Dual boot

[Raffaz]

Ive got dual boot system with win me and xp on. Im having loads of problems with graphix driver on me partition, so im thinking about putting 98 on in its place. How can i go about this without damaging the xp partition and keeping the boot options intact. Cheers

Mick

[Todo]

How do you have the dual boot setup? do you have separate partitions for XP and ME?

[Raffaz]

yep they are both on seperate partitions

[confus-ed]

IMHO I think fixing your ME video driver problem is prolly easier than trying this....

Whatever the problem is with your Radeon 9700 it won't be any better in 98 than ME ....

This quote on that thread seems to say it quite well ....

TBH though, it sounds like something more than just your video card driver is FUBAR'd.

[Raffaz]

Everything is running fine in windows xp so how could something else be causing the problem. If it is something else then what could it be?

[Stryfe]

Are both the Windows ME partition and Windows XP partition listed as 'primary'? From what I remember, 9x/ME doesn't like having 2 primary partitions where both are not hidden and it'll effectively commit suicide in some form or another if you try it. 2000/XP doesn't seem to care however.

If you do have 2 primary partitions, I'd recommend getting yourself a copy of PowerQuest BootMagic. Make sure it's set to hide the XP partition when you use ME.

--Stryfe

[emr]

Originally posted by Stryfe
Are both the Windows ME partition and Windows XP partition listed as 'primary'? From what I remember, 9x/ME doesn't like having 2 primary partitions where both are not hidden and it'll effectively commit suicide in some form or another if you try it. 2000/XP doesn't seem to care however.

If you do have 2 primary partitions, I'd recommend getting yourself a copy of PowerQuest BootMagic. Make sure it's set to hide the XP partition when you use ME.

--Stryfe

Or alternatively have the XP system partition as NTFS and then ME won't see it. If it isn't already you can convert under XP using the command line convert c: /fs:ntfs This assumes C: is the XP system partition, subsitute whatever you have setup otherwise.

As always, backup all data before performing this type of procedure.

Cheaper thanPQMagic.

As to the original video card problem, download the latest drivers and update with them for a start.

What are the problems you are experiencing anyway?

emr

[Stryfe]

Originally posted by emr
Or alternatively have the XP system partition as NTFS and then ME won't see it. If it isn't already you can convert under XP using the command line convert c: /fs:ntfs This assumes C: is the XP system partition, subsitute whatever you have setup otherwise.

As always, backup all data before performing this type of procedure.

Cheaper thanPQMagic.

As to the original video card problem, download the latest drivers and update with them for a start.

What are the problems you are experiencing anyway?

emr

I thought ME would still see another primary partition but just wouldn't know how to read it? Am I just confused or am I simply being stupid? (both seem to happen a lot, lol.)

--Stryfe

[emr]

Don't think it will see it at all because it is NTFS. Good point though!

[Stryfe]

I think I'll test this out on my guinea pig computer at work, lol. (I'm not saying I don't beleive you, btw, it's just that I want to see what happens to get the experience and so I can recognize it in the future.)

--Stryfe

[Raffaz]

Ive got me set as primary partition on c: drive and xp on d: drive as an extended partition

[NooNoo]

A lot of people seem to have problems with the 9700 - what drivers are you using for ME? What motherboard?

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by emr
Don't think it will see it at all because it is NTFS. Good point though!

Not cessenarilly !! ... You can of course install xp on either a fat32 or ntfs drive ... can't you !?! (but you said that earlier) BTW it knows there is more than one partition, it can't read the contents ...

Mmmm methinks if we got the whole problem & the required result, as well as ALL the info on ONE thread we wouldn't be playing 'what ?, why ?, where ?' ....

Besides the motherboard info ... can Raffaz also confirm how each partition is formatted, how he originally set up dual boot ( & what did you use to partition the drive), any other pci cards (or isa?) present, is acpi on or off in bios, is the bios set to allocate an irq for the agp or not, what version of direct x are we using, is the ME install 'new' or might that have some old drivers floating around ....

The more info you give us to start with & the more you describe what you did & what you actuually want (though I guess that's XP & ME dual boot) ... the more chance someone has of providing a definative answer ...

[emr]

Originally posted by confus-ed
Not cessenarilly !! ... You can of course install xp on either a fat32 or ntfs drive ... can't you !?!

Well if we are really getting picky, then you can install it on Fat16 too.

I think?

[confus-ed]

If you install on fat 16 then windoze won't have access to long 'dos' filenames (this confuses the hell out of it!) ... XP setup lets you choose either FAT32 or NTFS ... if you wanted fat 16 you'd have to choose that yourself (& do the formatting first) ... then of course you'd run into partition size limits pretty quickly (2 gig with fat16) an xp install in that won't leave you much to play with, if you wanted to be really smartarse you could of course increasse the cluster size to get around the 2 gig limit ... but he didn't do any of this - I hope !!! ... Not my recommendation ! - I did say emr that you'd already noted it !