AlleyCat wrote:
I'm trying to "Dual Boot" using an older version of Win98 and a
"newer" version. I also have XP that I wish to install, along with
the two versions of 98, but I might not.
What is the best way to install each of these OS's and not have to
have a boot loader at startup? I know that when I install XP, it will
automatically install the boot loader, but I'd like to bypass that
also. Any help will be most appreciated.

Al

I do it a different way than most people and in that way I don't have to deal
with any proprietary bootloader screens, etc; and has other advantages as well.

I triple boot between 98SE, W2K, or WXP on the same HD all without a
bootloader installed was always my personal choice. You can install whatever
OS combination you wish but for the latter then would need to be done in a
specific way as to bypass its own bootloader, and that's to isolate their
install by hiding 'All' other partitions available at installation time so that
the stock bootloaders won't install tampering with the other partitions as they
certainly would otherwise.

To switch between OS's I use the simple approach by utilizing the pqboot32.exe
in windows (or pqboot.exe for dos) which both these very small non-install
self-run program files comes with partition magic or you can easily acquire
them separately. Copy pqboot32.exe to C:\Windows for 9x, and for 2K/XP it
can go anywhere; make a bat file with the line: pqboot32.exe /m (designates
not hidden) ...and shortcut to it from wherever.

When you start your computer it will always boot directly to whatever OS was
left active on C:\ at its last use (or can shutdown designate next boot.)
Switching from one OS to the other while in the other is just one click of that
..bat or it's shortcut.

Rick
......ps, also doing it that way for users of disk imaging programs allows total
freedom to swap any one of the current or previous backup OS partition images,
in or out, backwards or forwards at any stage of their evolution independently
without interference in any way from any of the other OS's being present. Total
Freedom.