dual boot (win98/win2000) problem

Discussion in 'Software' started by ekontar, Feb 11, 2006.

  1. ekontar

    ekontar Private E-2

    Hi, hope you can help me about this problem: :confused:

    I created two partitions on my HDD: the first one is NTFS, primary, active, 50GB with OS windows 2000 server, the second one is FAT32, primary, 30GB with OS windows 98SE.
    I installed under win98 the powerquest bootmagic 8.0, so I can choose either win98 / win2000.
    If I decide to start with win2000 the situation is the following: file manager shows C: as win2000 working directory and D: is accessible and contains the win98 files. All works fine. That's exactly what I want.
    But, if I decide to start with win98, file manager shows only C: as win98 working directory (obviously, the NTFS partition is not accessible) ..... because my goal is a symmetric configuration (I will C: as win98 working directory and D: accessible under win98), I've tryed to install winternals NTFS driver for win98 but, when rebooted, the NTFS partition stay 'hide' and so I cannot access ... I can 'unhide' the partition under win98 but I can't assign a drive letter (win98 don't permit this).

    When rebooted, starting win98, the NTFS partition returns to be 'hide', then without drive letter, then not accessible.

    Do you have any suggestions (before buying the licensed version) ?

    Thanks in advice.
     
  2. Wavetar

    Wavetar Sergeant

    You're doing it a bit back-asswards, not having the Win98 OS on the C drive. Any dual boot config I've ever worked with or configured always followed the MS recommendation of having Win98 in the C partition. Even the sysinternals website recommends it. Here's a snippit from the site:

    Do not convert your first partition, or your Windows 95/98 boot partition (the one with \windows on it), to NTFS as there is no support in Windows 95 or Windows 98 for reading NTFS drives during the boot sequence.

    For maximum compatibility in dual boot systems, the recommended partition configuration is to maintain a FAT partition as the first partition on the primary drive. This partition should contain Windows 95/98 and should not be used to store applications or data files. The rest of the primary disks, and any other disks that you wish to share between Windows 98 and Windows NT/2000/XP can be formatted with NTFS or other file system types (FAT16 or FAT32) that are understood by the operating systems from which you wish to access them.


    Personally, unless you have some security reasons to the contrary, I'd set-up both partitions as Fat32...no problems then.
     
  3. ekontar

    ekontar Private E-2

    Thankyou ... :)
    That's true .. my error was in the partitions order. I'll try with two FAT32 partitions: win98 in the first-one then win2000 in the second-one. I'll install win2000 from win98 using the advanced option like 'install to specific partition' and I'll use the native boot loader NT.
    Just two questions:
    1. win2000 under FAT32 is not slower than under NTFS ?
    2. it's important to me have the current OS always in the C: drive .. if I install win2000 in the second-one partition, when the PC starts with win2000 where is the winnt drive, C: or D: ??

    ciao
    ekontar
     

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