Windows XP -> Win ME

Hey,
I am running Windows XP Home Edition but i have some audio hardware that does not have drivers for XP, so i need to switch to Windows ME or 98se. My problem is getting XP off my system tho, Since i cant restart in MS-Dos mode to format, and i cant do it within the command prompt application because thats still running windows. I made a ms-dos start-up disk but when i restart, it brings me to the A:\ but it wont recognize any other drive because it wont read the drivers installed i believe.

I thought if i copied the drivers for my cd-rom and hdd it would read it, but i can't find which drivers are for those devices. Does anyone know how i can get to dos with all my drivers still?

 

I could also install Windows ME and keep XP on there too, but how much memory should i save for them both, right now i have XP installed and have 16GB free, is that enough?

if so, how do i install both?Get to dos and install it?

 

I found your post a bit confusing, but I assume you have XP installed with C: converted to NTFS and when you boot from a floppy, C: can't be seen.

I've found if you use Partition Magic you can simply delete the NTFS partition and recreate a new FAT-32 one (say). If you can't get PM, I think there's a small freeware util called GDISK which can see and delete NTFS partitions.

Also http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/utilities.shtml
NTFSDOS v3 is freeware I think

XPuser

 

If you are going to have a Dual boot system, I would go with the Partition magic 8 option. By the sounds of it you are new to this sort of thing and having a pretty user interface to show you exaxctly what is going to happen to you partitions is far better than a dos mode session.

Get partition magic, and a program called bootpart. Use partition magic to create a new FAT32 file system for your windows 98 out of empty space on your current drive. Install windows 98 on this drive and use bootpart to set up a boot loader for you to choose which os to use.

 

P.S What audio hardware is it? There may be drivers out there and you just might not have looked in the right place, let us know and we will have a look for you!

 

the audio hardware that i have is a Lexicon Core2 breakout box to increase my inputs and outputs