has anyone install win98 after having win2000 installed? is it possible?

[CyberTiger]

I really don't want to uninstall win2000... if you have done it successfully please tell me what the tricks are.. thanks a lot.

 

[SUOrangeman]

THe key will be whether your C: is FAT16/32 or NTFS. If FAT, you should be able to install Win98 with no problems. Note, you do not have to install the OS on C:, but C: needs to be readable by the OS, thus FAT16 or FAT32.

You *should* be able to just run 'setup' as is from a DOS boot, but I always use 'setup /ntldr' just in case.

-SUO, ME beta tester

 

[CyberTiger]

yes i have FAT16. win2k on c:
after i install win98, do i have to do something special to make win98 appears on the boot menu? (i read somewhere that you need to copy boot.ini? where's that?

 

[Hyperchronismos]

Edit boot.ini, it should be something like (this is mine):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect


Add a line under [operating systems] like this:
C:\="Windows 98"

I think this will work.If anybody else thinks it will not, please correct me.

boot.ini should be at C:\boot.ini.It is hidden and read-only by default.

 

[Bozo Galora]

youre gonna be sorry

 

[SUOrangeman]

YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO EDIT C:\BOOT.INI YOURSELF. IT SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY BE EDITED DURING INSTALL.

What is Bozo complaining about now?

-SUO

 

[dave8311]

Just put Win98 on a seperate drive, and change the boot sequence in the bios, when you want to run 98.

This is much safer than trying to dual boot after W2K is already in.

 

[Hyperchronismos]

SUOrangeman:

Are you sure?Installation of WINDOWS98 will automatically edit boot.ini?How is this possible there is no boot.ini in any installation if Win98.

 

[A-star]

Solve this problem:
I have winME on the c:\ drive and win2k on the E:\ drive.
Their now dual booting nice.
WinMe crashes more often than win98se so I want win98 back on my c:\ drive.
Can i just format c:\?
Or is there another way?
I don't want to reinstall win2k again because it's has too many programs already installed and it would take me 1 or 2 days and I don't have that time

 

[Hyperchronismos]

I think that if you just make a startup disk and boot with it then format C:\ and install win98 everything will be fine.Oh no sorry you should save boot.ini in some way which is in C:\.And there are also other files like ntdetect and ntloader which are in C:\.Forget what I said I could experiment with my own stuff but I don't want to make any mistakes and make you loose data.

 

[dave8311]

He He he.........

 

[Hyperchronismos]

A-Star, here is another idea: Why don't you just remove the entire Windows directory and then install Windows on C:\.This way you will not loose the files that Win2k put there.

CyberTiger:

What have you done eventually?Did you manage to install Win98?

 

[CyberTiger]

I haven't install win98 yet. too busy at the moment and i am not all that familiar with dual booting. wish me luck!

 

[SUOrangeman]

I believe Win98 (and thus, WinME) is *aware* of NT's boot loader and knows NOT to destroy it. Win95, I don't believe is NT-Aware (came out before WinNT4, but I could be wrong about it's awareness). Just in case, I used 'setup /ntldr' to install WinME during beta testing so that it would NOT destroy my Win2K boot loader. Each time, it just added itself (if it wasn't already there) and made itself the default. How nice.

-SUO

 

[Bad Dude]

Since none of you guys seem to have the perfect answer, I am going to try to enlighten you all. Just follow these steps and you got the perfect dual boot system. I have used this setup for over a year now so no problem. So read closely:
With Win2000 installed, reboot with a Win98 bootfloppy. Created a partition using FDISK. Make the win98 partition active (option 2 when FDISK). Rebooted, formatted & installed windows98 in the fat32 partition. Run the debug(follow instructions for debug as below) & copied the file to a floppy. Then go again to FDISK and make the NTFS partition active. Booted to Windows 2000 & copied the file to c:\ and edited the boot.ini accordingly (as described below).
Here is the debug instructions and other steps to make the perfect dual boot system for NTFS and FAT32
1Create a primary partition at the beginning of the drive - Install Win2000 in that first partition.
2When done installing Win2000 reboot with the Win98 floppy and make another primary partition for Windows 98 and make it active using FDISK.
3Format the partition with FAT32 and then install Windows 98. When done installing follow the debug instrution below.
Debugging instructions
1Go to DOS box and go to directory c:\Windows\Command\
2Type debug.
3Enter these scripts:
L 100 2 0 1
n bootsect.f32
rcx
200
w
q
4Now reboot with the Win98 floppy again and use FDISK to make the first partition which has Windows 2000 on active again.
5Now copy the debugged file "bootsect.f32" to c:\
6Add the following line to the end of the C:\BOOT.INI file:
c:\bootsect.f32="Microsoft Windows 98"
Reboot and that's it.

 

[Alan5596]

I want to go the other way i.e. I have win98se installed and want install win2000 in a separate partition and create a dual boot

Any advice?

Alan

 

[Technonut]

There are a few ways to go about it. I used Partition Magic to create a partition, stuck in the 2000 CD while in Win98SE, ran the 2000 setup directing it to install to the partition that I made, and had the dual boot system going with no problem. There are other ways, but I found the way I did it easy, since I already have Partition Magic, and use it often to create and resize partitions without having to FDISK, format and reinstall stuff.