Clarification Needed on 98/XP Dual Boot

[Kov-Ice]

I've done a bit of searching, and I found out some of what I needed. I'll be following HPro's How to ADD Win9x to Existing XP thread in Tips & Tricks.

Here's what I'm not sure about... XP is on the original 40GB HDD. I've got a 160GB drive to add. I'd like to have 98se on just a small partition of the new drive, and use the rest for XP storage.

Can the drive be partioned first by Disk Manager from the original XP, having the majority of the disk NTFS? Then will 98se load on the unformated remaining partition as FAT32? Is this possible, and is that how I'd do it? Thanks!

[glc]

Yes, you will need to prepartition and format with Disk Management, because Win98 doesn't have a clue what to do with a 160gb drive. XP can format a 32gb or less partition FAT32.

[Kov-Ice]

So I'll format 140GB of the drive as NTFS for XP storage use. The remaining 20 GB are within 98se's comprehension. You're saying it is ok to format that partition as FAT32 before the install? Or does the 98 installer format that?

[mrmister1]

You can do it either way. During the installation it will give you a chance to format it.

[Kov-Ice]

I went ahead and formatted the 2nd drive. I'm curious about this, though... The FAT32 partition was named E:\ in XP's Disk Manager. When it's the only drive on the IDE cable so that I can install 98, will it be seen with that letter? So I'd install 98 to E:\?

[pillainp]

The Windows 98SE installer would see it as C: regardless of whether the old drive was attached or not, since DOS cannot see the NTFS partitions, and neither can FAT32.

Besides, you get the option to change the location of the Windows 98 "Windows" folder if you chosse to do a custom install.

[Kov-Ice]

OK. I kinda thought that. The installer will see the lone FAT32 partition as C: , because it's the only drive visible to it, correct? When 98 loads up, it will have only a C: drive, but when XP loads up, it will retain the E: designation.

Am I getting this? Just trying to get it straight before I try this later. Thx.

[Kov-Ice]

I gave it a go last night, and got the dreaded "NTLDR not found" message on the 98 drive. I followed Hpro's directions as best I could. I either missed something in the translation, or it just doesn't work that easily...

When I went into the XP Recovery Console from CD the first time, I was at the D:\Windows prompt. The next direction said to type C:\ to get to the 98 drive, but I was not allowed. I could type in dir C:\ and see the 98 directory, but couldn't navigate to it. Do I have to be in the C: drive to execute the FIXBOOT C: command? Or can I do it from the D:\ prompt?

He mentions Master and Slave jumpers, but is the problem because I left mine on CS? Do I have to jumper the drives as well as position them on the IDE cable correctly?

[Kov-Ice]

OK, I messed with the jumpers instead of leaving them on CS. This allowed me to navigate to the Win98 C: drive. When I reboot, I still get NTLDR not found.

What's supposed to happen after I do the FIXBOOT command? Should the next boot up automatically give me a choice between which OS, or do I need to do something differently before I'm given the choice? Thx.