98SE CD Partition Tool ?

DCB · Oct 12, 2002

Are there partition tools on Win 98SE CD, so that when I Install 98SE on a new empty hard drive, I get the option to install several other blank partitions. eg. 98SE on C:/ and two other blank partitions D:/ and E:/, so that I can later install other OS when required.
Thanks

Toejam31 · Oct 12, 2002

Why don't you just use the FDISK utility on a Win9x <A HREF="http://www.mirrors.org/archived_software/www.bootdisk.com/original.htm" target="_new">boot disk</A>?

<A HREF="http://fdisk.radified.com/" target="_new">Ratified FDISK Guide to Hard Drive Partitioning</A>

<A HREF="http://www.powerload.fsnet.co.uk/fdisk.htm" target="_new">FDISK : The Built In Partitioning Tool</A>

I would suggest a 4GB Active Primary DOS Partition for Win98SE, especially if you intend to install large programs like games on a second partition. Then create an Extended Partition from the remaining free space. Split the Extended Partition in half, using a number and the percent sign, such as 50%, and create the first Logical Drive within the Extended Partition. Then create the second Logical Drive with 100% of the remaining free space left in the Extended Partition.

You'll end up with three drive letters, (C

, (D

, & (E

. Your optical drives will be assigned the next free drive letters.

Format all three partitions as FAT32.

Note: If all three partitions are larger than 2GB, the file system will automatically be FAT32.

Install Win98SE in the first, active partition, (C

This is the simplest and cleanest method.

Note: Do not choose to use the maximum available size for a Primary DOS Partition if you wish to create an Extended Partition, and the two Logical Drives, (D

and (E

. Only Primary Partitions and Logical Drives can be assigned a drive letter. Again, I recommend using a number and the percent sign when choosing how much free space is allocated to a partition. This is more accurate than typing the size as a number in megabytes, and makes sure that the free space on the entire disk will be used for the partitions.

Win98SE is not like Win2K or WinXP ... it does not come with tools available during setup that can create multiple partitions on a disk, other than the boot disk, which is located on the Tools\MtsUtil\Fat32EBD folder on the CD.

It is preferable to download a Win9x boot disk from the website link I've furnished, as these contain an updated version of FDISK which does not have the 64GB size limitation, as mentioned in this MS Knowledge Base article:

<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q263044&LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=32 GB&rnk=5&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=W95" target="_new">FDISK Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64GB</A>

Questions?

Toey

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Second Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=15942" target="_new">Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron</A>
________________________________________

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DCB · Oct 13, 2002

Thanks for the info its a great help.

A couple of other questions please-

I've read on other forums where to install multiple operating systems eg. on one hard drive, each OS must be on a primary partition. Is this correct or can other eg. the second OS be on extended/logical partition eg.
First OS Win98SE on primary dos active partition C:/.
Second OS WinXP on primary partition E:/.
and for general backup, extended/logical partition F:/.

So to summarize, should the second OS WinXP also be on a primary partition, or on a extended/logical partition.(If it can be on either one, any advantages using each type).
Also, I've read the info in the Radified FDISK Guide and it said FDISK will give you extended/logical partition options. Will it also give you the option to install a second primary partition on the same hard drive.

Thanks for the help,

DCB

Toejam31 · Oct 13, 2002

There can be only one Primary DOS Partition per hard drive. And so, if you wish to install two operating systems on the hard drive, with three partitions, you would still create one Primary DOS Partition, and two Logical Drives within the Extended Partition, as mentioned above. However ... I would make one alteration. WinXP is a larger operating system than Win98SE, so I would suggest making the first Logical Drive at least 7GB. This means a Primary DOS Partition of 4-5GB, a Logical Drive of 7-10GB, and the second Logical Drive with the rest of the free space for your personal files.

Note: You can have up to four partitions on a single disk for use in Windows. This means one Primary DOS Partition and three Logical Drives, or just four Logical Drives.

Win98SE would be installed in the Primary Dos Partition, which would be set as Active. WinXP would be installed in one of the other two partitions (Logical Drives). It really doesn't matter which one. Your choice.

The drive letters will still be (C

, (D

, and (E

for the partitions, with the others left for the CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc >> unless you create the second Logical Drive with a third-party partitioning utility after Windows is installed, or deliberately switch the drive letter from within both operating systems so that this partition could be (F

.

There is no functional difference in whether or not the second operating system resides on a Primary DOS partition or a Logical Drive.

The important consideration is to always choose to install the older operating system first. Then opting to install WinXP in a second partition will be an easy thing ... right from the GUI, and you'll be able to easily select between the operating systems immediately after the POST. If you reverse this process, then it becomes much more difficult, as the boot.ini and the Registry must be manually edited, and the Master Boot Record repaired with the WinXP CD.

When WinXP is installed, the files needed to boot into the operating system will be loaded into the root of (C

, even though this will contain Win98SE.

What you may have encountered on the other forums is a user (and a Microsoft-suggested) preference for installing operating systems in Primary DOS Partitions ... but this could only occur with two hard drives, with an operating system on each drive.

One reason for this would be to keep the bootable files for the second operating system on the Slaved hard drive out of the first operating system on the Master hard drive.

Example:

HDD #1, jumpered as a Master. Win98SE installed on the Primary DOS partition. HDD #2 temporarily disconnected while Win98SE is installed.

Then ...

HDD #2 installed. WinXP installed on the Primary DOS Partition. HDD #1 temporarily disconnected while WinXP is installed on the drive.

Then both drives are reconnected to the cable. But there are no boot loader files with this setup. This means that in order to choose the operating system, the user must access the BIOS, and select which hard drive will be the first bootable device, HDD #1 or HDD #2.

Some people prefer this method, because if one hard drive happens to fail, the other hard drive and operating system is left intact.

Note: A similar setup could also be performed with only one Primary DOS partition, which would be the first partition on the Master HDD. The second, Slaved drive does NOT necessarily need to have a Primary DOS Partition at all. The entire drive could be an Extended Partition, with as many as four Logical Drives within that Extended Partition. BUT ... the boot loader files for the second operating system on the Slaved HDD must be in on the root of (C

for this to occur, which takes the BIOS device selection out of the picture.

An operating system does not have to be installed on a Primary DOS Partition on a slaved hard drive. And the partition does not necessarily need to be Active. In fact, there can be only one Active partition per system, even if you theoretically had four IDE hard drives and 16 partitions between them.

But the first, Primary DOS Partition on the hard drive that will be the bootable device must be active.

Last Note: I would suggest that you stick with the FAT32 file system for the hard drive, even for WinXP. If you choose the NTFS file system for the Logical Drive that will contain WinXP, this partition will not be visible from within Win98SE. The partition will still be visible from DOS (as a Non-DOS Partition) although inaccessible, except for deletion. Win98SE does not support NTFS. But WinXP supports both file systems, so everything will be visible from within the GUI of this OS.

Toey

First Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=17935" target="_new">Toejam31's Devastating Dalek Destroyer</A>
Second Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=15942" target="_new">Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron</A>
________________________________________

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">BTVILLARIN.com</A> - A better place to be.

DCB · Oct 14, 2002

Thanks Toejam31.

DCB

marneus · Oct 15, 2002

I can tell you it does work, that is how one of my PCs runs, C:Win98se(primary) D:WinXP(extended) E:Games & F:Misc (logical drives) G: & H: CD & CDRW drives

XP has to be installed second as it can detect other OSs, 98 cannot (NT4 & Win2000 can detect other OSs as well)

if you have a big HDD use the fdisk utility that comes with WinME bootdisks if you can as it can recognise HDDs bigger than 40gb (I know this for a fact, tried 3 diff versions of fdisk (95c,98se & then ME)B4 I could partition my 80gig HDD properly)

no-one shouts louder than someone who is being ignored, or in the case of techies, to be heard over the noise of their PC's ;-)

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98SE CD Partition Tool ?

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