floppy into the drive and boot up. You get a prompt like this:

grub>

Now, type:

grub> root (hd

Then press TAB. You get a list of all available drives. Which one is which is hit and miss, so let's assume you want to boot the first drive, "0":

grub> root(hd0,1)

Now press "enter".

Now:

grub> chainloader +1
grub> makeactive
grub> boot

Then, fingers crossed!

I don't have one, but I have one available, so technically yes.

Shoot those commands!

Right. Install Win98 on the drive. Don't look at me, I've never done it.

Right, booting. I *think* you can use GRUB. This is a little tricky for newbies, but basicaly, you get a text-based ui, give it the right commands and it'll boot whatever drive. I'll give you the commands if you want to go ahead with this.

Windows may not like it though. Better make a backup of any important data. I assume you have a CD-RW?

Insane Bartender wrote:
> Surely Microsoft foresaw the possibility where someone might want a
> previous version of windows installed elsewhere on their hard drive?

Yes, but they've gone about it in the strictly logical way. i.e. if you want a dual-boot, and as XP is the newer OS, you'll already have 98 on the system.

Logical... but flawed.

Whooo! wrote:
> But even so, why not just use 98 then? XP is nice, and much more
> stable, and generally much better, but if you've got compatibility
> issues, there's not much point dual booting..

Xp is by far the better system, and definitely more stable, but I want 98 for some older games, and that's all I'd use it for.

I'd never go back to 98 as an OS.

Well, I have over a dozen games that XP won't run (in any of the compatibility modes) so having 98 on dual boot is the sensible solution. And I'd rather have 98 installed on a separate partition, as it's less messy.

But I really don't want to have to re-install XP. Surely Microsoft foresaw the possibility where someone might want a previous version of windows installed elsewhere on their hard drive?

If not, MS are laiden with folly.

To be honest I'm yet to come across any compatibility issues on either of my XP boxes.

But even so, why not just use 98 then? XP is nice, and much more stable, and generally much better, but if you've got compatibility issues, there's not much point dual booting..

win 98 = better compatability.

Out of interest, why do you want both 98 and XP?

Yep i agree with wookie, you have to install win 98 first then install winxp and winxp will detect a second operating system on the computer and put a boot up menu in, you don't have to make a partition on the drive you can use the whole drive for both operating systems as long as you use fat 32 not ntfs file system.

c.b.