one drive-NTFS/XP & FAT32/w98se?

Hi, will this work?
-Wife's PC has a 40G IDE drive (more than enough).
I prepartitioned it last year in anticipation of XP. Used Part. Magic 6. So the drive has 2 partitions: 20G NTFS, 20G FAT32.
-The NTFS partition is empty.
-The FAT32 partition has a working win98se install. That partition is fully operational & has all my wife's stuff on it, business & home.

So I'm asking - would my plan work? Will I be able to "just" install XP (NTFS) on the NTFS partition, without harming the data & OS on the other partition? The long plan is to gradually install everything that's on the FAT32 partition onto the NTFS XP partition. When that's done, I'd
use Part Magic or fdisk (whichever is safer)to make the FAT32 partition into an NTFS also.

Would I be able to dual-boot the 2 OS's till I get rid of w98se?
Thanks.

 

The answer to your question is Yes your plan should work. The following, which is from XP's help files, explains this in greater detail;

Installing more than one operating system on your computer

You can install more than one operating system on your computer and choose which operating system you want to use every time you start your computer. This is often called a dual-boot or multiple-boot configuration. Windows XP supports multiple booting with MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000.

Disk volumes and disk format

Each operating system must be installed on a separate volume on your computer. In addition, you must ensure that the boot volume is formatted with the correct file system. You must reformat and repartition your hard drive if:

You have only one volume (so each installation can retain its own files and configuration information).

The boot volume is formatted with the NTFS file system.

If you want to install Windows 95 or Windows 98 with Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, the boot volume must be formatted as FAT, not NTFS, because Windows 95 and Windows 98 must be installed on the boot volume when more than one operating system is installed, and FAT is the only file system those systems support. Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP support FAT32 volumes.

However, if you format a Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP volume with any file system other than NTFS, you will lose all NTFS-specific features. This includes some Windows XP features such as file system security, encrypting file system (EFS) settings, disk quotas, and Remote Storage. Likewise, Windows 95 and Windows 98 cannot recognize an NTFS partition and will identify it as unknown. Therefore, if you format a Windows 98 partition as FAT, 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.

Operating System = Supported File System
MS-DOS = FAT
Windows 3.1 = FAT
Windows 95 = FAT
Windows 95 OSR2 = FAT, FAT32
Windows 98 = FAT, FAT32
Windows 2000 = FAT32, NTFS
Windows XP = FAT32, NTFS

How to create a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows XP

You will be less likely to encounter problems installing a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows XP if you install these operating systems in the following order: MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then Windows XP.

If you have Windows XP installed on a volume formatted as FAT, and you have another free volume formatted as FAT or FAT32, you can install Windows 98 to the free volume without reformatting your hard drive.

After ensuring that your hard drive is formatted with the correct file system, do one of the following:

If you want a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows XP, install MS-DOS, then Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then Windows XP.

If you want a dual-boot system with only Windows 95 or Windows 98, install Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then install Windows XP.

Important

Before creating a multiple-boot configuration with Windows XP and another operating system, such as MS-DOS, Windows 95, or Windows 98, review the following precautions:

Each operating system must be installed on a separate volume. Microsoft does not support installing multiple operating systems on the same volume.

If you have only one volume on your computer, you must reformat and repartition your hard drive to contain multiple volumes before you begin creating a multiple-boot configuration, unless you are simply installing another copy of Windows XP.

You must install Windows XP only after installing MS-DOS, Windows 95, or Windows 98 to prevent MS-DOS or Windows 95 from overwriting the Windows XP boot sector and the Windows XP startup files.

Do not install Windows XP on a compressed drive that was not compressed using the NTFS compression utility.

You must use a different computer name for each operating system if the computer is on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP secure domain.

Installing programs on more than one operating system
You must treat each operating system as a separate entity. Any programs and drivers you want to use must be installed under each operating system under which you want to use it. For example, if you want to use Microsoft 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.

Notes

If you have more than one operating system on your computer, you can set the operating system you want to use as the default when you start your computer.

Windows 95 or Windows 98 might reconfigure hardware settings the first time you use them. This can cause configuration problems when you start Windows XP.

Hope this helps.

 

Yes this will work. My XP partition was installed in the second partition of a WinME working computer. I have 30 gig with 5 partitions. All were Fat32 and the XP install was allowed to format the second partition as HPFS. When running ME I now have access to 4 partitions as though the HPFS didn't exist. When running WinXP all 5 partitions may be accessed.

 

Thank you to Rod & Richmusic! Reassuring to know I was on right track. And I will further check with some geek friends who run a PC shop, about the possible configuration problems on XP install that Rod mentionned, so that I can avoid them.