How setup Win XP and Win 98SE dual boot?

[dderolph]

I'm interested in installing Win XP and having the option to boot with either OS. I'm under the impression this is easier to do with two physical hard drives, but it can be done with one hard drive that's partitioned. Anyone familiar with the procedure?

 

[AtTheGates]

I did this just a few days ago. Apparently it is possible to install XP first and then put 98 on the same hd but I didn't have much luck. If you install 98 and then XP, XP will detect the 98 install and setup the dual boot option.

Edit:
Thought I'd add a little more. I did not like having both OSs on one drive. Wierd drive letters and other problems I can't remember. It probably would have worked fine if I took some time to customize it but I had a second hard drive sitting around so I installed XP on one and 98 and linux on the other. I like this much better.

 

[dderolph]

I'm currently running Win 98SE. So, as I understand your post, when I start the installation of Win XP, I'll see a screen where I can choose whether or not to setup a dual boot configuration. I presume I would be leaving Win 98SE on C and designating another partition to install Win XP. I wonder if the partition designated for Win XP should be completely empty, or could have some data files on it which could remain there?

 

[redbeard1]

The main thing about about the dual boot is to have them, at the least, on different partitions, not separate drives. Though you could use two hard drives.

If you install XP by booting from the cd, as long as you put XP on a separate drive\partition, it will automatically set up the dual boot without prompting you.

XP needs a minumum 2 gig free space to install. By the time that you run all the updates, it almost uses up 3 gig. Existing data on the drive isn't going to bother it, as long as you have enough free space.

 

[dderolph]

Thanks redbeard1. I've got plenty of drive space. So, I think I'm going to go ahead with this.

 

[redbeard1]

Oh, and when it gets to asking about the format on the destination drive, choose the option to use existing. Otherwise it will format the drive and you would lose the data on it. And, as always, backup everything before you do it, because you just never know.

 

[civad]

The main thing about about the dual boot is to have them, at the least, on different partitions, not separate drives. Though you could use two hard drives.

I prefer the two-HDD option. The XP one I keep ntfs-only. Use a smaller HD ( abt 30 GB or so) for Win 98 / fat32

 

[dderolph]

Oh, and when it gets to asking about the format on the destination drive, choose the option to use existing. Otherwise it will format the drive and you would lose the data on it. And, as always, backup everything before you do it, because you just never know.

Got ya. In other words, keep the drive under FAT32. Otherwise, the drive would be formatted under NTFS, and I would lose all existing data. Thanks for mentioning that.