P4 3.2 with Win98?

[Bluefront]

So my brother-in-law needs a powerful new computer for work.....but he needs Win98 for his Apps. I'm thinking buy a new computer with XP, setup another hard drive with Win98, install something like Boot Magic on the W98 disk (making it the master).....then he could boot to either OS. Easiest way to do this?

 

[Zelmo3]

Install 98 first on the primary master (or first partition), then XP on the second drive (or partition). XP will make a boot menu to let you choose which OS to use when you start up.

 

[JBT]

Why does he need to use win 98? He does know that with XP you can tell it to run programs in compatiblity mode which means XP will act like 95, 98/ME, NT, or 2000 for whatever program you want. All you have to do it right click on the icon and go to the compatibilty tab and turn it on and choose win 98. Should work fine.

 

[Bluefront]

Notice I said easiest way? This is his computer, his money, my time. If he buys a computer now, it'll have XP installed. I just couldn't wipe the drive, install W98, then reinstall XP using the restore disk . Far as I know that will wipe off the W98 install. He needs a legal copy of both OS's. He has a legal W98, but no XP. That's why I thought the two drive thing would be the easiest, saving the new legal XP, and puting a legal W98 on the second disk.

I've tried his apps.....they will not work in XP even using the compatability mode. These are special...read expensive.... programs. He told me to upgrade the apps to XP would cost about 25k. Way too much. They work fine in W98, but slowly. That's the reason for the upgrade. But he still wants XP on there for some newer apps he has.

Arrg.....I don't want to buy another copy of XP to pull this off, so I thought two drives would be the easiest.

 

[Dogma420]

do the 2 drive thing, that is easiest....if from the same boot you want 98/xp choosing, win 98 must be installed first however, no matter....


and yes, saying 'use compatibility mode' doesn't work 99% of the time, esp with proprietary business software.

your brother's company is hitting a wall however....they need to dump windows 98 if they want to get out of the stone age, so they need to pony up the 25k or bite the bullet. There is nothing worse than win98 being on a business network (in my opinion) and that's from personal experience.

 

[Bluefront]

Thanks Dogma.....unless I find an easier way, that's going to be the solution. As far as dumping W98 for a newer version of a program, there's a problem. When a major part of your research has used a particular program, going to a different version might be a mistake/impossible. This is some sort of mathmatical analysis research. He told me the other day one calculation on his older computer took three days.....ha. No wonder he wants a faster computer.

 

[nimo]

Why the second drive?
If you have boot magic
Use partition magic to make a hidden partition on the drive
Than install the win98 there
This is even better cos one will not see the other

All in all you are looking at hours work tops

 

[txxxx]

Originally posted by: nimo
Why the second drive?
If you have boot magic
Use partition magic to make a hidden partition on the drive
Than install the win98 there
This is even better cos one will not see the other

All in all you are looking at hours work tops

Basically make the hidden partition a "logical primary" would work, and your looking at 1/2hrs tops. I installed Win98SE from a HDD on a 1.4ghz Athlon, just over 10 mins

 

[JackBurton]

Dude, let's just make this as easy as possible. Have him buy a copy of VMWare and install Windows 98 in a VMWare session. Easy as that. He'll have XP, and he'll also have 98 for the apps that don't work on XP. Easy.

 

[Bluefront]

Well I do have Partition Magic 8.0.......but can you get W98 to install on a hidden partition? At the same time not screwing up the Xp install? Never tried that....

 

[nimo]

Originally posted by: Bluefront
Well I do have Partition Magic 8.0.......but can you get W98 to install on a hidden partition? At the same time not screwing up the Xp install? Never tried that....

Well there is always the theoretical chance that some thing will go wrong
But as long as you have all the rescue diskettes form boot/partition magic
You can always restore

Also there is a helpful wizard in partition magic 8 on how to install the 2?nd OS
(my personal recommendation is to install the boot magic last )

If you are still worried about loosing the XP installation you can make a backup
partition and copy the image there (twice the insurance )