Dual Boot Win95 and Win98

[CetiAlphaV]

I have a laptop I use at work and I also use it at home. I would like to boot into windows 95 while at work and then boot into windows 98 at home. What is the easiest way to do this.

 

[Radboy]

I tried to dual-boot W98 & W98/SE, but was not able to make it work. I tried numerous things, like BootMagic .. but no-go.

 

[SUOrangeman]

BootMagic or System Commander should be able to handle this with no problem. You just CANNOT use the same partition for each, as each OS needs it's own C: and it's own \Windows directory.

Now that I think about it, you MIGHT get away with a \Win95 and a \Win98 directory on the same partition if you don't use the default \Windows when installing. I still think C: will have to be different regardless.

-SUO

 

[Radboy]

I tried diff partitions, diff drives, everything I could think of. Could not get it to work. If anyone has actually done it, I'd be interested to know the secret.

 

[XeonTux]

You should be able to install on seperate drives. The most you would have to do is swap master/slave when you want to install the second drive, unless you can trick windows another way, then use a boot selector.

Using fdisk you won't be able to make multiple partitions that can house windows - it will only let you create 1 primary and the rest extended. dos/windows does not like to install on a extended partition. It may be possible to use a different utility (linux's fdisk comes to mind) that can create multiple primary partitions on the same drive, toggle each one as bootable as you install on the respective partition, and use a bootloader installed in the MBR or on another primary partition. (I think I've done this before)

 

[pen^2]

hmm... i am using korean and english windows on a single physicla drive subdivided into two logical drives. the primary partition is occupied by english win98se... well here is what i done: i created a boot file directory for each version of windowz on their respective drives. they contain boot files (command.com, io.sys, msdos.sys, config.sys, autoexec.bat) and batch files that use copy and sys command to switch between operating system after a reboot. the only drawback is when i am to make a switch from english to korean, i would have to manually edit 3 last lines of msdos.sys..... so far so good, no complaints whatsoever.

 

[KerbCrawler]

It can be easily done if you can dish out a few bucks for Partition Magic. Install one of the OSes and install the partitioning software. The manuals for the software will tell you how to install the second OS. You choose which OS to use when you boot up, and basically the partition with the other OS becomes invisible.

 

[danielshoes]

You MUST create two FAT32 primary partitions.

You will install each windows into a primary FAT32 partition. You can create up to four primary partitions on a single ide drive. It means that you can install up to four win9x/me into a single drive. YOU CANNOT USE dos/win9x/me fdisk for partitioning, because it only creates ONE FAT32 primary partition. Use partition magic, linux fdisk, or another decent partitioning tool. Forget ms fdisk!

Install The first win (on c drive.)

Install the free boot manager called Extended Operating System Loader (XOSL). You can find it at:

www.xosl.org

It will install itself on mbr. (It smashes PQ boot magic. Belive me).

I don't know, but I think that win9x/me must be in drive C. You cand hide the first partition, so the second will be the C. Install the second windows.

To boot the first windows: All partitions visible
To boot the second windows: Hide the first partition

If you try it, e-mail me.

 

[danielshoes]

Oops...
If you do exactly as I said, the second windows will overwrite the mbr, deleting the XOSL bootmanager, with the first partition hidden.
After this, you can install the xosl boot manager in the second windows and "unhide" the first partition. So, it will become visible again. I think it completes the process and two win9x/me can coexist into a single drive.

e-mail me to questions, if you want.