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Dual Boot - Windows 98/Vista

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goombawaho

goombawaho

MIS
Oct 7, 2007
6,597
US
I know it's stupid, so don't tell me. It's for a customer. He wants to buy a new PC with Vista pre-installed of course and then get Windows 98 to work with it.

What would be your best strategy to make that happen??? 2nd hard drive, re-partition existing drive?? Try to elaborate or give me a link.

Thanks to anyone that has a "fool-proof" plan to accomplish this crazy request.
 
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If he really wants Win98. I'd use Microsoft's Virtual PC.

With that said, if it really must be set up to dual boot:

I recommend a separate hard drive, if only to not mess around with the one Vista is on.

Then install Win98 on the other hard drive without having Vista present.

When that is done, put the Vista back into the system and attempt a repair of the MBR if your lucky it should pick up the win98 installation.

But if not you'd be better off using a third party boot loader such as:

GRUB or GAG.

Note GRUB usually comes as part of certain Linux flavors, but Linux is not required to use it.


----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
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I agree with "vacunita" that it is easier to go with the Virtual PC option.

Virtual PC 2007

Probably the customer has Vista Home Premium which is not supported by Virtual PC, but plenty of people load it in the "Home" versions of XP or Vista, it is that Microsoft will not provide any support for Virtual PC in that scenario.

98 requires FAT32, Vista cannot be installed on FAT32, but can read and write to FAT32, 98 cannot read or write to NTFS on the machine it is installed on, but can on other networked machines.

 
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Virtual PC for gaming purposes = worse performance - right??

That's why I was thinking a pure dual boot.

I don't really want to mess with messing up Vista. Theres no way to repartition the hard drive to have a FAT32 partition at the beginning of the drive for 98 to live on?
 
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He wants to buy a new PC with Vista pre-installed of course and then get Windows 98 to work with it.
Click to expand...
No problem, since it is a new drive with no APPS installed except VISTA...

DBAN the drive, install W98SE in a partition created with FDISK, then install VISTA...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
 
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Use this article as a guide (only) as to how you can shrink the Vista partition to make room for a small FAT32 partition.

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots


Working Around Windows Vista's "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems

Whatever you use to Resize your partition, these procedures are not without some risk, even though it is a very slight risk. Backup your valuable data first.

BootIt NG

"Resize partitions - Can both shrink and expand FAT/FAT32 and NTFS partitions. Can also easily resize extended partitions from either end.
 
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No problem, since it is a new drive with no APPS installed except VISTA...
DBAN the drive, install W98SE in a partition created with FDISK, then install VISTA... "

This would NOT be a good idea because:
Most likely the new machine (an HP) will come with a recovery partition to reload Vista which would blow away the newly installed 98 partition and set everything back the way it was when it shipped. If it came with a pure Vista install CD (like a retail CD), then it would be doable. But those partitions contain images that just re-regurgitate the image onto the C: drive without prejudice to anything you might have put there.

I was going to use Partition Magic 8, but read that that doesn't work on Vista - boo hoo.
 
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Linney - I'll scope out your suggestions and see if my feeble brain can digest the concepts.

An addendum to the above - It's not just Vista that those recovery CDs or partitions contain and reinstall. They have all the apps that the manufacturer has "graced" you with for free. Personally, I wish they would include a PURE unadulterated Vista OEM install CD, so if you wanted to reload your OS, you could load it clean and have it be minus all their games, apps and features that just annoy me and slow down my PC.
 
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goombawaho - sorry, forgot the recovery partitions...

the problem with W98SE is that it has to be on the first partition of a BOOT drive, unlike XP, since it is DOS based...

How can I install Windows 98 after Windows XP?

Also there will be problems with hardware drivers on newer laptop/desktop mainboards to content with... and to boot, W98SE has problems installing with more than 512mb in some cases...

Computer May Reboot Continuously with More Than 1.5 GB of RAM

Limitations of FAT32 File System



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting questions to a professional forum.
 
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goombawaho - sorry, forgot the recovery partitions...


I knew that. Thanks to all and I'll report back when something actually happens on this project.
 
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Virtual PC for gaming purposes = worse performance - right??
Click to expand...

What performance are you looking for? Think about it - you can give the virtual machine excellent resources (for 98) - though you might have issue with the graphics. Also - will you be able to get 98 drivers for the hardware? (which wouldn't matter in virtual machine).

And its not strictly true that 98 has to go on first partition on the hard drive (so you could use Vista's own tools to shrink the vista partition to make room - though depending on the PC you may have already got 2 partitions - system & data - as well as recovery). If you use tool to hide other partitions when you install 98 (like the one supplied with it will happily install on later partition - and with for example boot-us boot manager, you can still boot it also. But separate hard drive would be better option if you go with this.

My take would be to try virtual PC & see if it does the job. If not, look at dual boot options.
 
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I still think the virtual PC is the best option.

For playing games that can run on Win98, there won't be any performance loss.

Like Wolluf said your only issue may be the graphics card.


----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
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You know - I'm gonna suggest virtual machine option now. What are the chances that Windows 98 drivers are going to be available for a PC that came off the assembly line in the last few months.

For example (never mind video): SATA drive support in Windows 98 - Does it even exist??
 
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SATA drive support in Windows 98 - Does it even exist??
Click to expand...

Likely not an issue, as the PC is new enough to have native SATA support, the BIOS should do all that for you, and make thew drives available. No drivers necessary.

Driver's are required only if there is no native BIOS support for the SATA drives.


But yes finding compatible drivers for the hardware including the video card is likely not going to happen.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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