Dual Boot Dilemma

[hbweb500]

I have an 80gb hard drive which I wish to partition. On one partition I would like to install Windows 98, mostly in order to play older games. One the larger partition, I would like to install XP, for anything else I need to do. I understand that Windows 98 must be installed on the first primary partition or it will not boot correctly. I would like, however, to have the XP partition be known as the C: drive (DOS generally names the first primary partition as the C drive, so I'm not entirely sure if this is possible).

I have already performed a partition where I installed XP on the first partition, used the included Disk Manager to create two more primary partitions, and installed XP on the last and largest partition. With even the first partition set as active, the largest and third partition was recognized as the C: drive. Will this work, perhaps, with 98. Do I need to try and set the third partition to active before I install XP, and then reset it to the first? I dunno...

Thanks,
Jeffrey

[Catweazle]

Hi Jeffrey,

Do I understand that you already have Windows XP on the first partition of your primary drive? If so I hope you've made it an NTFS partition, because using FAT32 for Windows XP is less than ideal. Do I also understand that you also have another Windows XP installation on a different partition?

There's two ways to approach having a dual boot with the two Windows versions.

First way is to remove the partitions from the drive, create a small FAT32 partition for Windows 98 and install 98 on that. Then boot from the Windows XP CD, create a new partition for it using NTFS, and install Windows XP to that. This is the preferred option. Your dual boot configuration will be automatically created, but your XP installation won't be C:

If you already have XP in the first partition of your Primary drive ( C: ) you can create a FAT32 partition, install Windows 98 to it, and create the dual-boot yourself in the process. Here's how.

[hbweb500]

Actually, I have probably installed and repartitioned at least 5 times in the past few days, but I do not currently have that configuration. That configuration was 15gb FAT32 w/ Windows XP(temporary), 5gb FAT32 empty, 55gb NTFS XP (permanent). I merely installed the first XP on the fat32 to be able to create the primary partitions using Disk Manager. For some reason my third partition was C:, at least while running XP.

[Catweazle]

Sounds clumsy to me, and I can't understand how that partition got identified as C:

I'd suggest you start over, and follow the second of the procedures I've mentioned above. Mke the first partition of your drive an NTFS one with Windows XP installed on it, then create a FAT32 partition for Windows 98 and install it following the linked directions.