NTFS & FAT32 - 1 HDD-why not?

Clarification & your experience please: on pg. 5 of the 2002 version of the "start here" manual for XPpro it sez: "...use NTFS if ...running only 1 OS on your computer... "
Well, I don't want to do that! Using Part. Magic 6 last yr., I halved a 40G Maxtor, into FAT32 which has the currently active w98se on it, and NTFS on the other partition, ready for XPpro, which I just got. I don't care if the 2 partitions communicate with each other or not! I just want to be able to dual boot, set up XPpro NTFS, install all the same apps currently used on the FAT32/w98 part, and gradually ease out use of the FAT32 part. Meanwhile though, the w98 part is fully usable by the "client" (my accountant wife). Is this possible, safely? Thank you.

 

yes it's quite safe and I've been there and done that. Just make sure you install all programs in both OS's, and try not to use the same data files, (except maybe outlook .pst files and Microsoft office documents). Programs such as OE, IE, Netscape should be kept with seperate favorites and browser histories so that the programs won't break between the OS's.
this shouldn't be a problem since you are installing on two seperate partitions.