Advice on dual booting Win9x / Win2k

[DavidNewbould 0]

This isnt a post asking for advice on anything, i just want to make sure nobody else goes through the sh1t i went through when installing win2k and win98SE.

So this is my advice on how its done.

 

Ok, lets say you want to install win98 and win2k. First thing you need to think about is partitions. Its good to actually write how you want your hard disk structured - i chose the following:

C - Boot - FAT - 500Mb (boot partition)

d - Win98 - FAT32 - 1Gb (win98 installation + swap)

e - Win98_Stuff - FAT32 - 9Gb (Win98 games/progs etc)

f - Win2k - NTFS - 8Gb (Win2k progs)

g - Win2k_Stuff - NTFS - 10Gb (Win2k 'stuff';Storage basically)

 

-NOTE : To do this either use a 3rd party program or in fdisk leave the amount of space you want for NTFS unassigned, or create them as FAT32 and format as NTFS in win2k setup program.

 

So we've got these partitions set up, great, lets install.

First off, install Win98 on d: and put swap file in there etc.

Next, install win2k on f: and if its the size i made mine, then you can also install all your programs on this drive.

The reason for this order is because win2k will automatically create an OS choice menu if another OS is installed - win98 does not.

Also, if you have win2k on a partition before win98, then on booting up, the win2k drive cant be read and therefore the partitions are hidden - creating file path errors.

 

This is what happened to me:

Installed win2k on d: and win98 on e:

(had 3 partitions)

when booting into win98, the win98 drive became d: because the win2k drive cant be seen; "Windows cannot find file e:\windows\command.com"

When the file was "d:\windows\command.com"

 

Anyway, that should be all you need to do it, have fun

 

-David Newbould

 

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Life is a 5exually Transmitted disease with a 100% mortality rate.

[DavidNewbould 0]

ahem

[DavidNewbould 0]

*cough*

[Timelapse 0]

David,

Thanks so much for your in depth "idiot's guide" to doing all that stuff. Before i read your post i reall did have no idea what to do. You see, my dad got windows 2000 pro and told me to install it, but i read somewhere that 2000 wasnt very good for running notepad, so i wanted to keep windows 97 for that. My dad told me to "dewel boot" it, but i didnt know what that meant. I searched on the internet and found this.

 

Your instructions were amazingly clear david. I couldn't have done it without you. I have 7 partitons. My 20GB HDH is struggling to cope!!! But, it all works

i just installed windows 2000 like you said

and it put this little "Os chooser" thing

whatever an OS is.

 

Thanks again mate.

 

Tony

[Four and Twenty 0]

i can't tell whether this kid is joking or serious. also david why have your boot partition be fat why not fat 32 what advantage does this give you. personally i use 3 partitions c: 15 gb fat32 win me, d: 5gb ntfs 2k, e: 5gb ntfs Xp and my other hard drive is one big 76.3 gb ntfs partition for storage. This setup is working great and i have been using the 3 partition setup for a while for various versions of 2k 98 me and xp and it works fine. If you like to chop up you hard drive into 5 partitions go ahead but u are making it more complicated than it needs to be.

[DavidNewbould 0]

/me apologises for double post

 

[This message has been edited by DavidNewbould (edited 23 February 2001).]

[DavidNewbould 0]

i chose to have 5 partitions to keep the OS and the OS's software seperate, if you know what i mean...

 

So if the drive that the OS is on gets mega-fragmented (happens loads), then the progs will still run fast, and not need defraged.

 

Theres no real reason to have c: as FAT, thats just how i did it - thats why i wrote it.

 

In reply to "Tony" - erm you're welcome (??) and thanks for the nice comments....

But im not your "mate" ok, so STOP emailing me please.

[Timelapse 0]

Yeah soz dave.

No i was being serious about that.

Thanks again