Need help on first install

[Kalisperas]

I'm preparing to build my first PC. This will not only be the first PC I've ever built, but also the first Windows based machine I've ever owned. I think I've got all the building procedures figured out, but I need some advice on what to do after that. I'll be installing WinXP Home on an 80 GB WD, but I'll be using the system for mostly gaming, and I've heard the XP isn't great for gaming as many older games and peripherals won't work with it. I've read about the option of installing XP and Win98 on seperate partitions on the same drive, but the whole dual-boot thing sounds like a major pain. What I'd prefer to do is pick up a cheap smaller secondary drive, and just install Win98 on that and boot from whichever I need at the time from the BIOS.

But all this is rather new to me, so I need some advice. First, as a gamer, do I really need 98, or are these reports exaggerated? Second, about formatting and partitions: I'm only familiar with Macintosh format standards, so terms like FAT32 and NTFS are pretty much greek to me. It seems like I read that Win98 can't recognise NTFS, but all the install guides I've seen for XP say to use that format. So if I format my primary drive in NTFS, and boot off my secondary drive in Win98, will I not be able to use any applications off my primary drive? Also, what is the feasibility of this setup? I don't even know if Windows based machines can selectively boot from multiple volumes. And if they can, is there an easier way than configuring it in the BIOS?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[cleverhandle]

If you're going to use 98, you'll want to install it first. There are other ways, but that's definitely the easiest.

I doubt you really need it, though. Unless you're talking *really* old (like, DOS) games, most people have no problems with XP. I've got a variety of games running back to the original Diablo that all work fine. If there's a particular old game you're interested in, post the name and some people might have stories to tell.

 

[Kalisperas]

I guess what I heard about XP was a bit blown out of proportion. I still think I would like to have 98 in addition to XP, if only as a "just in case" measure. And I think I may as well go with a dual boot setup, as I read some articles on it and it doesn't sound as difficult as I thought it would be, and it sounds more convinient than using two seperate drives. But now I have another question: is there a way to use a CD as a boot disk? Or perhaps I should say, is there any way for me to create a CD to use as a boot disk? I ask this because I don't forsee any great need for a floppy drive on my new machine, and subsequently haven't ordered one. I'd also prefer to keep my floppy bays open to install an LCD. And even if I did have a floppy drive on the new machine, my only operational computer right now is my iMac, which has no floppy drive, therefore I have no way to create a floppy boot disk. I tried downloading a couple of boot disks and extracting them in Virtual PC, but they expect me to insert a floppy to extract onto. I did find one which simply decompressed into the various boot files, so can I simply burn these files onto a CD and boot from that? I've read that the XP CD is bootable, but forces you to install XP, and I need to install 98 first for dual boot, right?

Thanks!