howdy! got a question for the collective. i'm going to install windows 98 and windows nt 4.0 on a 2 disk system. i have 2 15gb ide deskstar drives. i've read all the posts about needing to install nt on fat 16 and about installing a dual boot on the same drive.

i plan to install windows 98 on a fat 16 on drive c:. then i plan on installing windows nt on d:/ i'm assuming that i will need to install the boot files of windows 98 on c: and then when nt is loading setup will ask me
which drive to install on. is this correct?

what formatting strategy must i use since these are both large drives? can anyone offer me some hints to make this process go smoothly. i also have partition magic 5.0 and boomagic in case i need to use them but i'm assuming winnt will do the dual booting for me.

would it be better to install nt first and then 98? i've heard it both ways!

thanks,

jonathan

NT loader is the only one you will rely on if you don't plan to use a 3rd party software like partition magic. As w98 and NT common denominator is FAT16 (DOS). The primary active partition must be in DOS. So, make a 100MB primary partition for DOS, NT or win98 on the rest of the primary HDD, and use the secondary HDD for the other. You must try to gethold of a bootable win98 disk which will allow you to FDISK in win98 DOS to create a FAT32 partition, then format this to FAT32. I would leave win98 on the first HDD (ie. in the extended partition).
NT will do it for you during the installation. Follow the rest about the BOOTSECT.DOS as you've read. Definately in DOS, NT, WIN98 order which will allow you to access to the BOOT 100MB disk from DOS as well.

Add: you can copy the win98 CD onto the formatted FAT32 partition, into a separate directory (ie. w98setup) and run the setup from there. Let it do the rest (faster) for you, but you must get hold of XCOPY.EXE XCOPY32.EXE XCOPY32.MOD from someone already installed win98 (in WINDOWS/COMMAND/ directory).

just a little clarification...in my two hard disk setup, if i fdisk c: first with a fat 16 of 125mb or so, then fdisk a fat32 partition and install win98 on it, this will allow me to install winnt 4.0 on the second hard disk?

thanks,

jonathan

1. using MS DOS (ie. 6.22) to boot, FDISK from MSDOS here of 100mb or so, make it active (option 2), getout, restart and "format C: /s" to transfer DOS I/O and COMMAND.COM - OR install DOS into this C:. Set AUTOEXEC.BAT CONFIG.SYS ... etc.
2. Reset PC, boot up using W98 floppy, then FDISK, say Yes to large HDD, create the extended partition (which MSDOS FDISK will see as non-dos partition). Then it will give you a drive letter. I would recommend to give win98 a 2047MB partition for the OS, make the rest to serve for data later.
Getout, reset PC, boot FDD w98 again, format the extended partition.
3. WinNT CD into the CD-ROM drive, reset PC, let it load all the drivers, choose contry, etc.. when F8 confirm installation it will show you the 2nd drive, select it, create the partition (you don't have to use all for the winnt OS, 2047MB is big-enough, leave the rest to create another partition for data) and make them NTFS. Select the 2047MB one enter ENTER. That's all.

Add: if you know that you have some I/O card (SCSI, UATA66 etc..) which must be recognise at the installation, and you have the floppy disk for drivers of these, press F6 at the very beginning screen of winNT installation when it said something like "searching for hardware" (BLACK SCREEN). If missed, just reset the computer and start again.
After installed NT, then install win98 to the earlier formatted partition.