just want to reply about what topaz has said. in case of dual boot, it's doesnt matter weather we install winXP or win98 first. its bcoz we can alter the c:\boot.ini file to locate the OS that we want to use in dual boot. isnt that true?

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Last but not least in all this, is if you have already NTFS your hard drive you cannot go back to fat32. Disregard the rest of this message if you did not NTFs your hard drive. All this partition information does you no good if you have already NTFS your hard drive. Some people will tell you that you can go back but I would not take the chance for fear of your system being unstable. Why not get a brand new hard drive and fat32 it useing your old Win98 CD and put your old programs on that new disk? Just a thought. Good luck.

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they recomend that the oldest OS (win98) be installed first

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Thanks Doc and EC; sam xp has to have 98 no first or you do not get the xp dual boot. You would have to use fdisk to change the active drive each time or get a boot loader to boot the 98 drive. Another piece of trivia...xp will only let you have a dual boot with it's windows predecessors, like with me-I have 98se and winme and xp and had to get a bootloader to manage that...

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This from the Xp help files on multiple operating systems. XP has partition software that may let you create a volume you can just go ahead and install 98 or me to without a problem. FYI Good luck Greaner If you have Windows XP installed on a volume formatted as FAT, and you have another free volume formatted as FAT or FAT32, you can install Windows 98 to the free volume without reformatting your hard drive.

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You say xp has partition software that MAY let you add another os...it will let you add another partition but if it is installed after xp; xp will not "see" it as such and give you a dual boot...you will be stuck going to fidisk to change the active partition to get to 98 or getting a boot loader...it is so much simpler to just make the 98 partition first; re:response #9 above. I think the info is for making a partition for backups or storage; not for a lower version of windows to boot...I am not sure but it may let you use it for linux or beos.

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The following instructions re creating a dualboot system when XP has already been installed were lifted from Doug Knox's webpage. I didn't save the link, just the text. Use Partition Magic(If you must) to create a second partition and format Fat32. then do the following: How do I install Windows® 98/Me after I've installed XP? (without 3rd party software) I DO NOT provide any support for these procedures, via e-mail or the newsgroups. Necessary Criteria This procedure assumes that Windows XP is installed on drive C: No support is offered for other drive letters. Drive C: must be FAT16 or FAT32 to be able to install Windows 98/Me after XP is already installed. The 98/Me installation routine cannot write to an NTFS partition. You must have a second hard disk or partition formatted for FAT16/32 in order to be able to install Windows 98/Me. Installing 98/Me to the same partition as Windows XP is NOT RECOMMENDED! I recommend the use of a Windows 98/Me Startup disk for this procedure. If you don't have one, you can download the necessary files from http://www.bootdisk.com You should ensure that DEBUG.exe is on your Startup disk. If it isn't, it can be copied from the Windows\Command folder. On a 98/Me Startup disk, created from Add/Remove Programs, its in the EBD.CAB file on the Startup disk. For a 98 Startup disk created from FAT32EBD.exe its on the floppy Installing Windows® 98 1) Use a Win98/Me Startup disk (with CD support) to boot your computer. 2) Insert your Win98/Me CD into the CD Rom drive. 3) At the A: prompt type X:\Win98\Setup.exe (for Win98) or X:\Win9x\Setup.exe (for Win Me) where X: is your CD-ROM drive. 4) Proceed with the install. When prompted for the install location, you'll see C:\Windows.000. Choose Other directory and change this to the drive you wish to install 98/Me to and name the folder Windows (or something else if you prefer). 5) Complete the Win98/Me install. Allow the computer to boot into Win98/Me. Repairing the Windows® XP Boot Loader 1) Create a Win98/Me Startup Disk 2) Create a Notepad file with the following entries, exactly as shown: L 100 2 0 1 N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS R BX 0 R CX 200 W Q 3) Save the file to the Win98/Me Startup Disk as READ.SCR 4) Boot the computer with the Win98/Me Startup Disk and at the A: prompt type DEBUG Steps 1 - 4 create the BOOTSECT.DOS file needed to boot Win98/Me. For your convenience, you can download READ.SCR here. I suggest you use right click and Save As. You may need to use the ATTRIB C:\BOOTSECT.DOS -S -H -R command if BOOTSECT.DOS already exists and you get an error when trying to recreate it. 5) Configure your computer to boot from the CD drive. This is done in the BIOS, or your computer may offer the option at startup if it detects a bootable CD. Consult your computer's manual for more information. If your computer does not support booting from CD-Rom, you should also be able to boot with a 98/Me Startup disk, and run WINNT.exe from the I386 folder of your XP CD. 6) Insert your XP CD and boot from it. 7) You'll see some files being copied, then you'll be presented with a choice of installing or repairing an existing installation. Choose Repair. 8) You'll be asked which XP installation you want to log into. Enter 1. There is usually only one installation. 9) You'll be prompted for the Administrator password. For Home, the default password is blank, so just hit Enter. For Pro, enter the same password you did during setup for the Administrator account (this is not the same as the password for an Admin level account. It must be the Administrator account password). 10) At the C:\Windows prompt, type FIXBOOT. You'll be prompted to confirm. Do so. 11) When FIXBOOT is finished, remove the XP CD and type EXIT and the machine will reboot. Reconfigure your computer to boot from the hard drive if necessary. You will now get the XP Boot loader with your choice of operating systems. 12) Send a check for $5.00 to the charity of your choice. (Optional) No e-mail support is provided for this procedure. This page last updated 05/05/2002 21:58 All material © 2002 - Doug Knox

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Part One: Delete the partitions you have now using fdisk. You will need to put the win98 boot disk in the a: drive and start the computer. (I don't know why your computer does not show the drive letter at the prompt (:\>) but you can verify the drive letter you are on by typing dir after the :\> . That will tell you info on what is on the drive you are looking at whether it is the a: or cdrom or harddrive. You must start from the beginning as you did not get the drive letters right the first time. 1)Start the machine with the a: disk in. 2)Choose the option to start the computer with cdrom support (in your case that is 1 but for some that would be 2) 3) At the a:\> (in your case (:\>) type fdisk and hit enter. 4) It will ask if you want to enable large disk support...if (Y) is blinking just hit enter; if it is not type the Y and when it is blinking hit enter. 5) You will need to delete the partitions you have now. In fdisk that is option 3) delete partition or logical drive. You will need to delete the partitions in this order: delete your logical partitions first; delete the extended partitions next; delete the primary partitions last. (I think you have 2 logical partitions; you can tell if you have drive letters d and e showing. Follow the instructions to delete them losing all information; typing (Y) and hitting enter as needed and then hitting esc to return to previous screen. You will need to view info from the extended partition to do this. 6) Delete the extended partiton the logical partitions were made in...typing the y if needed and hitting enter as needed and hitting esc as needed. 7) Delete the primary partition. 8) Check this work by hitting esc to get back to the first fdisk menu and type 4 in the blinking ( ) to view partition info...and you should find that you have no partitions there. If there are follow the fdisk instructions to delete whatever you have left. 9) Do not reboot at this time.

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Part 2: Create the 2 new partitions. At the first fdisk options menu as follows... 1. Create Dos Partition or Logical Dos Drive 2. Set active Partition 3. Delete partition or logical dive 4. Display partition information 1)Type 1 if it is not blinking and hit enter when 1 is blinking. 2) You want 2 partitons so when it asks if you want to use max available size for a primary partition type N and hit enter when it is blinking. 3) The menu says 1. Create Primary Dos Partition 2. Create extended Dos Partition 3. Create logical dos (drive(s) in the extended dos partition If 1 is not blinking type 1 and hit enter when the 1 is blinking. When it is done verifying the integrity of the drive the size will come up...enter partition size in mb or % ; you want a 2 gigabyte partition for your win98 drive so type the number 2048 and hit enter. You should have the message that the primary dos partition is created. Hit esc to get to the previous menu. 4)At the menu again choose 2 Create extended dos partition and hit enter 5) where it says enter partition size in mb or % of disk space what is left should be showing; in your case I believe it is 6061, so hit enter...you should get a message: extended dos partition created. Press esc to continue...do that. 6)You need to get a drive letter assigned to it so now you will choose 3 Create Logical Dos Drive(s) in the Wxtended Dos Partition and hit enter. 7)Where it says enter logical drive size in mbytes or % if the numbers are 6061 (in your case) just hit enter or type 100% and hit enter. 8) You should have a message: All available space in the Extended Dos Partition is assigned to logical drives...you should see: Drv Volume Label MBytes System Usage D 6061 Unknown 100% 9)Press escape to continue Press escape to continue again so you are at the first fdisk menu. 10) Choose 2 Set active Partition If 2 is not blinking type the 2 in the ( ) and hit enter 11) You will have 2 choices...If 1 is not blinking type the 1 and hit enter...You should get a message that partition 1 is made active. Press esc to continue Press esc to exit fdisk. The message says you must restart your system for the changes to take place. Any drives you have created must be formatted after you restart. Put the win98 full version cd in the cdrom and hit the ctrl alt and del keys at the same time to reboot the computer with the win98 a: disk and the win98 cdrom disk in place. 12) Choose to start the computer with cdrom support (1 in your case) 13)When it is done note the drive letter assigned to your cdrom...You have 2 so you will have to figure out which one the cdrom is in...e: or f: 14)type e: and hit enter if you get the message not ready reading drive e: type a for abort...and type f: and hit enter...if you see info saying the volume in drive f: or (E:) is win98 you are in the right place... 15)type cd win98...and hit enter (this puts you on the cdrom where you can access the format command) 16)type format c: and hit enter 17) You will get the warning all data on non removable disk drive c: will be lost! Proceed with format (Y/N)? Type the Y if the Y is not blinking and hit enter 18) When it stops and it says volume label (11 characters; hit enter for none)? Don't hit enter until you type win98 and then hit enter...You are going to have 2 bootable drives so it is better to name the drive now and avoid confusion later. 19)now back at the (e: or f:) :\>win98 prompt, type format d: and hit enter...as above until you get to the part where you name the drive; this time name it XP

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Part 3: Install windows 98 on the active partition 1)BE SURE you have not removed the a: disk or the win98 cdrom and: At the :\>win98 prompt type setup.exe 2)Scandisk will come on and if everything previous to this was done right you should get the message that drive c: had no errors and drive d: had no errors...if you have more than those 2 drive letters; go back to step 1. If ok type the letter x to exit scandisk; then you can use the mouse to hit continue windows 98 setup...the default directory is c:\windows (highlighted); hit next with mouse. 3)Choose the setup options...typical is probably best here; hit next 4)Have your win98 product id numbers ready to type in...as you know you cannot use the upgrade disk without the previous version of windows. 5)At name the computer choose the same as you used with fdisk...win98...hit enter 6)Help win98 establish your location 7)It will want to make a startup disk which you already have so hit next then hit cancel. It will tell you to remove the disk; do that; and then hit ok to continue with setup. 8)At user information, type your name ect; check the box to accept the agreement and hit next; type the letters and numbers of the windows product key exactly as they appear on the disk package or book. 9)Hit next; hit finish 10)Help windows with the date/time properties and hit apply, then ok 11)If windows asks for any driver disks such as printers supply the disks then help windows find the location of the disk...e: or f: though it may find it on its own if the disk is in the drive...you may have to help with the drive letter...make sure a: has a checkmark if it is an a: disk; make sure cdrom is checked and have the disk in the cdrom if that is where the driver is. 12)Do what windows asks (restarting ect) until you are finally in window98.

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Part 4: Install windows xp 1)If the windows 98 disk is in the drive take it out and put the xp disk in 2)You will get the welcome to microsoft windows xp...use your mouse to click Install XP 3)Installation Type: hit the arrow with the mouse to choose New Installation (advanced).. 3)Click next; Click I accept this agreement; Click next 4)Enter the product key as you did with win98...exactly! and hit next. 5) THIS IS IMPORTANT !!! Setup Options; Click advanced options; Put a check mark in I want to choose the install drive letter and partition during setup (remember this operating system will be installed in d:) Type the letter d: before windows in the box folder on my hard drive so you see d:\windows (this is the second box) the first has where the files are coming from. 6)To set up windows XP press enter D:\windows 7)Leave the current file system intact (no change) hit enter...(you can change to nfts later if that suits you...you should leave both drives in fat for now until you decide if you need to share some files betweent the drive...Your win98 will probably not be able to read nfts files 8)regional and Language Options, if correct hit next...type your name and you must have an organization, even if it is home. Hit next 9)Name the computer XP as you did in fdisk. 10)Modemn dialing type your area code and hit next 11)date and time setting if correct hit next or change them here 12)If you're connected and wish to register now hit next and go through the wizard to register your version of XP. If you don't do this now you must activate windows within the time period mentioned or you will have to activate it by phone. 13)When all is done you can restart the computer and your dual boot will come up...choose whether to boot to win98 or xp; if you don't choose xp will boot by default. 14)Go back to each os and do what needs to be done; load your printer/scanner/fax in 98 ect.ect. Whatever programs you need to run on both os will need to be installed on both os; as you may share files by not programs.

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David, I hope this is easier for you than trying to do it via the messenger. I didn't want to leave you hanging so I thought this to be the next best way to help you out. If this does not work for you...you must have a shop you trust nearby...you can tell them what you want, bring your win98 and xp to them and let them do this for you. Ok? Good Luck...Better Luck, lol

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