Best way to dual boot Windows95 & XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Malgoth
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Malgoth

Hi all,

This is my first time posting here, but I have been coming to this
website for advice for a long time. I am having an issue that I cannot
figure out through web searches or the like so I thought I could post
it up ehre and see if any of you folks can lead me in the correct
direction.

I have built a new Windows XP machine and I also have an older system
running Windows 95. I installed Windows 95 then Windows XP on my new
machine as I was directed per Microsoft. My question is, can I just
take the hard drive out of the older machine and install it into the
newer Windows XP system?
Can you dual boot by just doing that or would I have to edit the
boot.ini file to see both operating systems on the seperate disks?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as the older Windows 95 HDD has
some files and utilities on it that they no longer make.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer me,

Malgoth (aka Scott)
 
you can do what you propose and install this

www.osloader.com

that will find the win95 disk and add it in a boot selection

this is the easy way... there are other ways of course to do it with winxp
but
you must do it via the repair console
 
See my web site, www.dougknox.com and go to Win XP Tips

For Win9x/Me: Install 98/Me after XP is Installed.
For Windows 2000: Install Windows 2000 after XP is installed.

While written for 98/Me, it will work with 95, as well. If your boot partition is NTFS, then you'll need to look at a 3rd party boot manager, such as BootIt Next Generation, www.bootitng.com
 
Thanks Mr. Smith,

I will give the osloader a go this friday when I get some time to
dabble with it. Thank you again for such a speedy response.

Malgoth
 
This is a follow up question since I got such speedy replies from you
folks.

When I installed windows XP on my new system I partitioned 6 gigabytes
out of the NTFS partition (the one windows XP is currently installed
on) so that I could install windows 95 on it as a FAT32 format and then
pull my files over. Since I already partitioned out this space from
the HDD, can I format the 6 gigabytes as FAT32 and then install
windows 95 on it as Mr. Knox's website is instructing me or will I just
have to start over if the OSloader program doesnt work for me?

Thanks again for the help all,

Malgoth (aka Scott)
 
You will need a 3rd party boot manager, unless the boot partition is FAT32. If the boot partition is NTFS, the DOS based boot loader from 9x won't know what to do with the file system.
 
Instead of OSLoader, check out BootIt Next Generation. In addition to being a full fledged boot manger, it will also allow you to resize, create, delete hard disk partitions, as desired.
 
12:12 PM 5/28/2006

Mr. Knox's recommendation of a third party software for your issues is a
good one. I would also prefer installing both OS on the new hdd and using
the older hdd for storage of archived backups or other hogs of little value.

Caution!! Earlier versions of Win95 (before v4.00.950B) will not support
FAT32. Test this my deteriming what file system is on your old drive. Even
if you have a later version, 6 gig is a lot for '95 to chew on.

In any case, DO NOT PARTITION A SPACE GREATER THAN 8 GIG FOR USE WITH WIN95.
Consider the smallest partition necessary i.e.- 1.5 gig for the OS PLUS your
programs PLUS your data PLUS 15%.

Also, if you have a copy of Win 98SE, I would recommend upgrading the old
drive to 98SE before transferring the truckload onto your new drive for use
as a "utility" partition. I believe most of your favorite utilities will be
retained.

Mark
 
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