I have 1 disk with 2 partitions (drive C & D) which are both NTFS. Win2K is installed on Drive C with Drive D used for games & data. I now want to install Win98 because have found some old educational software that kids use doesn't like Win2K. I have Partition Magic which will allow me to create a new FAT32 partition for the Win98 OS but before I start I would like to know:
1. Does the new partition have to go before the current Drive C or can it go between C & D provided that it is within the 1st 8gb.?
2. Will the new OS partition with Win98 be numbered as drive C assuming that the Win2K partition is hidden?
3. Will the original OS partition with Win2K be numbered as drive C assuming that the Win98 partition is hidden?
4. WIll drive D remain as Drive D regardless of which OS is booted?

I am obviously trying to avoid reinstalling software because of drive assignment changes.

Also I would prefer to use PQBoot rather than Boot Magic so that I don't have to create another FAT partition to hold Boot Magic. I assume that I'll have to install Partition Magic under both OS's so that I'll have access to the utility?

Thanks in advance.

OK, bad news. I have a duel boot going with 98se and Xp home. The probem you are going to have is that you can't go backwards with an operating system. You would have to format and repartition to accomplish what you want. Once you have a clean hard drive, you would first have to install 98 on the first partition. By the way, you can prepare your entire drive as fat 32 to begin with. After installing 98, run your 2000 operating system within 98. It will ask if you if you want to install to a different partition. You can then format that petition to ntfs from the cd. (make sure you dont select leave the file system as is)-- Once 2000 is installed, your boot up screen will appear giving you your two choices. Good luck-

(Keep in mind I'm assuming 2000 will give you the same options xp gave me. If someone out there that has done this with 2000, please confirm or retract what I have written)

you cant install win98 on C: unless you format and get rid of win2k...

well the best solution here is ...

1) use partition magic and create a new FAT32 drive, and make it G:, this will stop in conflicting with E or F for cd rom drives.

you may need to resize one of your previous partitions, i would recommend you resize D: as it doesnt have an OS on it already. And with the free space you now have left over, create G:

2) install win98 on G:

3) walah done, all you do now is choose which one you wanna start when the pc boots up

The best solution for this would be Bootmagic (or similar) you can then simply create a FAT32 partition, get bootmagic installed, choose the FAT32 partition and install windows 98 onto it.

Then you simply choose which one you want from Bootmagic's menu.

Success - Thanks to all.

In case anyone is interest here is what I did.

1. Used partition magic to create a new FAT32 partition (call it w98) at the 7gb point of the disk and made it active. I then had Drive C (win2k), W98, and drive D (data only).

2. On reboot the W98 partition was active but without an OS so it couldn't boot from HDD.

3. Rebooted again using Win98 startup floppy & then loaded win98 OS.

4. Installed boot magic into the active FAT32 partition (as it can't be installed into a NTFS partition) and then configured to choose between Win2k or Win98 boot.

Everything worked perfectly. When booting to Win2k the W98 partition is hidden so I have DriveC and Drive D with no need to reassign drive names. When booting to Win98 I have DriveC (the W98 partition) with the other 2 partitions hidden as they are both NTFS.

Very painless and with no need to reinstall existing applications.

I never worked with partition magic or boot magic. They sound like great programs!! Glad things worked out for you.

I have mine like this

C: Windows Me
D: Windows Xp Pro
E: Other stuff

I couldn't install Me after I installed XP, so you will have to install 98 first, then 2000.