Possible to install Windows 98 after XP (Dual booting)?

Jawadali

Senior member
Oct 1, 2003
995
7
81
Hello,

I was wondering if it is possible to install Windows 98 SE in a dual boot configuration with my current install of Windows XP. Ideally, I'd like to computer to boot into XP by default (without having to wait at a menu for user input), and only boot into 98SE if a certain key(s) is pressed.

I found this guide, but I don't think it will work because my C: drive is not a FAT32 partition:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

This is how my hard drive is currently set up:

Drive C: is my Windows XP partition, formatted as NTFS (around 8-10GB).
Drive D: is is my storage partition, also formatted as NTFS (Around 115-120GBGB)
Drive E: is an empty partition, formatted as FAT32 (32GB).

I would like to avoid reformatting or altering Drives C: and D: if possible. Also, I don't mind If I have to use a boot manager or some other software to accomplish this, as long as it's freeware.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Jawadali
 

pallejr

Senior member
Apr 8, 2007
216
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0
yes, it's possible. you need to have E: as your boot partition (it must be a primary partition, and marked as active).

what matters here is the program code stored in the active partition's boot record. This controls if xp's ntldr or w98's io.sys is loaded. So when you've installed w98, this boot record must be extracted. It's usually called bootsect.dos (google it, and find out how to extract it)

xp's boot files (usually ntldr, ntdetct.com and boot.ini) must be copied to e:

when done, you must install xp's boot loader code into E's partition. Can be done from the xp's recovery console with fixboot

in boot.ini you add the line

C:\bootsect.dos = "Windows 98"

because E: is now the primary partition, it will be given the letter C whenever you boot into w98.
 

Noema

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2005
2,974
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Any reason in particular why you want to install Win98SE that can't be accomplished via a virtual box in Virtual PC? :)
 

Jawadali

Senior member
Oct 1, 2003
995
7
81
Thanks for the help and ideas, guys.

I actually did (maybe still do) have 98SE installed via Virtual PC 2007, but it does not work well (and in many cases, at all) with older DOS-based games.

Additionally, my system consists of an Athlon XP-M 2500+/1GB RAM/Radeon 9700 pro (everything is stock as of yet), and although it appears to handle the Virtual OS well, I don't know if I'll run into any roadblocks down the line due to hardware limitations.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,553
8,832
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:thumbsup: A second vote for VirtualPC. This is great way to load an older O/S without the hassle of dual booting.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
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Originally posted by: Jawadali
Thanks for the help and ideas, guys.

I actually did (maybe still do) have 98SE installed via Virtual PC 2007, but it does not work well (and in many cases, at all) with older DOS-based games.

Additionally, my system consists of an Athlon XP-M 2500+/1GB RAM/Radeon 9700 pro (everything is stock as of yet), and although it appears to handle the Virtual OS well, I don't know if I'll run into any roadblocks down the line due to hardware limitations.

Win98se has issues with more than 512MB of RAM. You need to edit the SYSTEM.INI file, under the [386Enh] section (IIRC), and set MaxPhysPage= , to the total number of memory pages in hexidecimal. I don't remember offhand what that is for 512MB, but if you google you should be able to find out.
 

beezwhacks

Junior Member
Aug 20, 2007
1
0
0
I'm trying to get this working myself. I might just wipe the hard drive and start with Win98 since it's a new hard drive anyway. The good thing is, instead of using Virtual PC, ... is running real Win98 is a lot quicker running that XP or XP w/ virtual. If using same hardware, Win98 will run quicker than XP. "Simplify man".
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
35,057
67
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I got a lot of my old DOS apps working by modifying, AUTOEXEC.NT and CONFIG.NT, the files XP uses when starting the command line. Start by backing up both of these files so you can restore them if necessary.

The stock file, AUTOEXEC.NT and CONFIG.NT contain a lot of extra verbage which you should read to understand what you can add to the default commands as needed by your setup. You don't need the extra explanitory stuff in either file so you can shorten them to contain just the commands you need.

The commands in the stock CONFIG.NT are:

DOS=HIGH, UMB
DEVICE=%SystemRoot\System32\HIMEM.SYS
FILES=40

Some of my old apps need the functions of ANSI.SYS, but they're old enough that even later versions of MS ANSI.SYS don't work correctly so I use a third party ANSI.SYS substitute, EANSI.SYS. My CONFIG.NT file:

DOS=HIGH, UMB
DEVICE=%SystemRoot\System32\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=%SystemRoot%\System32\EANSI.SYS
FILES=40

Note that some installation programs have problems if ANSI.SYS is loaded in the command line function. To avoid such problems, keep a copy of both your modified version and the simplified stock file without the extra calls (EANSI.SYS in my case), and copy the simplified, stock version as CONFIG.NT before starting to install a Windows program. When you've completed your installation, restore your modified version of CONFIG.NT.

You don't need the extra stuff in AUTOEXEC.NT unless you need DOS Sound Blaster suppor. Read through it to see if you want to use the option. I just deleted everything but the essential commands. This is AUTOEXEC.NT with just the standard commands:

@echo off
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

You can try adding more commands to your AUTOEXEC.NT, but I had problems with that so I added another DOS batch file I named DOSSET.BAT that runs when I start the command line. To do this, create a shortcut to the command line, right click it, select Properties, and edit the target as follows:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /k dosset

This assumes CMD.EXE and your batch file are in C:\WINDOWS\system32. The extension, /k dosset causes the system to run the batch file when going to the command line via that shortcut. I use it to set the path and a few other tasks for my personal setup.

The only other problems I've had with this approach are:

1. Some old DOS programs are timing sensitive and may not run on newer, faster CPU's.

2. The batch file language in the XP command line is lacking some of the better features of the batch file language in real DOS, and some of your old commands will work, but differently, so you'll have to test your old DOS batch files to make sure they still work or whether you have to modify them to accomodate the one in XP.

Hope that helps. :)
 

WildHorse

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2003
5,006
0
0
For awhile I had to install WIn 98 in order to recover lots of old files compressed with DriveSpace.

I installed it in MS Virtual PC 2007 for a few weeks. After all files were recovered, wiped it out.

So this is another vote for using a Virtual Machine for your Win 98.
 

alexruiz

Platinum Member
Sep 21, 2001
2,836
556
126
Interesting thread.... Would it be possible to restore a Ghost 2003 image of a legacy OS into the virtual PC to avoid the "clean install"?