The Hindu Business Line : Dual booting

I am using Windows 98. But I wish to install Window XP and am thinking of a dual boot. How should I dual boot XP over 98. Does dual booting cause any problems?

I have 3 drives C, D and E. I wish to put windows XP in E, which has 10 GB space.

Will I have to reinstall all the hardware drivers? Please tell me how I should go about the process.

Akash Thakkar

Your requirement is a straightforward process, since you have already installed Windows 98 on C drive and would like to install Windows XP on E drive. Each operating system must be installed on a separate volume or partition.

Microsoft does not support installing multiple operating systems on the same partition. So you may install Windows XP either on D drive or on E drive.

Please note Windows 98 cannot recognise NTFS partition.

Therefore, if you format a Windows 98 partition as FAT or FAT32, and a Windows XP partition as NTFS, any files on the NTFS partition will not be available or visible if you try to access them while running Windows 98.

So before installing Windows XP on E drive, please make sure your E drive is formatted with Fat32. If not, please backup your E drive data and reformat it with Fat32 file system.

The next point regarding dual-boot is that any programs and drivers you want to use must be installed under each operating system that you want to use.

For example, if you want to use MS-Word on the same computer under both Windows 98 and Windows XP, you must start Windows 98 and install Microsoft Word.

Then, you must restart your computer under Windows XP and install Microsoft Word again.

While installing drivers, please use the respective drivers for Windows 98 and Windows XP.

In most cases, Windows XP will auto-detect all plug and play devices.

To run older programs and games on Windows XP, a feature called "Program Compatibility Wizard" has been introduced, which prompts you to test your program in different modes and various settings.

To start this, please Click Start - Programs - Accessories - Program Compatibility Wizard or Open IE and type "hcp://system/compatctr/

compatmode.htm" and follow the instructions.

For more information, please look up the MS article at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/

using/setup/learnmore/multiboot.mspx

Solution by M. Sampath

More Stories on : Computer Usage | Tip Off

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page