Win 98 / XP on a 80GB drive

[vacanthead]

OK, as I'm going to installll a new mobo and HDD, I need some advice on the best way to do it. I have Win 98 SE and an upgrade version of XP Home. IIRC, 98 doesn't recognise a HDD >64 GB (correct?), so what I was intending to do was first partition the HDD to 1 x 20GB and 2 x 30GB, fdisk all 3 with NTFS, install 98 on the 20GB partition and immediately upgrade to XP. Will this work or won't 98 install on NTFS? (not sure why I think this, just heard it somewhere)

[Force Flow]

win 9x won't work on an NTFS file system. It can't see NTFS partitions, either. NTFS can see FAT32 file systems, though.

[yellohut]

I may be wrong, but I beleive that under FAT32 windows 9x can recognize drives and partitions up to 2 terabytes, although I do not know if they will have problems addressing all that space or not.

but it's a moot point because 98 can't see NTFS file systems.

[vacanthead]

What do you suggest I do then? Fdisk the 20GB with FAT32, and the others with NTFS? Then when I go to upgrade the 98, XP will ask me how I want to format the partition, so I just choose NTFS?

[bailey]

creat two partitions

install w98 first

install xp second on the second partation

you will then have a dual boot system

xp does not have to be ntfs

it will work ok as fat 32

then both systems can read and write to each other in windows explore.

[minsonngo]

Yellohut, FAT32 can recognize up to only 128GB whereas NTFS can recognize up to 2TB. FAT16 can recognize up to 2GB.

[Force Flow]

All of my O/S's (with the exception of Mandrake) are FAT32 and they all work fine. Haven't run into the 2GB file size limitation too often; only when film editing or using the MS backup tool.

[edit]: I thought a FAT32 system could recognize 2TB.

[vacanthead]

Originally posted by bailey creat two partitions install w98 first install xp second on the second partation you will then have a dual boot system xp does not have to be ntfs it will work ok as fat 32 then both systems can read and write to each other in windows explore.

bailey, that's exactly what I have now (but on a smaller, slower HDD), but I never use 98 and as I'm upgrading to a 1 GB RAM system, isn't that much RAM going to cause problems in 98? Isn't NTFS a more efficient filing system than FAT32? (here I go, demonstrating my ignorance again)

[doctorgonzo]

NTFS is more efficient than FAT32.

Here is how I would do it:

5 GB Win98 partition, FAT32, install Win98.

Install WinXP, put it on a 10GB partition, NTFS.

Break up the other 65GB into whatever partitions you want (data, games, mp3s, whatever) and format them all in FAT32 so both OSs can see them.

[bailey]

there is a fix for w98 to work with over 512 meg of ram but can't think of it right now

[mike breck]

You don't "have" to install Win98 to be able to install XP from the XP upgrade CD.

Just start XP setup and you will be asked to place the Win98 CD in the CD-Rom to prove you qualify. Then you can continue to install XP.

HTH

[swhite]

mike is right. that's how i did it.

[vacanthead]

OK, I successfully installed the new Mobo and HDD (went for the 120 GB). Installed XP as suggested by our Scottish friend and all went swimmingly. Thanks for the advice guys. One quick question, what's the actual rated speed of an AMD XP 2600+ ?. I thought it was 2.13 Ghz, but AIDA32 only says it's 2.07 GHz (or something like that).

[andyms18a]

my 2600 runs at 2.83ghz

[vacanthead]

2.83? Jesus, you must overclock the sheet out of it!

[justin1983]

MICROSOFT HAS REALESED A NEW VERSION OF FDISK THAT ALLOWS IT FOR FIND AND FORMAT DRIVES AT 120-138gb IN SIZE, I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I HAVE HAD TO FIND THIS OUT MYSELF BECAUSE I COULD NOT GET WINDOWS TO ACCEPT MY 120GB HDD. SO I WENT LOOKING. AND ITS ON MICROSOFTS WEBSITE.

[RayH]

The problem with using hard drives larger than 64 MB with Windows 98SE startup disks is that the Fdisk reads the size of the drive MINUS 64 MB.

This site has the patch for the W9x startup disks to read the correct size of a new drive:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q263044

Actually, until I found this patch, on a dual boot, I'd create a 5 GB primary, active DOS partition. Install Windows 98SE and then let Partition Magic create the rest. It was actually faster than formatting a hard drive!

As for dealing with 512 RAM limits of Windows 98:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...8+512+MB+limit

I still like dual boot Windows 98SE/XP machines. Windows XP does have a Windows 98 emulator. But it doesn't always work as advertised. It's just a backup.

[andyms18a]

Originally posted by vacanthead 2.83? Jesus, you must overclock the sheet out of it!

sorry mistype 2.083 gh not 2.83