hi, I have two hdds one 20gb and one 6gb i plan to insall win xp pro, win 98 and have a partiton for data music ect. What would be the best way to partition my hdds? Thank You

There are many posts related to partitioning and dual booting .... If the 6gig drive is as fast as the other one, I recommend this setup: Drive1: 2 GB primary for Windows 98 system 4 GB logical Win XP system Drive2: maybe two partitions one for programs and one for data Make sure to install Win98 first and use FAT32 for all partitions (except possibly the WinXP system partition) If you want programs to be accessible to both partitions, you have to install them once for Win98 and once for WinXP--BUT you can install to the same location. (The windows registry settings have to be set for each operating system, but the program data files can be in one spot) Hope this helps

if you have windows up and running, Plug your second harddrive in your computer, and boot. Go to your control panel and then to administrative tools, thento OCmputer management. You should now see your harddrive that you just plugged in, click to highlight. and right click it. select to remove your partition and now tha space will be unallocated. Right click to create a partition and the wizard will pop up. select your size and your set. Do this as many times as you need to set your partitions. *Note, make sure that you select the empty harddrive, other wise you will lose all info on your c: **Note removing partitions will erase all data on that disk, make sure you backup all data.

If i install programs on a separate partion and have to fomrat windows xp later or 98 dont i have t re-install the program files becuse games and stuff install some files to windows?

For your new question: Yes, you would need to reinstall the software for the operating system that you reinstalled. I'm just saying that if you want to have Microsoft Office (for example) accessible to Windows98 and WindowsXP, you *will* have to install it under each operating system. But instead of having two copies of Office's 100-some MB program files, you can have *those* on a common partition. If you later reinstall Windows98, you only have to reinstall Office under Windows98. WindowsXP could still run Office fine.