[RESOLVED] Duel-Boot

[mosupv]

I am going to set up a duel boot with Win98 and NT4. Which is the easiest, installing NT first, or installing Win98 first?
Can you put NT startup files on FAT32, or does Win98 have to run on FAT16?
I'm going to make an NTFS partician and a FAT partician, can the FAT partician be 32 or does it have to be 16?
Thanks.

[JeanneD]

has to be fat16 to dual boot NT

[lysergic]

Or use something like system commander. I have found that if you use a fat 16 partition for both that eventually 9x will hose NT. Seems 9x eventually corrupts the boot record. With system commander you can have a fat 32 partition for 9x and a NTFS for NT. They dont see each other and can not mess with the others files.

If you do use the same partition for both then install 9x first. Then NT will give you a boot menu by defualt. Also eaiser in that you do not need to use the 3 NT install disks.

[Darren Wilson]

install 98 first or your NT installation will go out of the window(s ) http://www.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smile.gif

the boot partition has to be FAT16 as NT nativly cannot read FAT32 partitions although there is a FAT32 reader available to download form MS which will allow NT to read files froma FAT32 partition. Make sure that the FAT partition is large enough to take all the progs you are going to be running under 98 as 98 will not read a NTFS partition.

Your best bet would be to use just FAT partitions as then you can install if need be the same software for both OS's into hte same sub-directories from each OS and therefore conserve a lot of disk space through not having to install the same software in 2 separate places.

[Elvis Incognito]

Do yourself a favor- get Partition Magic. Great program. You'll find plenty of other uses for it.

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Thankya... thankyaveramuch.

[Midway]

Question:

Does the win95/98 programs run under Nt 4.0?

Or might I buy new ones?

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Sent by:
Midway
From:
MIDWAY Diseño y Desarrollo

[techyguyguy]

I agree using partition magic. If you look hard enough, you'll find an ftp site that'll give it to you for free. Make sure you get version 4.0 for windows. Version 3.0 (DOS version) does not work on FAT32 hard drive. When you install NT on the new partition, it will then prompt you everytime when you boot up whether you want to boot into windows or NT.

[stevet]

Darren is right. The best way that I have found to dual-boot 95 or 98 with NT is to install both OSes on the same FAT16 partition (install Win98 first). Then make the rest of the drive one FAT32 partition and download FAT32 for Winodows NT from <a href="http://www.sysinternals.com/fat32.htm">www.sysinternals.com</a> so that you can read the FAT32 partition from NT. This allows you to, first of all, see all partitions from either OS and, like Darren said, save space by installing programs for both OSes on the same partition in the same directory. There are a few Windows programs that will not work under NT, but for the most part all of your apps will work fine under NT.

As for Partition Magic, you will NOT find it for free on the web (if you do, it is pirated). If you dual-boot NT and 98 on separate partitions using PM's Boot Manager, you will not be able to see the other OS's partition while in the other. Partition Magic will hide the Win98 partition while you are in NT and will hide NT while you are in 98. So, using Partition Magic to set up a dual-boot will not allow you to share any files between OSes unless you create a 3rd FAT partition. Not a good setup unless you want to run NT in an NTFS partition for some reason.

At home, I have a 10GB hard drive and set it up like this:

1 - using fdisk, I made the first partition a 2.1GB FAT16, then the rest of the drive an extended FAT32 partition.

2 - I installed 98 on the FAT16 partition.

3 - Then, while in 98, I started the install of NT.

This worked flawlessly the first time. Windows 98 will be part of the NT startup menu. I downloaded the FAT32 for NT drivers and installed them in NT (the free version allows NT read-only access to FAT32, but for $39 you can buy the full version so you can read and write to FAT32 from NT).

I hope this helps,

Steve