Dual Booting Win 98SE & 2000

[pudgy]

I just installed Win2k the other day and I want to be able to dual boot it with Win98SE. I have 2 HDD's, one has Win98SE, and the other has Win2k. They are both on FAT32. When I installed Win2k, I disconnected the Win98SE drive, because if something went wrong I could just connect my Win98SE drive on and be okay.
I got it installed fine in less than an hour. So I connected my other HDD, but I get no Win2k boot manager program at startup. Is there away I can enable dual boot, so I can boot from either HDD?
--I've been in the startup and recovery and the checkmark is put on the option for the boot menu on startup. I can see both drives in My Computer.
If you have any suggestions, please reply if you can.

Thank You!

 

[Guest]

When you do the setup you need to have both hdd installed to use it the way you want. Have Win98 setup first in FAT32. Then do the Win2k setup and choose FAT32. Just tell setup to put it on your second hdd if you like. To do this delete your current Win2k setup and start over.

I would do it this way. Win98 has to be setup first. Leave that alone. Install Win2k and let it go to the first drive. Use the second drive for data, downloads, etc. You know, all the data that you create. That leaves all the OS and program files on the first drive, which you already have on CD.

Then all you have to do is backup data on the second drive and you don't have to worry about backing up the first drive.

So, as you see, you can install it about any way you want. If you have System Commander or Partition Magic 6.0 or later you can even setup a NTFS partition on your first hdd next to Win98 in FAT32. Just make sure that all data is on a FAT32 drive or partition. That way both Win98 and Win2k can use the data. FAT32 cannot see NTFS but NTFS can see FAT32.

 

[pudgy]

Do you think I could just modify the boot.ini file, (if I knew it wouldn't screw anything up.)

 

[Guest]

I don't know. I have never tried to get boot to change by altering the boot.ini file in dual boot. I only suggest what I have used and I know works. There are lots of smarter folks then me out there. You most likely can find a similar solution to what you propose if you look hard enough. A web site I use frequently is:

http://www.worldowindows.com/dualboot2000.html

 

[Guest]

you can modify the boot.ini file. Just make sure you backup the original before you go messing around with that.
PS. When you installed win2k you should have left the win98 drive plugged in.

 

[killall]

if you can be bothered, really pointless but fine for me on my server, install one operating system on one drive, the other on the other drive, once youve done that just go into boot settings and change boot drive everytime you want to go into a different hdd, simple but annoying, fine if you dont reboot for a week or two

where did all my money go, ahh... [-peep-], forgot that i lived in london

 

[killall]

as long as you back the boot.ini file up it should be fine yeh

where did all my money go, ahh... [-peep-], forgot that i lived in london

 

[pudgy]

Do you know what I would have to put in boot.ini? Or if anybody knows a site specifically toward boot.ini, could you post it.

 

[noko]

Don't know about your last question but a easy way to allow you to boot with either operating system is to use BootMagic by PowerQuest. It will detect that both hard drives are bootable and give that choice during startup once you install it. No need to reinstall W2k.

 

[killall]

i havent done anything to any of those files in so long, as in like since 96 if i dual boot i boot win2k and linux, most distros have lilo, linux loader which sorts out the booting for me, very helpful, i dont know too much bout it tho, oh well

where did all my money go, ahh... [-peep-], forgot that i lived in london

 

[Guest]

If you install win 98 to the C:/ partiton, and then install win2k to a seperate partion, win2k will make a boot.ini file so that you can dual boot into either, im not shure about the reverse order of install. Here is a copy of what my Boot.ini file looks like, but let me tell you what my system is first of all. I have win98 installed to the C partition, and i have Win2k installed to the E: partition. Both partitions are on the primary master drive, the D: is secondary master.

My menu is set up to halt at the menu and wait for you to pick either win98 or win2k(thats what the timeout -1 line is) if you want it to halt and wait for you put a -1 in this like if you want it to count down give this like a value in seconds, i belive the default is 30.

Next line is what OS is highlighted by the bootloader at the menu. You can see what i have for values and work with it. Im not an ace but i know a few tricks good luck

----File below----

[boot loader]
timeout=-1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

----End File-----

 

[ejsmith2]

I tried the win2k boot loader once, and didn't like it at all. The bad thing about letting win2k bootload is you have no control over the order/designation of the drives after that. The win98 partition becomes a system partition (which means you can't change it's drive letter), as well as the win2k and page file. I use system commander, which loads at the top of the master boot records. You can then use win2k/win98 as if they were the only operating system on the computer, or allow either to see the other partitions. Just a small amount of flexibilty works good with my schedule. Support open source?

 

[pudgy]

The other day, I formatted the drive Win2k was on. I booted up with the boot disks, and when I got to the screen to pick what partition (drive) to put install Win2k on, the one Win2k was on had it as C: and it shows that it is FAT32, and that it is 20 gigs. The one Win98 (30 gig) is on right now shows an unknown on it (Win2k has to write onto that drive (30 gig) before it can install on my 20 gig). I don’t know why it does, I went into fdisk to show my partitions and it shows my Win98 as FAT32. Do you know why it would say unknown, or what I can do to get it to install?

System specs:
-'Enlight' ATX Case (300 watt power supply)
-AMD Athlon Thunderbird 950 Mhz
-Asus K7V-T- Via KX133 Chipset
-256 MB SDRAM PC-133 (Kingston Value Ram)
-Western Digital 30 GB, 7200 rpm, ATA66 hard drive
-IBM Deskstar 20 GB, 7200 rpm, ATA66 hard drive
-AccuDrive 50x CD-Rom
-Samsung CD-RW (4x6x24x)
-Hercules 3D Prophet II MX
-Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1
-'Single Point' 56K V.90 Modem
-Floppy Drive (Sony)
-Twin Turbo Fans (in 5.25" bay)
-Logitech Optical Mouse
-Multi-Function Keyboard
-4 USB's
-2 PS/2's
-1 Printer Port
-2 Serial Ports

 

[Guest]

Hmm... I think you are making this harder on yourself then it actually is. Assumming you care about reformatting your configuration the solution was said at the beginning of this thread by someone else. I'll go over it again in simple steps.

1. Connect your 30 gig (Win98)as the master of your 1st ide channel.
2. Connect your 20 gig (Win2K) either as the slave to the first drive or to any other available ide port.
3. Now if you want you can do a low level format on your drives to make sure both drives are completely clean.
4. Boot from a windows 9x boot disk, get to the command prompt and use the fdisk utility. From there create the partition for your win9x on your 30 gig hd.
5. REBOOT with the Win9x boot disk and get to the command prompt, then format your new partition. The next thing I do is usually copy the contents of my win9x install directory to the hard drive (or you can install from the CD). At anyrate, type your setup command and install your win9x partition.
6. Now bring up your Windows 9x system. Pop in your Windows 2000 CD, and then when it says "Do you want to upgrade", choose NO. From there click on the "Install Win2k", choose that option and make sure you select the option to let you choose where you want to load Win2k.
7. After this happens your system will reboot and brings up a menu where you can choose which hard drive to install to. Here just select your 20 gig drive and it will automatically format it (you choose the file system of your liking).
8. If you get this far, Win2k will automatically update your boot sector accordingly and you are on your way.

It is possible to do this the other way around, win2k first then win9x, but its much more of a hassle. If you want to do that way I'll post another message on how to do that.

 

[Kheldin]

Marqui, you said in your post that it is possible to install win2k then win98 ... i would like to know how that is done, since i have win2k installed and would like to put win98se on also (to hopefully stop the computer from locking up in games).

 

[peteb]

Nope - not possible (at least not and have Win2k sort exverything out.

Install 98. Install 2K, don't upgrade. 2k can install anywhere, but will not work if you take out the 98 hdd.

By default there can only be one active (bootable) disk partition. If you install 2K to another disk/partition it still writes to the boot sector of the active disk.

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details

 

[ejsmith2]

You can, but you have to fanangle with a bootable floppy/cdrom and a boot loader. I did it the first time I had put win2k on my system. I burned a cdrw bootable with system commander and win98se into a directory. Loaded system commander and rebooted. Resized the partition, and loaded Win98se. I didn't check it's stability much, because I managed to lockup win2k shortly thereafter when I was messing around with services/security.