Dual Boot Win98/XP

Wizard* · November 12th, 2007, 02:29 AM

Hi everyone.

I am currently running 98se on my (C) drive. I would like to try XP on this machine and I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

I know that XP can be installed on one of my other partitions, and this is my plan thus far. I understand that after installing XP on my other partition a boot.ini file is created by XP. I only want to test out how XP will work with this machine and I may want to reformat that partition to reuse it for storage. So here goes:

I have been reading that if something goes wrong with the boot.ini file I will not be able to boot either os. If I choose to delete XP and return to my current setup of just booting (as normal) 98se, is there anything I should do as a precaution if anything goes wrong?

Another inquiry I have is that if I do get XP running, are any programs I install on the XP partition going to be creating any registry entries in the (C) drive registry?

I want to move very cautiously with this as my pc runs absolutely perfect in its current configuration, so I'm just trying to get as much information as possible beforehand should anything go wrong, as I'm not very proficient with pc's.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Wizard* · November 12th, 2007, 02:43 AM

Hi everyone.

I am currently running 98se on my (C) drive. I would like to try XP on this machine and I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

I know that XP can be installed on one of my other partitions, and this is my plan thus far. I understand that after installing XP on my other partition a boot.ini file is created by XP. I only want to test out how XP will work with this machine and I may want to reformat that partition to reuse it for storage. So here goes:

I have been reading that if something goes wrong with the boot.ini file I will not be able to boot either os. If I choose to delete XP and return to my current setup of just booting (as normal) 98se, is there anything I should do as a precaution if anything goes wrong?

Another inquiry I have is that if I do get XP running, are any programs I install on the XP partition going to be creating any registry entries in the (C) drive registry?

I want to move very cautiously with this as my pc runs absolutely perfect in its current configuration, so I'm just trying to get as much information as possible beforehand should anything go wrong, as I'm not very proficient with pc's.

Thanks in advance for any help.

**NooNoo** · November 12th, 2007, 05:48 AM

Welcome to Windrivers Wizard*

Have you considered just running the xp compatibility wizard? If you run the xp cd in 98, one of the options is the upgrade advisor. or you can download it here

No, XP will not change anything in the 98 partition.

Correcting the boot files is not a big problem. You just need to use fdisk /mbr and remove the boot ini file.

**Matridom** · November 12th, 2007, 07:42 AM

one thing you should keep in mind when installing XP is what file system to use. Win98 does not have the ability to read NTFS file system (the one XP likes to use) So for the best compatibility, install XP to a FAT32 partition.

Wizard* · November 12th, 2007, 09:20 AM

Many thanks for your replies.

**NooNoo** · November 13th, 2007, 04:24 AM

If you need anything else, post again.

**WEL1** · July 7th, 2008, 10:22 PM

I have Win98se installed on drive C: and XP profesional installed od drive D: which works perfect.
However I need drivers for Win98se to make it work. Where can I get them?
Thanks.