HDD problem.PLEASE HELP,HELP!

[tekpc2k2]

HI guys.Let me just say I ran across this site by pure luck. I haven been reading and found it so helpful. Ok I have a question for anyone that can help me. I have 2 HDD's both are each 40 gigs. I have windows 98se full CD, and windows xp pro upgrade CD. I want to know how to dual boot. I dont know what to install where and how to format each individual drive. I would like to have 98se on my C: and have XP on the D:. I want to be able to pick which drive to boot to. I dont know if this is even possible. I would really appreciate it if someone can please help me out. I can figure out how to fdisk and reformat each drive if I have to. But i need help in installing both OS. Please remember I only have the XP pro upgrade not the FULL version. Thanks very much to anyone that can help me.

[Nick CPU]

Welcome to SysOpt. This article should tell you everyting you need to know.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q217210

[Evil_Messiah]

okay... considering you have 80 gigs of storage the best way i would set this up is that i would probably partition (using fdisk) the one drive in 3 different partitions using partition magic... Let C:\ and D:\ be your win98 and winxp install partitions and give 'em about 10 gigs each, then the remaining will be E: with 20 gigs and then your other hard drive will be F: with 40 gigs. This way I find is optimal for managing operating systems because if you ever make a big unrecoverable mistake with either O/S you wont feel so bad about reformating. Now to make a dual boot, first install win98 to your C:\ drive of 10 gigs, then once 98 is done, insert the winxp upgrade CD, select fresh installation, and in the GUI make sure you select an option, i think its called, "let user define installation drive" or something like that (if you dont see it, dont worry), anyways reboot install windows XP in the D:\ drive partition, you may want to convert to NTFS depending on your needs... Once the installation is done, the WinXP install will have already created a boot.ini file which manages your dual-boot solution, whenever you will boot up from now on your can select which OS to use. Also in the advanced system menu in XP you can define different things about the boot.ini such as which will be the default OS, how long should the screen display.... Anyways that's how I would do it, if you dont wanna partition the hell out of your drives, then just install 98 on one drive and xp on the other. Just be warned, NEVER install two operating systems on the same partition, you will wish you never did it... I did that once and everything I did in XP would sooner or later corrupt my 98 installation and vice-versa!

Good Luck!

[Evil_Messiah]

Originally posted by Nick CPU
Welcome to SysOpt. This article should tell you everyting you need to know.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q217210

Grrr! Mr copy-n-paste! lol, i just finished writing that long-winded speech, hehe. No harm done :D

[Nick CPU]

Grrr! Mr copy-n-paste! lol, i just finished writing that long-winded speech

The speech is better than the link anyday:)

[tekpc2k2]

WOW not even 30 min passed and already people came to my rescue. Guys thank u sooooooooooooo much I will try that as soon as possible. I like the explanation from Evil a whole lot better than the article. But both posts were very very very helpful. I will try that today when i get home from work. I will post my results and let u all know how it turned out. Guys once again THANK YOU so much. Thanks EVIL AND NICK.

[tekpc2k2]

So DISK 1. I'll have 10 gigs for 98se, 10gigs for XP, and 20 gigs for whatever. Now what do i do with the other HDD? DO i just Fdisk and leave it as 1 big *** drive or can i partion it into smaller ones. Use them for say mp3's,video,games, etc etc. What do u experts recomend. Also If I boot with XP will i still be able to acess all my files and vice vera. I dont think i will be able to access XP files with 98. NTFS is it worth it or not?

[Midknyte]

You can do a lot of things with the 40. if you want both os'es to see it, then you'll have to stay with FAT32. Win98 can't read NTFS natively. You can partition it any way you like, but i like to have 1 big drive for data.

NTFS in xp has a lot of advantages. You can set permissions to files and folders. there is the option for compression or encryption. You can audit access to files and folders. NTFS is way better from a security standpoint. :D

[Kurylo]

I think you should leave it alone (a big ***** drive as you said).
I have a 50GB partition on E: and everything is pretty good :).

[G Ray88]

Tekpc2k2, rather then try to give you a lot of information, check at www.bootdisk.com and at www.computerhope.org there may be some information that you can use. Good Luck:t