Setting up a Dual Boot......

At present I'm running 98se on a WD 40g HDD.
The set up is -
Prim Master = WD 40g HDD
Prim Slave = Pioneer DVD-Rom
Sec Master = NEC DVD/RW
Sec Slave = None

I'm looking to install an 80g HDD and put XP Pro on it without losing any data on my 40g drive.
I really have little idea how to do this - any and ALL replies would be extremely appreciated.
Thanks
Den

 

Make sure when installing the new hard drive that you jumper the drive correctly as 'slave'.

After you've installed the new drive, boot up normally and make sure that it is detected by the OS - look in your device manager and make sure it's listed. Do this before you begin the OS installation procedure - this way, you'll know your new HDD is detected properly by both the BIOS and your OS if there's any problems down the road.

1. Then reboot the system (normally) not in safe mode.
2. Once the system boots up to the desktop, insert the XP CD and you'll see a message pop up saying: "
   
   Windows has detected a new OS, would you like to upgrade?​
3. Click 'No'
4. This will begin a full-installation procedure and now you'll see the XP setup menus where you enter the key and so forth. At some point, you need to look carefully for an "Advanced" options button.
5. When you click on this button, the setup menu will present you with all the hard drives it sees and you can point the installation path to the correct HDD.
6. The rest of the installation is pretty straightforward.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

1. XP will format the drive during the setup process so there's no need for you to format the new HDD in advance before installing the OS.
2. Now you don't have to install XP on the new drive. You could install it on the current 40 gigger if you wanted to as long as you have a separate partition available.
3. If you use NTFS on the XP drive, I would create atleast 1 to 2 partition for images and backups.
4. If you use FAT32; i would advise you to keep your partition sizes at 8 GB or less in order to keep your cluster sizes down. If you go above that, you're going to see a great deal of slack space.

 

Thanks Maverick

I had an idea of the 'physical' setup, but was unsure of how to load the OS.
Couple of questions 1) Once both OSs are in place, which one boots and how do you 'toggle' between them?
2) I don't really understand the differences (and therefore uses) between NTFS & Fat32?

Thanks
Den

 

http://www.vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/filesystems.htm

 

DeeGee88, Here's a site with loads of information for almost any type of Dual boot operation and the caveats. Click the Dual Boot Button:
http://thpc.info/