Re: Dual Boot Advice Needed
- From: "R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:05:10 -0500
Hi, Tarkus.
Yes, that should work fine. Except for the few "system files" that start the boot process, WinXP (and Win98) can be installed on any volume on any HD in your computer.
Physically install your second HD (cables, jumpers, BIOS settings, etc.). Then boot from your WinXP CD-ROM and let Setup run normally, directing the installation of WinXP to the second HD. Setup will handle the partitioning and formatting for you, if you like, but it probably will default to putting the entire 40 GB into a single partition. (See below for a few details.)
Then Setup will proceed to "clean install" WinXP. First, though, when it detects that Win9x/ME is installed, it will copy the Win9x boot sector to a new file named C:\bootsect.dos. Then it will overwrite the boot sector on C: with its own NT-style code, and it will write the "system files" NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini to C:\. Then it will install WinXP wherever you tell it.
Each time you reboot, you will see a menu asking whether you want to boot into Win98 or WinXP; you'll have 30 seconds to decide before it defaults to one of them. In WinXP, go to System Properties | Advanced | Startup and Recovery \ Settings. Here you can choose your default system and also reduce the delay time. (While you're on this page, remove the check box from Automatically restart, under System failure; otherwise, if WinXP hits a glitch, your computer may just "randomly" reboot and you won't have a clue as to why.)
Note that the computer will always start the boot process in the System Partition (typically C:), and then will branch to wherever C:\boot.ini points to load your chosen OS.
If you prefer, you can first boot from your MS-DOS boot floppy and run FDISK to create the partitions you like. You might want to run Format.exe from that floppy, too, to format your new partition(s) in FAT32. As you probably know, WinXP can mix and match NTFS and FAT volumes as easily as it mixes floppies and CDs. But Win9x/ME cannot read, write or even SEE an NTFS volume. So C: must remain FAT, or Win98 can't even boot; whichever volume Win98 is installed on must also be FAT; any volume that you want to access from Win98 must be FAT. So long as you continue to dual-boot, you probably will want to format all volumes FAT32, just for maximum compatibility. Microsoft has limited WinXP's ability to format FAT32 to volumes smaller than 32 GB, but it has no trouble using larger volumes formatted FAT32 by Win98. So if you want your new 40 GB HD to have a single 40 GB volume formatted FAT32, you should partition and format it from MS-DOS or Win98 before you run WinXP Setup.
Once you have WinXP up and running, be sure to find and study the built-in utility, Disk Management. At the Run prompt, type: diskmgmt.msc This program is what you should use to create, delete and format partitions, except for the System and Boot volumes, which are created and formatted before or during Setup. It also manages your CD/DVD drives, USB "flash" drives, digital cameras and other devices that can be assigned a "drive" letter. See Disk Management's Help file for details.
RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX rc@xxxxxxxxxxxx Microsoft Windows MVP
"Tarkus" <tarkus@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uua771haoe6vghfcdmm8kp60jmu2gapun7@xxxxxxxxxx
I'm running Win98se on a 40gb hard drive with about 5gb free. My plan
is to add another 40gb hd, install Win XP and have a dual boot. How
does that sound? Some literature I have talks about this but on one hd
that has a second partition. I think it says that when you boot, XP
will ask Win98 or xp. So will this idea work? Thanks.
.
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