Dual Boot: win2k and 98 or ME?

[jxhn]

I am already running Win2k and I never ran a dual os box. How difficult is it to dual boot to 98 or ME and which one should I use?
I know this so far: That i will need a fat32 partition for 98. When I am in 98 Will i Be able to access my NTFS partition?

[mkbean]

You must make sure that your system partition (ya know the ones with the boot files. C: ) is Fat or Fat32. Now its up to you which OS you use, WinMe, or 98 it's all the same. Use a dos boot disk that has generic CD-Rom drivers on it. Boot from that disk and access the setup from either CD-Rom and go to town...oh yea make sure ya don't format any drives. No your win9x machine will not be able to read NTFS 5, and also they will not share apps, meaning you have to install UT, Q3 and all the other important apps twice. Good luck and really....Good luck.

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mkbean

[Deep Blue]

You will probably have trouble booting off anything but an MS DOS floppy disk. If you try to use win95/98/me boot disc it will ususally give you an NTLDR error.

Ususally 98/ME is installed first and 2K installed last, with the installation launched from within win98.

As far as sharing apps goes I have a small 5GB fat32 drive that is for shared apps. This drive is accessable from win98 and 2K.
You just install to the same location on that drive from within both OS in order to share the app.

i.e.
install office in 98 to the location
d:\program files\Microsoft Office
then boot to 2K and install it to the same location. This will save space and put the required registry entries in both OSs.

I haven't had an application that wouldn't work that way. But I'm sure that there will be a few floating around. Please let me know if you have encountered problems runing apps this way.

As far as you dual boot goes, you need 98 first (*really*) and 2K (or NT/linux etc) last. Alternatively add another hdd as the primary master and install 98 on that. Just some ideas

Deep Blue

[This message has been edited by Deep Blue (edited September 13, 2000).]

[Mr_Q]

I agree with Deep Blue.U should allways install win98/Me first and then the other OS's U might wanna use.I run home an Multiboot win 98/win 2k/Mandrake Linux wiyh no problems at all,and its not that hard to setup them.
Also the ideea with the appz is good,really helps to save space.And again,NO,u will not be able to see/use the NTFS5 partition under win 98/me.

Here an fairly good and comprehensive guide about this setup:
http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/multibootlinux/

[SubZero]

Make sure you put the different OS's on different partitions. If you do that it doesn't make much difference whether you install Win98 or Win2K first. Just use an external bootmanager (e.g. Bootmagic) and all should be OK.

[Ziggy]

From what you guys are saying, dual booting is difficult to achieve. But why dual boot? Why go through all that hassle when you know there might a chance of screwing up your whole PC. Why not just stick with one OS?

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>>>Mess with the best and die like the rest.

Clan -TD-

[Sketch]

Dual booting is not difficult, and if you don't do anything stupid, not dangerous. As for why to do it, it's simple, each OS has distinct advantages and disadvantages. If you need the advantages provided by 2 different OS's, but only have the budget for 1 computer, dual-booting is the only way to go.

Sketch

[Daniel]

Because Windows 2000 is the only OS that works Great, but has a low support for Games, so I have Win ME, just for games, and a good OS (Win2000) for all other applications, NT5 stability is the best.
And also, Windows 2000, can mannage the Dual Boot easily (with it's integrated boot manager) without the need of any other boot manager.

Originally posted by Ziggy:
From what you guys are saying, dual booting is difficult to achieve. But why dual boot? Why go through all that hassle when you know there might a chance of screwing up your whole PC. Why not just stick with one OS?

[gkline]

I took another track. I had Win 98SE on my 6.4 Gig Hardrive. I installed a new second harddrive with Windows 2000 Pro as the operating system. Used FAT 32 for the files.I go into my bios and change the harddrive if I want to boot into the other operating system. Runs real nice. I have a FIC AZ 11 board with 256 megs pc100 ram and a Duron 700. Truthfully the system seems faster in Windows 2000. Plus it's ROCK SOLID

[df]

Originally posted by jxhn:
I am already running Win2k and I never ran a dual os box. How difficult is it to dual boot to 98 or ME and which one should I use?
I know this so far: That i will need a fat32 partition for 98. When I am in 98 Will i Be able to access my NTFS partition?

i dual boot win2k, freebsd, win98se, beos4.5.2 with out any problems.

i have systemcommander 2000 (well worth the investment!)

the thing to remember is you need a small primary partition for everyones boot files.
i have a C: drive, first primary of about 32/64mb or something. this is enough to store systemcommander, and other boot files like the win98se boot stuff, ntldr for nt etc.

make sure you put 98 or me on first, THEN nt or any other os.


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Stuart 'Dark Fiber' George [ FreeBSD 4.1 / BeOS 4.5.2 / Win2K ]
Write Your Own Operating System [FAQ]

[doindeocin]

i dualbooted mine and i'm real happy with it. you always have a second backup if you screw up something on one partition you can boot off the other and not lose every thing. make three partitions though.
c:\win98se 3gigs
d:\win2k 3gigs
e:\programs the rest of your hd
(change valuse to applicable proportions that your hd uses)(make sure to at least make them 2 gigs or more on each partition.

install stuff on the 3rd partition. if one operating sytem fails or both you never lose the 3rd partition...very handy