NT/98 Dual boot scenario

Bard

I've all sorts of questions about dual booting Windows NT and 98... mainly...

which should really be installed first? - can I now install WinNT4 Workstation alongside my Windows98SE installation sitting on FAT32? (unlikely I expect - a backup, scratch down and reinstall is certainly an option)

are there any pages out there which anyone would recommend which give a run down, instructions or recommendations when setting up dual-boot between these two o/s'es... ?

that is all ... for now

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Gavin

For information about installing multiple os's have a look at the linux documentation project,
www.netsoc.ucd.ie/LDP , for a local mirror.
They have a several HOWTO's there that deal with installing win98, NT and linux. Obviously you can ignore the linux part, but it's still quite useful.

Your bext bet is to format your hard drive.
Create 2 primary partitions to put win98 and nt on, then use the extended partitions for programs, games etc.

It is easier to install Win98 first, then install WinNT, as the NT bootloader will pick up the 98 installlation and add it when it installs. Doing it the other way around, 98 will clean the mbr, and you will need a boot disk to get back into NT to reload it's boot manager into the MBR.

Apart from that, it's shouldn't be any bother. Just personal preference, but I would keep the partitions for the OS's as small as possible. My c:\ partition with win98 is only 700 mb large, then i install all my programs on an other partition.

If you want to completely isolate both partition from each other, you can make the win98 partition fat32, which nt cant read, and make the nt partition NTFS ( which I am fairly certain 98 cant read, but not 100% )

Umm... not too well explained there. Just have a go at it, nothing bad will happen anyway. And keeping all your stuff on seperate partitions, if you need to reinstall, all you need to do is just clean the os partition off.

Gav

_CreeD_

You can only have one primary partition. And unless you want to play with a proper bootmanager you will need it to be Fat16 (Both OS's will be booting from here regardless of which partition you opt to install them to).

Yep Win98 does not read NTFS, NT does not read fat32 - without the aid of external programs.

Gavin

You may only be able to have 1 active partition, but you can have more than 1 primary partition.

Gav

sutty

I'v installed NT4 on a fat 32 file system.....lots of times, it can read fat32 out of the box

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Ciaran Sutcliffe
aka: sutty
[HIV]sutty
For a good time goto:
http://www.hotinternetvirgins.com

Gavin

Win NT 4.0 cannot read fat32 without external drivers
http://www.sysinternals.com/fat32.htm

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One of the most difficult problems you can face when trying to configure a computer to support dual-booting between Windows 9x and Windows NT is that Windows NT doesn't support FAT32 partitions.
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http://www.net-engineer.com/net-tech-win2000.html#a15


Gav

Draco

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by sutty:
I'v installed NT4 on a fat 32 file system.....lots of times, it can read fat32 out of the box

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B0llocks it can. The version I have flatly refuses to have anything to do with fat32 partitions.

Draco

Bard

Actually screw it... it doesn't have to be NT4... Win2000 would do (might be preferable in many ways) for the business o/s. The home o/s MUST be 98 though (and not Millennium).

Does it make it any easier if its Win2K? How's that with FAT32? How's it with installing on a system that already has 98?

'elp

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Gavin

Win2000 can read fat 32, so just install win98 first. Then 2000, both on seperate partitions. ( things get screwy installing them both on the same partition )

Gav

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Verb:
Win2000 can read fat 32, so just install win98 first. Then 2000, both on seperate partitions. ( things get screwy installing them both on the same partition )

Gav

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Ok - well scenario is that 98 is already installed and fine and happy and I don't want to fu<k with it as it is (apart from fixing a niggly little bug in my display applet in control panel ) ... does a 2nd operating system not have to have files on the boot partition also? Don't they both boot off the same (active) area?

Gavin

There can be up to 4 primary partition on a hard drive. You can install a seperate OS within each partition.

In order to boot each OS, you will need a boot loader in the MBR. When the puter turns on, the boot loader gets loaded up instead of a specific operating system ( if only win98 is installed the MBR just points to the win98 partition ). The Boot loaders will then offer you the option of booting whatever OS you wish. Win NT/2000 has an inbuilt bootloader that will handle this for you.

Your problem now is this. Windows fdisk is only able to create 1 primary partition. The way to get around this is either use fips ( not exactly sure if it will work) or find something better than fdisk. Partition magic or the like.

What fips does is that when you run it, it analyses your partition information, and you can then tell it to squash a paricular partition, freeing up and hd space not being used on it. For example.
You have a 10 gig hard drive with 1 primary partition of 2 gigs and an extended partition of 8 gigs with a few logical partitions in it.

the primary partition ( c:\ ) is only using say 700 mb, thus leaving 1300 free. When you run fips, it will allow you to create a new partition using that spare 1300 mb ( or however much of it you wish to use ). So, you decide to create a new partition of 500 megs. Fips takes the 500 mb from the 1300 leaving you with a c:\ of 1500 mb and 500 mb of free unpartitioned space.

Now, the thing is, I don't know if fdisk will be able to take this 500 mb and create a primary partition from it. It can be done, definitely, I've done it with a linux fdisk program, but I don't know if the windows one can handle it. You can try it, and if it doesn't work, just use partition magic or the like to create a primary partition out of it.

Follow ? Have a read of that HOWTO up above for some more info.

Gav

Bard

I follow, aye, - but I'd rather do this without re-partitioning. I have 2 physical drives, C and D - each 6GB and with Win98 currently installed on C. D houses a few games, and a few of gigs of backup material, (legal) mp3's, installer files for drivers, essential programs, etc. etc.

Can I not just have both o/s'es running off the same primary partition ("C")? - This would be preferable.

Gavin

You can install both os's to the same partition alright.

I did it with win2000 pro and win95b.
The problem is that things can be a bit dodgy. For some reason microsoft office then refused to work in either os. Things crashed a bit more. But that was 95, and 98 might be a bit more stable. You may as well give it a go. You can always uninstall 2000 if things are a bit suss.


Gav


ps. sorry if i am explaining things u already know. I'm too used to explaining things to non computer people

Catch_22

yes no probs,
just go install 2000 on the other drive and all will be well

c22

Bard

Catch_22: I'll be installing them on the same drive.

Verb: I truly appreciate the feedback - thanks!

I won't actually be running the same applications from both O/S'es - 98 will be purely for a unique set number of applications and 2000 will be for another unique set of applications, so that should circumvent problems such as your one with Office.

Thanks for the (bloody quick!) feedback, everyone!

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Gavin

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Thanks for the (bloody quick!) feedback, everyone!
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hehehe, that's what you get when you ask questions when it's approaching exam time

Gav