Win98 and XP on different HDs?

[capman21]

Guys I have a pc with win98 and the primary drive, and I want to take another hard drive that has XP on it and use it as the slave drive in the same pc. Now when I boot the pc it should give me the option to choose which OS I want to use shouldnt it. Also, I know if I choose the win98 OS it will not show the XP drive, but when I am using the XP OS it will show the win98 drive wont it? In other words when I am in the XP OS will I be able to drag files from the win98 drive to the xp drive.

[gadgetguy]

You will not be given a choice of OS in the scenario you've described. It will always boot to Win98 and it will depend on the file system used on the XP drive as to whether Win98 will recognize it or not.

[kschang]

No, it should not. You never set up dual boot, so it wouldn't appear magically just because you connected 2 drives.

[capman21]

Than how can I or can you make xp fat32. This is the main reason I am having to do all of this http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1166478923

[Richard_G]

There are two ways of doing what you want to do. You can fit the XP drive as a slave as you suggest but, as already pointed out, it will always boot into 98 from the master drive. However, you can go into your bios and set the boot sequence to boot from HDD0 (the 98 drive) or HDD1 (the XP drive). If you disable the 'Boot from other Devices' option, it will then boot into whichever you have set first.

Alternatively, install the second drive and then do an XP install on it. It will detect 98 on the master drive and ask if you want to update it. If you say you don't want to update but want to install on a different partition and then select the slave drive partition. You can do an install over the top of an existing one and it shouldn't alter anything. Once XP has installed you will get the option of which operating system you want to boot into.

[capman21]

Thanks, that solves it completely. I was just worried abbout over writing 98.

[Heavensent]

the boot from the xp hd might not work if your hardware
is not the same as the system it was installed on.

if it doesnt work, you will have 2 options :

1 - install xp a full install (format the drive, any old data will be lost)
2 - make a repare to the xp install

i recommend a full install, that way you know what you are getting.

good luck

[bevills1]

All that need be done is boot to current Win98, launch WinXP setup and select do fresh install option instead of upgrade option. This will create dual boot system and give menu allowing you to choose which OS to boot when PC is started. Also WinXP can be installed on either NTFS or FAT32 partition. The WinXP install will see all drives, but Win98 will see only FAT32 drives. I have Win2k and Win98 dual boot, each installed on FAT32 partitions for complete compatibility between the two. Note FAT32 has limit of 137GB and limit of 32GB per partition as well. Don't forget to install all drivers for the new WinXP install.

[Fred J]

If you are interested in accessing NTFS drives from Windows 95 or Windows 98, then you should use NTFS for Windows 98, the latest version can be found at http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/ntfsdos.html

[capman21]

All that need be done is boot to current Win98, launch WinXP setup and select do fresh install option instead of upgrade option. This will create dual boot system and give menu allowing you to choose which OS to boot when PC is started. Also WinXP can be installed on either NTFS or FAT32 partition. The WinXP install will see all drives, but Win98 will see only FAT32 drives. I have Win2k and Win98 dual boot, each installed on FAT32 partitions for complete compatibility between the two. Note FAT32 has limit of 137GB and limit of 32GB per partition as well. Don't forget to install all drivers for the new WinXP install.

If I do it this way is there any chance that win98 could be overwritten? That is my only real concern.

[Scorpion King]

I would recommend a backup of your data first. lol You never know what might happen and you could loose your files.

By what I remember reading about dual booting with XP is that XP has to be installed first, then the second OS.

Good luck.

[bevills1]

The only way Win98 would be over written is if you choose the upgrade option during setup or if drive C is selected for WinXP install. Just choose the new install option which will create the dual boot setup desired, and you're good to go. You may also want to select "I want to choose partition to install" by clicking "Advanced Settings" during setup if you want the WinXP installed on a particular drive, and select any drive desired except drive C because that's where Win98 is. I've done this many times, and it works flawlessly.

[bevills1]

Just realized Scorpion King post about installing XP first is backwards. Win98 must be installed first because only NT based systems like Win2k and WinXP will enable dual boot setup, and trying to install Win98 after WinXP will not allow Win98 install and give error message something like "Setup can not continue because current Windows version is newer version." Also you need only run Win98 setup again if any serious problems were encountered during WinXP setup; note this will retain all Win98 programs and settings. Be sure you're system can boot to CD if needed, or be sure you have a working Win98 startup floppy; then boot to startup disk and select "Boot with CDROM support." I've also done this a few times when necessary and had zero problems.