Installing Win XP on a backup partition?

Hi all,

I want to try out WinXP Pro w/SP1 on my Win98SE system. I used Partition Magic 8.0 to make a backup partition for Win98SE system, which is 8GB and the OS partition is 10GB. Hard Drive capacity is 20GB.

Since I cannot install WinXP on Win98SE partition, I decided to install it on the backup(D:\). Is this Ok? I was also thinking about dividing the backup partition into 3GB and 6GB and install WinXP on that 6GB. Any suggestions? Is that enough disk space for WinXP to work properly, including is swapfile?

Thanks.:)

8 gig is more than enough for winxp - drive d: is also fine... it will however put the boot files it needs on c:... so no formatting c: without thinking later :D

Why does that happen though? It should do that if I set the installed directory to D:\

Of course I don't want to format my C:. Precious things there. :)

A bugs in typing. Sorry guys, it should be 6GB on the D:\ partition for installing XP. The space size for D:\ is 8GB, divided into 2GB and 6GB, installing XP on the 6GB.

Thanks NooNoo.

6 gig is fine. If it were 3 gig I would advise you to keep a lid on the temp files and turn of system restore.... however 6 gig is lots.

as for the C:\ drive.. the boot loader, that allows you do dual boot called ntldr and the boot.ini files must on the c: drive. Also when installing xp make sure you have bootsector protection off... it needs to write to that too. You can turn it back on after.

--NooNoo,

How can I accomplish that? Creating Ntldr and boot.ini? and how to turn off the bootsector protection? Does Partition Magic have an option to do all this for me? or I have to deal with it on my own?

Thanks.

XP creates the files it needs to control the boot.

In bios you may have boot sector protection option... but not all boards have this option, you may have a virus protection option in the bios, again not all do, but during the XP install it should be off.

Partition magic has done its job. It created new partitions for you. I hope they are correct because it will cause problems if XP detects overlap or the sums dont add up.

The partition is correct, NooNoo. No problem with it. But it's not Primary, it's a logic partition within the extended partition, where I stored my backup files for Win98SE I imaged using Drive Image. Confused?

C:\ Win98SE ---- 10 GB (Primary Active)
D:\ Backup ----- 8 GB (Extended has one logical)

My plan using Partition Magic:

D:\ Backup(extended) ---->D:\ Backup (2 GB) --- Logical
\ \
E:\ WinXP (6GB) --- don't know I think it'd be logical too

Is this possible? It doesn't seem right because I can't boot WindowsXP from a logical partition. It has to be primary. Two primary partitions will do. Am I right about this?

Thanks.

It does not matter on which partition you tell XP to install because it will happily put the files it needs to run windows anywhere there is enough space. In order it can manage dual boot it will put files on your c: drive. Specifically ntldr and boot.ini. It knows what its doing.

I dual boot 98 and xp. XP is on d: - d: is an extended partiton and is the first logical drive in that partition. The boot files that xp needs reside on the c: primary active partition, the rest live very happily on D:

Ok. That is all I need. Thanks NooNoo. :) I will install it by this weekend.

Also remember that if you format in NTFS win98 will NOT be able to see the WinXP drive. But WinXP will be able to see the 98 drive so your safe there. I would suggest keeping it all Fat32.