Adding Win 98 or Me to Xp machine for dual boot

I am thinking about installing XP on my computer. I have run win Me in the
past. I would like to make the machine an XP computer only but I am a little
afraid of doing it that way because I might have some older software that
I might want to run in the future. I use visual basic, visual studio 6 & net series. I might want to run an older versions of VB in the future. I do NOT run
games on my computer. I read an article at the link
http://www.bitbenderforums.com/howto...Dual_pp_01.htm It descibes
how to add WIN 98/ME/95 to an XP machine. Has anyone ever added
win 98/Me to XP machine. If so, does it work and did you get your machine
to boot XP from power up. Does the dual boot give you a choice of
which operating system to boot to and does it default to XP. I do
have partition magic 7 which is required for the proceedure in the link.
Might be better to just do a network instead of dual booting.
thank you,

Personally I wouldn't dual boot either of those with XP. But if you care to do that you may want to consider just running those OSs in something like Virtual PC.

sorry muckmail about the PM. I got it but it got busy here and I forgot to respond.

It is possible, but I don't suggest doing it. If you do decide to do it, I'd recommed making your XP FAT32.. so it is compatible with 98.

Rik's virtual PC is a grand idea. That or you could get a second HDD, and buy an HDD switch. Load XP. Turn off.. Flip the switch, and the load windows 98.. I saw that on The ScreenSavers. Very nice idea.

If it has been done correctly a ME/XP dual boot installation will present during startup a simple menu of choice for which OS to boot from. After sufficient time passes it will automatically boot the default OS. You can modify this to suit your needs from within XP.

If only to run older programs then maybe dual boot is not really needed. XP is capable of being instructed to run older programs as if it where the Win98 OS etc...

I agree with 100% the advice to format FAT32 if you do decide to dual boot. The only reason I would dual boot Win98 and use NTFS for XP would be if I needed the additional security which can only be turned on if it is NTFS format.

Setting up Dual boot is not that hard. Install the WinME first and then install the WinXP next instructing it to install to a different partition or hard drive then the ME OS.

Some excellent information for dual boot can be found here:

webtechgeek

:)

muckmail responce. I do have 60g 2 drives on my machine. I installed Win 2000 & Win XP on 2 NTFS partitions on the first drive then I added the second drive. The second drive is in FAT32 format. It has my orginal data (no operating system files) files form my old computer. This seems to work but my Win 2000 is an evaluation copy so I will need to do something in the future. So I could run into problems mixing FAT32 & NTFS partations on my drives if Win 98 replaces WIN 2000 operating system on that first drive????

There is the potential that something *could* happen when mixing NTFS and FAT32 on the same drive. That is not to say it will.

If you are worried, I'd consider backing up any essential data to physical media (CDR, CDRW, external HDD, DVDR, DVDRW etc..)

Then try it. If you want the windows 98 OS to have NTFS read-only support, then try this page out:

http://www.purenetworking.net/Produc.../NTFSfor98.htm

Here's what MS says about Multi-OS environments:

Quote:

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One OS Per Partition

Before installing Windows XP and an earlier version on the same machine, you must prepare your hard disk with different partitions.

When you install Windows on a new or reformatted hard disk, the Setup program typically does not partition your hard disk automatically. To create multiple partitions, choose Advanced Options during Setup and follow the instructions to create and name multiple partitions. You can also create partitions using Fdisk.

If you have already installed Windows, and you have only one partition, you must reformat and partition your hard drive before you can multiboot.

You can divide your hard disk into multiple partitions, and each partition can function as a separate logical drive. For example, logical drives C: and D: can both exist on the same hard disk, but function as separate disks. You should install each operating system on a different partition. Then install applications on the same partition as the operating system with which you run them. If an application is used with two different operating systems, install copies on both partitions. Placing each operating system in a separate partition ensures that it will not overwrite crucial files used by the other OS.

A basic disk can contain up to four partitions. Each partition can be formatted for use by a file system, such as FAT32 or NTFS.

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http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...multiboot.mspx

Several guides/Info below on Windows 98 and windows XP dual booting:

http://www.vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/dualboot.htm

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

http://www.petri.co.il/install_windo...windows_xp.htm

And below is an article describing how to remove 98 after you've done the dual boot if you are not satisfied with the results.

I believe the important steps if you try this is to back up your data first.

Prepare the partitions, 2 logical partitions on the same drive *should* work. And then follow the guide that you posted in your first post.