How to Boot into Win 98 from Win 2000?

[Artifice]

I have a PC with Win 2000 as my main OS on drive C. I am currently in the process of installing Win 98 on my second drive, D.

The bit I am unsure about is this: how do I get from Win 2000 to Win 98?! If I go into set-up at boot-up will I have a choice of booting into 2000 or 98? This question is still confusing me and I am stumped! I am sure there is an easy way to do it but I cannot find it.

If anyone has any ideas it would help a great deal!

Artifice

 

[trimelater]

After you setup Win 98, you should have a prompt at the beginning of the boot screen to choose either Win 98 or Win 2000.

 

[Artifice]

Ah, easy as that is it. Wow, thanks.

 

[pweegar]

NO YOU WILL NOT HAVE THE OPTION to boot either OS IF you intall Win98 second. Check other posts here for links on how to install Win9x AFTER win2k/XP has been installed. IF you install Win98 AFTER Win2k, you will over write the boot sector and Win2k will NOT be bootable. Like I said, check other posts here to see how to properly install Win9X after Win2k/XP.

The best way to install 2 OS's is to install the older OS FIRST (in your case Win98), then the newer OS (Win2k).

 

[Artifice]

Oh....

I am getting the option of 98 or 2000 at Boot-up but I have not tried going into Win 2000 yet.

Is this still the case if I am using 2 seperate HDs (not partitions)? I have made sure that 98 goes into D and not C.

If I do find I cannot get into 2000 after this could I just reformat drive C and then install a fresh win 2000 on this drive - so that I it is installed 2nd? Or is some of my Win 98 start-up data stored on C even though I installed Win 99 entirely on D?

Hmm, confusing!

 

[Artifice]

Just a quick follow-up for pweegar....

I have just tested it and I CAN get into both Win 2000 and Win 98 from an option screen at boot-up. I am not sure why it works, maybe it is something to do with keeping Win 98 that I installed second entirely on drive D, my second hard drive.

Anyway, both are running fine and I am very happy it was quite easy. For anyone else trying to work out what I did, I restarted Win 2000 using a Win 98 Boot-disk, from there I ran setup.exe on the Win 98 CD-Rom and then told it to install onto drive D, not C. I am not certain this would work for anyone else, but it worked for me - today anyway.

Thanks for all your help.
Artifice

 

[bcastner]

There is a trick to this. If you followed the rule: earlier OS first, newer OS next" there will not be a problem. The problem is doing it back-asswords: a "fix" from the incredible Doug Knox: (ignore the XP stuff, it is the same procedure for Win2k):

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

 

[Artifice]

No, I did it ass-backwards and it worked, that is what I am trying to say. I am not sure why though.

I installed win 200O on drive C FIRST, then installed Win 98 on my second drive, D. However, what I did do was use a Win 98 boot disk to get to the dos prompt to allow me to install Win 98....maybe that was the secret?

Artifice

 

[bcastner]

Artifice,

I am happy it worked. I am not sure why it worked either.
The reason for the rule "earliest OS first, ..." is that the later OS boot loaders are "aware" of how to load the older and newer OS versions; but the reverse is not true.

The Win2k/XP boot process has little (in fact nothing) in common with the Win9x or ME series.

For anyone else finding this thread, at least print out the Doug Knox suggestion linked above. You may well need it.