Question on Dual Boot partitions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
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Bill

Question: If I set up my HD partitions like so:

Partition #1: NTFS Win2000 boot
Partition #2: FAT32 Win98SE boot
Partition #3: FAT32 data only

If I understand file systems correctly, when booting to Win98SE, the first partition
will be invisible because Win98SE can't see NTFS, right? So...

If I boot to Win98SE. Partition #1 will be C:, and Partition #3 will be D:.
If I boot to Win2000, Partition #1 will be C:, Partition #2 is D:, Partition #3 is E:.

(so the booted OS is always C:)

Is this correct? Can I do this? If anyone else has done this, can you share your
experience?

Thanks,

-Bill.
 
If you boot to Win98SE, Part #2 will be C, Part #3 will be D. Part #1 invisible

The Magic of this is Win2000 and how it changes the bootup. This works great
for many things. Keeping in mind that after June 2006, there will be no
support for Win88SE. No fixes and software manufactures will follow suite.
 
The system partition (usually C:\) must be a common file system for the
native boot loader to function. So in your case it must be fat file system.
Much easier to install Win98 first.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Question: If I set up my HD partitions like so:
|
| Partition #1: NTFS Win2000 boot
| Partition #2: FAT32 Win98SE boot
| Partition #3: FAT32 data only
|
| If I understand file systems correctly, when booting to Win98SE, the first
partition
| will be invisible because Win98SE can't see NTFS, right? So...
|
| If I boot to Win98SE. Partition #1 will be C:, and Partition #3 will be
D:.
| If I boot to Win2000, Partition #1 will be C:, Partition #2 is D:,
Partition #3 is E:.
|
| (so the booted OS is always C:)
|
| Is this correct? Can I do this? If anyone else has done this, can you
share your
| experience?
|
| Thanks,
|
| -Bill.
|
|
 
Bill said:
Question: If I set up my HD partitions like so:

Partition #1: NTFS Win2000 boot
Partition #2: FAT32 Win98SE boot
Partition #3: FAT32 data only

If I understand file systems correctly, when booting to Win98SE, the first partition
will be invisible because Win98SE can't see NTFS, right? So...

If I boot to Win98SE. Partition #1 will be C:, and Partition #3 will be D:.
If I boot to Win2000, Partition #1 will be C:, Partition #2 is D:, Partition #3 is E:.

(so the booted OS is always C:)

Is this correct? Can I do this? If anyone else has done this, can you share your
experience?

Thanks,

-Bill.
Click to expand...

Your plan will only work if you make partition 2 the active
boot partition, with the three Win2000 boot files ntldr, ntdetect.com
and boot.ini. If so then partition 1 can be an NTFS partition and
the drive letters will be as you suggested above.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Your plan will only work if you make partition 2 the active
boot partition, with the three Win2000 boot files ntldr, ntdetect.com
and boot.ini. If so then partition 1 can be an NTFS partition and
the drive letters will be as you suggested above.
Click to expand...

Thanks... would an application like V-Com's System Commander do this for me?
 
Bill said:
Thanks... would an application like V-Com's System Commander do this for
Click to expand...
me?

It probably would but I am not familiar with the product.
However, you can achieve the above without a third-party
boot manager.
 
This is how I would do it:
1. Using third party software,
a. create 1st partition as primary, format it FAT32, and make it
active.
b. create 2nd partition as primary, format it NTFS, and hide
partition.
c. create 3rd partition as extended, create logical drive, and
format it FAT32.
2. Install Windows 98 on partition 1.
3. Begin installation of Windows 2000 on partition 2, which will be
E:; stop the installation at the end of the first phase (at the first
reboot), at which time dual booting capability will have been placed
on partition 1.
4. Make partition 2 active; hide partition 1.
5. Install Windows 2000 on partition 2, which will be C:.
6. Make partition 1 active; unhide partition 2.
 
These are the steps in detail:
1. a. Used Partition Magic 8 to create 5,000 MB primary partition,
formatted FAT32 (Partition 1 - WIN98).
b. Used PM 8 to create 20,000 MB primay partition, hidden,
formatted NTFS (Partition 2 - WINDOWS2000).
c. Used PM 8 to create 100,000 MB logical partition, formatted
FAT32 (Partition 3 - DATA).

2. Installed Windows 98 on C:\. Drive D: is DATA. Drive E: is CD-ROM.

3. Used PM 8 to unhide Partition 2 (WINDOWS2000).

4. Began installation of Windows 2000 on E: (Partition 2). At reboot
after copying files ...

5. Instead of booting from hard drive, ran PM 8 to make Partition 2
active; Partition 1 became hidden.

6. Installed Windows 2000 on C: (Partition 2); deleted partial
installation from step 4. Partition 3 (DATA) is D:.

7. Used PM 8 to make Partition 1 (WIN98) active.

8. Used PM 8 to unhide Partition 2 (WINDOWS2000).

9. In Windows 98 C: is WIN98, D: is Data, and E: is CD-ROM. In Windows
2000 C: is Windows2000, D: is Data, E: is CD-ROM, and F: is WIN98.
 
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