New Laptop - dual boot XP Pro and Win98 SE?

I have a new Systemax Laptop coming from Tiger Direct. 1.6GB, 80GB
SATA drive, 1.0GB Ram, Intel Wireless Ethernet and External USB
Floppy drive.

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

I get a Win XP Pro Distribution CD ( ? ) with it, I hope it's a
retail CD so if needed I can use it to over-install. That's because
it normally comes with XP Home but I ordered XP Pro for more $.

I've used Systemax machines for many years and have always been
pleased so that's why I chose this.

Any ideas appreciated.

Happy New Year !!

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

You should consider running W98 inside a virtual PC as an alternative to
dual booting.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...loads/sp1.mspx
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Bill Watt" wrote in message
...

I have a new Systemax Laptop coming from Tiger Direct. 1.6GB, 80GB
SATA drive, 1.0GB Ram, Intel Wireless Ethernet and External USB
Floppy drive.

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

I get a Win XP Pro Distribution CD ( ? ) with it, I hope it's a
retail CD so if needed I can use it to over-install. That's because
it normally comes with XP Home but I ordered XP Pro for more $.

I've used Systemax machines for many years and have always been
pleased so that's why I chose this.

Any ideas appreciated.

Happy New Year !!

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

My first thought, too.

--

Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
You should consider running W98 inside a virtual PC as an alternative to
dual booting.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...loads/sp1.mspx
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Bill Watt" wrote in message
...

I have a new Systemax Laptop coming from Tiger Direct. 1.6GB, 80GB
SATA drive, 1.0GB Ram, Intel Wireless Ethernet and External USB
Floppy drive.

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

I get a Win XP Pro Distribution CD ( ? ) with it, I hope it's a
retail CD so if needed I can use it to over-install. That's because
it normally comes with XP Home but I ordered XP Pro for more $.

I've used Systemax machines for many years and have always been
pleased so that's why I chose this.

Any ideas appreciated.

Happy New Year !!

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

"Bill Watt" wrote in message
...

I have a new Systemax Laptop coming from Tiger Direct. 1.6GB, 80GB
SATA drive, 1.0GB Ram, Intel Wireless Ethernet and External USB
Floppy drive.

Nice!

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Why? Specifically? What are your 98 needs? Why FAT32 for XP?

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Better to use BING to handle boot management. Then install XP first so that
it doesn't see anything else to add to its boot manager. But even if you
install 98 first, using BING you can hide it from XP to get the same
results. Future issues are the problem, when for instance
reinstalling/repairng XP or adding some other OS to the mix (or more
instances of the ones you have.) XP's boot manager is a Royal PITA for
experimenters and multi-booters.

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

Dunno. I'd check with the manufacturer of the drive. But this is the point
when VPC popped into my head when I was reading.

I get a Win XP Pro Distribution CD ( ? ) with it, I hope it's a
retail CD so if needed I can use it to over-install. That's because
it normally comes with XP Home but I ordered XP Pro for more $.

I think you're applying Win98 OEM logic to a situation where it doesn't
apply. Over-installing (Repairing) XP is SOP with all versions of XP, AFAIK.

I've used Systemax machines for many years and have always been
pleased so that's why I chose this.

I've had a couple of their desktops in my panoply at one time or another,
and I agree that they're well-built.

Any ideas appreciated.

HTH!

Happy New Year !!

To you, too, Bill!

--

Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

I don't think you're going to get Windows 98 to run on that machine, Bill.
For one thing, do you know that you can get system and hardware drivers for
Windows 98 from either Systemax or Tiger Direct? I would be willing to lay
any bet you want that you can't.

Windows 98 doesn't care if your hard drives are SATA, IDE, RAID or some
other exotic controller - all it cares about is whether or not there are
Windows 98 drivers for the drive. If there are, it will use whatever
drive(s) are present. If not ... Well ...

Gary and Jeff have given you the best answer - if you must run Windows 98
then run it in Virtual PC. And please, PLEASE don't mess with trying to
change the hard drive format from NTFS to FAT32. It won't gain you anything
worth gaining even if you can. And I doubt you can.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User]
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Bill Watt" wrote in message
...

I have a new Systemax Laptop coming from Tiger Direct. 1.6GB, 80GB
SATA drive, 1.0GB Ram, Intel Wireless Ethernet and External USB
Floppy drive.

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

I get a Win XP Pro Distribution CD ( ? ) with it, I hope it's a
retail CD so if needed I can use it to over-install. That's because
it normally comes with XP Home but I ordered XP Pro for more $.

I've used Systemax machines for many years and have always been
pleased so that's why I chose this.

Any ideas appreciated.

Happy New Year !!

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 00:29:57 -0800, "Gary S. Terhune"
wrote:

"Bill Watt" wrote in message
.. .

I have a new Systemax Laptop coming from Tiger Direct. 1.6GB, 80GB
SATA drive, 1.0GB Ram, Intel Wireless Ethernet and External USB
Floppy drive.

Nice!

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Why? Specifically? What are your 98 needs? Why FAT32 for XP?

For compatibility with my older programs. (a lot ). Also, as I
understand it, with a dual boot Win98 won't see NTFS.

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Better to use BING to handle boot management. Then install XP first so that
it doesn't see anything else to add to its boot manager. But even if you
install 98 first, using BING you can hide it from XP to get the same
results. Future issues are the problem, when for instance
reinstalling/repairng XP or adding some other OS to the mix (or more
instances of the ones you have.) XP's boot manager is a Royal PITA for
experimenters and multi-booters.

The machine will come with XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I have BING
and made a floppy with it. I'll check that out. The last time I
tried using it It was not clear to me what it was going to do so I
cancelled it. I believe there was also something about going into
Maintenance mode at the start.

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

Dunno. I'd check with the manufacturer of the drive. But this is the point
when VPC popped into my head when I was reading.

I usually get a Drivers CD with Systemax, so we'll see. I'll check
out VPC, that sounds good.

I get a Win XP Pro Distribution CD ( ? ) with it, I hope it's a
retail CD so if needed I can use it to over-install. That's because
it normally comes with XP Home but I ordered XP Pro for more $.

I think you're applying Win98 OEM logic to a situation where it doesn't
apply. Over-installing (Repairing) XP is SOP with all versions of XP, AFAIK.

Aha!

Snip

Thanks.

Happy New Year !! Again!

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 18:54:16 +1100, "Jeff Richards"
wrote:

You should consider running W98 inside a virtual PC as an alternative to
dual booting.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...loads/sp1.mspx

I will, thanks for the link, I've downloaded it.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 06:25:05 -0500, "Richard G. Harper"
wrote:

I don't think you're going to get Windows 98 to run on that machine, Bill.
For one thing, do you know that you can get system and hardware drivers for
Windows 98 from either Systemax or Tiger Direct? I would be willing to lay
any bet you want that you can't.

I usually get a Drivers CD from Systemax, so we'll see. The
salesperson who took my order was very helpful and checked out most
of my questions right away. I have a direct phone number to him.

Windows 98 doesn't care if your hard drives are SATA, IDE, RAID or some
other exotic controller - all it cares about is whether or not there are
Windows 98 drivers for the drive. If there are, it will use whatever
drive(s) are present. If not ... Well ...

ATA drives were not available for this machine so I took the 80GB
SATA for Win98. I could have taken a 100GB, 160GB or 200GB or more.

Gary and Jeff have given you the best answer - if you must run Windows 98
then run it in Virtual PC. And please, PLEASE don't mess with trying to
change the hard drive format from NTFS to FAT32. It won't gain you anything
worth gaining even if you can. And I doubt you can.

Yes, I'm looking into VPC, have downloaded it. The Laptop comes with
XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I also have Partition Magic 5.01 that
will format FAT32 to NTFS but not NTFS to FAT32. A later version
will do that but I have no need for it right now.

Thanks, I now have enough information to get everything together and
be ready.

Happy New Year !!

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

Bill Watt wrote:
On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 00:29:57 -0800, "Gary S. Terhune"
wrote:

snip

It will have XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I'll want to Dual Boot
with 98 SE.

Why? Specifically? What are your 98 needs? Why FAT32 for XP?

For compatibility with my older programs. (a lot ). Also, as I
understand it, with a dual boot Win98 won't see NTFS.

Well, like we've suggested, MS VPC or VMWare would probably be the best bet,
but if you can get 98 drivers for everything and really want to dual-boot,
my suggestion is to create a third partition for user files and keep the OS
partitions from seeing each other, period. XP is much better run on NTFS,
and done thus it would be invisible to 98, anyway, and XP "touches" every
partition it sees with stuff that I, personally, don't like on my 9x
partitions or any other partitions. Don't like one XP partition touching
another, either. Not the OS partitions. Shadow copying, System Restore
points, etc. It's easy to move My Documents and other personal stuff, like
Favorites and OE Stores to a different partition altogether and share them
that way (if you really want to share them.) That way, neither OS has any
reason to see the other OS's partition. Honest, they don't play well
together.

VPC isn't quite as smooth as a "real" install, but it will probably do what
you need, and IIRC, there are things you can do using the VPC itself to
throttle down the hardware, probably necessary for some of your legacy apps.
(I'll let someone else go into details. I don't really have that much
experience with it -- yet!

Question 1 : I understand Win98SE should be installed first in order
to dual boot. How can I get around that without formatting and
re-installing?

Better to use BING to handle boot management. Then install XP first
so that it doesn't see anything else to add to its boot manager. But
even if you install 98 first, using BING you can hide it from XP to
get the same results. Future issues are the problem, when for
instance reinstalling/repairng XP or adding some other OS to the mix
(or more instances of the ones you have.) XP's boot manager is a
Royal PITA for experimenters and multi-booters.

The machine will come with XP Pro installed with FAT 32. I have BING
and made a floppy with it. I'll check that out. The last time I
tried using it It was not clear to me what it was going to do so I
cancelled it. I believe there was also something about going into
Maintenance mode at the start.

The FAT partition can be easily converted to NTFS using BING. If you use
BING as a boot manager, then you want to create an 8MB empty space at the
end of the disk for BING to install itself. If you're not going to use it as
the boot manager, then you don't need to install it, just cancel the
installation prompt and that will drop you into Maintenance Mode. Partition
Work is where all the fun is. If you install it and use it as the boot
manager, then you can create any number of boot scenarios, showing only the
partitions you want each session to have visible, and other goodies that
might come in handy.

Question 2: I have seen where Win98 won't work with a SATA drive and
have also seen where it will work with 98 Sata drivers. ??

Dunno. I'd check with the manufacturer of the drive. But this is the
point when VPC popped into my head when I was reading.

I usually get a Drivers CD with Systemax, so we'll see. I'll check
out VPC, that sounds good.

If you can get the 98 drivers and make dual-boot work, I think you'll be
happier. But it sure is nice to have VPC or VMWare to fall back on! Have
fun!

snip

--

Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375



"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
snipped
VPC isn't quite as smooth as a "real" install, but it will probably do what you
need, and IIRC, there are things you can do using the VPC itself to throttle down
the hardware, probably necessary for some of your legacy apps. (I'll let someone
else go into details. I don't really have that much experience with it -- yet!

VPC is a straight forward install that installs as if it were any other application
you install.
AFAIK you can't change/update drivers for hardware in any way, all VPC's emulate the
hardware on the host.
All VPC's have Additions included which install drivers and the such.
You can run all of the installed systems including the host at the same time if the
host has enough memory to handle them all.
VPC2007 (Beta a of this moment) is by far the best one I've experienced, and I mean
the best.

I have installed/running at this time in VPC2007:
XP Pro SP2
XP Home SP2
Win2003 Server
98SE
Another Beta app which I'm not sure if it's mentionable without taking a bullet to
the head.

snipped


If you can get the 98 drivers and make dual-boot work, I think you'll be happier.
But it sure is nice to have VPC or VMWare to fall back on! Have fun!

I think anyone that meets the requirements to install VPC would be very pleased.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375