Installing XP and Win98

[prakashn]

Hi
I recently did a clean install of WIN XP Home edition , i have a P4 2.4 ghz pc with 256 MB DDR Ram and 40 GB Seagate barracuda HDD with 4 partitions. Now i am unable to run many win 98 based programmes. Pl let me know the procedure to install WIN 98 in a different partition and run other programmes.

[Quantax]

The normal procedure is to first install Win 98, then XP. Doing it the other way causes problems(as I discovered the one time I tried it).

[shanmuga]

What type of file system are you using, NTFS or FAT ? Also some details about those 4 partitions will help.

[pave_spectre]

What programs are giving you trouble?
Have you also tried running those programs in compatibility mode?

[Paul Komski]

Assuming you have an available partition then the only easy way to do it without screwing up the WinXP installation is with a third-party boot manager such as BootMagic (comes with Partition Magic), BootIt NG or XOSL (http://www.ranish.com/part/). XOSL might be the trickiest to learn to use but is also the most versatile and is FREE. Read its FAQ etc which can be downloaded from the same site.

Don't install Win9X onto any partition while WinXP's boot partition is "visible" or its PBS will be overwritten and you wont be able to boot back into WinXP. You can manually install Win9X onto an appropriate primary partition while the WinXP's priary boot partition is hidden but you will then have to manually hide/unhide the relevant partitions - which is in reality what the boot managers do by controlling the boot sectors.

The easiest way to setup a dual boot of Win9X/XP is from scratch. Install Win9X onto C first and then install Win2K/XP onto another partition and they will detect the earlier installation and setup a dual boot menu for you.

A completely different approach is to install both OSes onto different HDDs and then (assuming your BIOS allows it) choose to boot to HDD0 or HDD1 by entering the BIOS setup. Alternatively insert each HDD into a swap bay.