Max hdd size Win 98se

[Bulwark]

Win XP Home, p.4 1.6, 256 ram, Intel 845 mobo.

In preparation for dual booting 98se and XP Home I have partitioned/formatted a hdd (using XP) into four Fat32 partitions but am totally confused about the max size of a partition in 98se.  One site visited indicated there was a max of 64gb another 127gb or 137gb depending on how bytes are counted.

What is the max hdd partition 98se will handle please :-?

Apologies for my confused state.

[patio]

Theoretically FAT 32 can handle a drive/partition up to about 2 terrabytes in size.
The old limitations Windows had were caused more by how FDisk and disk compression software was written back then.
There were also MBoard and BIOS limits which meant the machine itself would not recognise or utilise the full disk size unless it was partitioned properly.

Short answer Keep it under 120G to be safe...

Long answer you need to plan this out more as with Windows OS's the oldest OS needs to be installed first or you will cause havoc and or it just won't work.

If you were to just install Win98SE on another partition it probably won't even boot.
Or if it does it might FUBAR your current XP install.
Win98 needs to reside on C: to run properly.

The other option would be to use a bootloader to switch between OS's

Or if your BIOS supports switching which drive to boot from you could install 98 on another HDD.

Decide which way you want to go and we can advise further.

patio.    8-)

[Bulwark]

Thank you Patio.

Am trying to keep it simple with 98 on C: and XP on D: - am not sure what a bootloader is, will have to Google that one.  Meantime will the option of which OS to boot not be given at boot-up time?

[patio]

I assume XP is currently on C:  This can't be changed after the fact without a ton of registry work ( not suggested and very painful )
So as it is right now no it would not work.
Check your MBoard manual to see if it supports switching between HDD's as with your current setup this is the easiest route.
In other words here's what you would have:
HDD #1 WinXP when selected at boot it is your C: drive
HDD #2 Win98SE and same as above...

patio.   8-)

[Bulwark]

Sorry - I didn't make my post clear enough.  The hdd I will multi-boot from is currently blank - no OS just blank partitions with two formatted ready for installing an OS.  All partitions (four) Fat32 though might change two to NTFS using Convert.exe when I'm sure the multi-boot setup is ok.  The hdd was formatted as a slave which I will change to master for installing the OS's.  The existing hdd with XP (NTFS) will be disconnected during this process in case I mess it up.

Does that make sense, or am I digging a very large hole for myself?

[panboy]

Your Plan sounds sound to me,

Except , if you convert the XP Drive to NTFS you will not be able to read it from 98SE.

So , what you going to do is

Install Win 98SE, on to the First Partition of your Blank HDD,
Then Install WinXP to The second Partition of the Same HDD.

What is your Plan for the Other 2 Partitions?

[Neil]

It will be "cleaner" to format directly to NTFS than to convert from FAT32. I suggest you install XP on a smallish NTFS partition, then keep the rest FAT32 and put your programs and data there to be accessed by both operating systems.

[patio]

Sorry - I didn't make my post clear enough.  The hdd I will multi-boot from is currently blank - no OS just blank partitions with two formatted ready for installing an OS.  All partitions (four) Fat32 though might change two to NTFS using Convert.exe when I'm sure the multi-boot setup is ok.  The hdd was formatted as a slave which I will change to master for installing the OS's.  The existing hdd with XP (NTFS) will be disconnected during this process in case I mess it up.

Up to this point you are fine...you will now have a machine that runs on Win98...you will not however have a machine that will dual-boot to WinXP when you re-introduce the XP HDD unless you use the BIOS to choose which HDD to boot from.

If you don't need ANY data from that XP HDD then here's what you do next:

Leave the Win98 HDD as the primary master.
Hook up the XP HDD as the primary slave making sure the jumpers are set correctly.
Then re-boot with the XP CD in and follow the instructions to re-install XP to the 2nd HDD

This is getting more complicated than it need be...did you happen to check if your BIOS will allow you to boot to either drive ? ?
If so you can skip the above suggestions and just use it to boot either OS as you need.

OPTION # 2

Do a clean install of XP to the 2nd partition on the Win98 HDD after a few successful Win98 boots and shutdowns. Then you can re-introduce the original XP HDD, and use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to import your XP settings to the new clean XP install...
XP will automatically give you an option at startup as to which OS you want to boot to.

patio.    8-)

[Bulwark]

Your Plan sounds sound to me,

Except , if you convert the XP Drive to NTFS you will not be able to read it from 98SE.

So , what you going to do is

Install Win 98SE, on to the First Partition of your Blank HDD,
Then Install WinXP to The second Partition of the Same HDD.

What is your Plan for the Other 2 Partitions?

Thank you Panboy..  the third and fourth partitions are for data only.  I have read that in many instances it has been necessary to format/reinstall OS's and thought that by keeping data files out of the OS partitions the data files would be somewhat 'protected'.  I appreciate that I would probably not be able to reinstall Win.98 without corrupting the XP loading but will experiment with that once I have a few files installed.

[Bulwark]

Patio - thank you again.  The Option 2 you mentioned is the one I like except that I will be building up the settings from scratch not using the File Transfer Wizard.

Here's another thought - I have a cd with Sp.2, is it possible to burn all the critical updates since Sp.2 to save having to download them again?  They must be somewhere on my current hdd, how can they be identified?  Maybe it's not possible but sure would like to know.

[patio]

Patio - thank you again.  The Option 2 you mentioned is the one I like except that I will be building up the settings from scratch not using the File Transfer Wizard.

Here's another thought - I have a cd with Sp.2, is it possible to burn all the critical updates since Sp.2 to save having to download them again?  They must be somewhere on my current hdd, how can they be identified?  Maybe it's not possible but sure would like to know.

The easiest way i know to do this is to "slipstream" SP2 and all the current updates and hotfixes into a bootable WinXP CD...there is a bit of a learning curve here but it's great to know for future endeavors

The program i use is called NLite and last i heard it was still free.

And someone i know keeps the updates ready for slipstreaming current.

His info can be found below.

http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/

patio.    8-)

[patio]

Another small piece of advice...i have my XP partition set at 20G. This will give it some breathing room.

Win98 i gave a paltry 5G.

Win2K 20G

Vista RC1 I gave a hefty 80G

This is on 2 seperate HDD's but one system. I call it "La Machine"    

patio.    8-)

[panboy]

Patio  your Still Subjecting your Self To Vista?

I tryed it a Bit but it Dient like my Hardware, and no Vista Driveras were avaible yet , i gave up (my System is Very New ^.^)

Bulawark, thats a good idea, iused to do that as well... but then EA made some stupid things... that required Excessive Space on the Windows Partition.. Bah! Humbug!


^.^

[patio]

Actually i've had very good luck so far with Vista...
2 quirky driver issues however but i solved those and it's been fine.

I'm currently doing a bench comparison on CPU / memory usage running common tasks vs. XP

[panboy]

I need to wait a Bit before i try it again, it didn't like my SLI Configuration and was just slow.

Will you post your Results for all to see?

[patio]

I need to wait a Bit before i try it again, it didn't like my SLI Configuration and was just slow.

Will you post your Results for all to see?

Sure...for a small fee...

patio.    8-)