two hard drives-two operation systems

I have a compaq 5300 series computer with WindowsXPpro on it. the hard drive is new and the OS was installed when I installed the new hard drive. I also put the old hd back in the computer to use for storage space.....on this old drive is the old windows98SE operating system. When the computer boots it goes to the XP operating system. Can I also boot to the old OS on the other hd?? Can I somehow switch between the two??? How do I do these things?
If I were so inclined, how would I remove just the 98 operation system and still leave the programs that are on the old drive?? As it is, I can open and use all those programs....some of which came "with" the 98OS (I don't have installation discs for the programs and I would like to keep them around)
any information on how to use both these OS would be appreciated?
thanks
Katy

 

Hi,

Windows 98 needs to be on the C:\ drive to work. Actually, if you had of left the Win 98 drive as the boot drive and then installed Win XP to the new drive in a secondary location, the Win XP installer would have made a dual boot setup automatically. Win Xp can be installed to any drive location. If you switch the drives now, neither OS might work.

My method (untried, I have only worked on single drives) would be to swap the drives so that Win 98 is the C:\ drive again. Hopefully you will be able to boot into Win 98 as you did previously. With the Win XP drive in the "secondary" location/configuration, boot to the Win XP CD and go through setup until after the Eula, you will then get an option to "Repair" the current Windows XP installation (not the option to repair Windows using the Recovery Console)...follow the prompts and it should make a dual boot with Win 98.
As a test, put the Win 98 drive back in it's original configuration (as C:\), if it boots up you should have no trouble with that method.

Here are some other possibilities:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=52735

You will be able to run some programs from the other OS as long as the programs do not run through the registry (different registry ).

Matt

 

The following should work for you.

First, boot to XP and open the root of the 98 drive. Locate the boot.ini file, copy it and place the copy in a safe place on the XP drive, say a new folder in the root named boot.ini backup or something. Now open the boot.ini in the 98 root and edit it to read as follows.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\ = "Windows 98SE "

Close and save the changes. Re-open it to verify the changes stuck. If you are unable to edit and save, right click the file and select properties, remove the Read Only attribute and try again. It's a good idea to reset the Read Only attribute when finished.

Now shut down the computer. Open the case and connect the 98 drive to the end position of the ribbon cable, the XP drive to the middle position of the cable. You may also need to set the hard drive jumpers to cable select on both drives, or Master on the 98 and slave on the XP pro (I'd try both cable select first). Restart and you should be prompted which OS to start. You will have 30 seconds to choose, otherwise XP Pro will start.