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General discussion

daul booting

Mar 3, 2004 1:46AM PST

My home pc has 2 drives in it,one has win98 se as the operating system
and i have just put win xp on to the second one.when i start up the pc it comes on in xp
and i would like to know if there is a way that i can choose which operating system i use.
i e,can i open up in either and when i am in one can i switch to the other.
If this is possible could you tell me how,would be greatly appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Tell Us More...
Mar 4, 2004 3:42AM PST
daul booting: My home pc has 2 drives in it,one has win98 se as the operating system and i have just put win xp on to the second one.when i start up the pc it comes on in xp and i would like to know if there is a way that i can choose which operating system i use. i e,can i open up in either and when i am in one can i switch to the other. - tbailey123

To answer your questions, we need a little more information. Normally when you create a true dual-boot system, you have the option at startup to choose from one of the Operating Systems on your PC before the Windows splash screen appears. If you're not seeing that, then a few things could be causing this based on Windows settings or the way and manner the Operating Systems were installed...

1. Did you install W98 on one Hard drive (HDD), then overwrite it by updating to XP???
2. Did you install W98 on one HDD on one PC and XP on the HDD on another and then decided to install both HDDs in one PC???
3. Do you have "Display list of operating systems for xxx seconds" checked in Startup and Recovery? I don't use XP, but in W2K you can find this setting in System Properties on the Advanced tab, but it may be the same in XP...
4. If you are using two HDDs, are they both installed correctly? i.e. Can you view all the partitions (drives) on both HDDs???
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answers to your questions
Mar 4, 2004 5:03AM PST

Q1)no
Q2)no-had both hdd in same p.c.both on w98.did a clean &install on one to put xp onto it.
Q3)do not know need to check
Q4)yes i believe so.

wanted to leave w98 on one because of all the files/digital photos on it and for my son to download his internet stuff.
the file system on the w98 was fat32 but have gone to ntfs on the xp one,can the files be converted if so then i could put xp on both

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NTFS and Fat32...
Mar 4, 2004 5:39AM PST
Q1)no
Q2)no-had both hdd in same p.c.both on w98.did a clean &install on one to put xp onto it.
Q3)do not know need to check
Q4)yes i believe so. - tbailey123


So based on your answers, you were booting from W98 first. Then you installed XP. But instead of updating to XP, you did a clean install of XP on a separate partition which may or may not be on the same HDD in your PC. If that is the case and the install went without a hitch, you should now have a dual-boot system. If you do not get the option to boot into one or the other OS before the Windows splash screen appears, then the setting to "Display list of operating systems for xxx seconds" checked in Startup and Recovery might not be checked...

the file system on the w98 was fat32 but have gone to ntfs on the xp one,can the files be converted if so then i could put xp on both - tbailey123

I have had way too many problems with NTFS and older hardware. So I always install W2K using the Fat32 format. I have heard that the NTFS and Fat32 formats don't play well together, but I have no first-hand experience to know if that is the case...

W98 cannot be installed in the NTFS format. So it would be better if XP is installed in the Fat32 format if there truly is a compatibility problem between the 2 formats. I know you can convert a partition from Fat32 to NTFS but I'm not sure if you can safely convert from NTFS to Fat32 once the OS is installed on that partition (drive) without screwing everything up...

But now it sounds like you really don't want a dual-boot system. It wouldn't make any sense to install XP twice on the same PC. If all of your hardware and software works in XP with the NTFS format, you might as well convert the Fat32 partition(s) (drives) to NTFS...