Warlord wrote:

If you want to be able to read the XP installation from 98se than XP has to be formatted fat32

Actually I'd rather not. As I currently see it, I'd like to install a single 250 GB SATA SSD and deliver W98SE half of the space, and Win XP the other half. I'd like them to be as separate as possible so my tinkering in one OS doesn't affect the other. So having both "invisible" to one another would be best.

So I think I'll just format the XP partition in NTFS, and won't mount the FAT32 (W98SE) partition in the windows XP installation.

Warlord wrote:

I understand that, but the point I was making for example is if I used HIMEMX I still can't allocate all of my ram. The point is making a system that is overpowered. If you want to allocate all of your ram on 98 cuz you got an OP system with 2gb or ram than theres only one way. If you have the money to dump on expensive retro parts off ebay like the OP has you have the money to get a patch for it.

If it bothers you having RAM that you can't use, just eat it up as a RAM disk. Or use Rloew's patch. Personally, I don't find 512mb to be a significant limitation in 98.

The bottom line is, if the objective is to run 98 on high powered systems fitted with >512 mb of RAM, the HIMEMX/RAMdisk approach should be included on the list of possible solutions. It does work.

ChAoS Overlord wrote:

Actually I'd rather not. As I currently see it, I'd like to install a single 250 GB SATA SSD and deliver W98SE half of the spa […]
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Warlord wrote:

If you want to be able to read the XP installation from 98se than XP has to be formatted fat32

Actually I'd rather not. As I currently see it, I'd like to install a single 250 GB SATA SSD and deliver W98SE half of the space, and Win XP the other half. I'd like them to be as separate as possible so my tinkering in one OS doesn't affect the other. So having both "invisible" to one another would be best.

So I think I'll just format the XP partition in NTFS, and won't mount the FAT32 (W98SE) partition in the windows XP installation.

XP can always see 98se files. Just 98se cannot always see XP files depending. Because the NT bootloader needs to be installed on the Active primary partition that generally means it will install the NTboot loader on the 98se partition to facilitate loading both operating systems.

It is possible to install XP 1st and then install 98se and install the NTboot loader on the XP partition. Requires a lot of tinkering. I just figured you wouldn't be asking the origina if you knew the answer and Mainly because I do not want walk you through long technical process of doing things the backwards way and hacking something to work when there is an opportunity to do it right from the start.

So i told you the easy way.

So your thinking is incorrect Dual booting 98se and XP is an ecosystem and they cannot be totally separate. the difference in thinking between u and me is in accepting that they cannot be totally separate and if thats true than how incompatible and wonky can the installation be.

Obviously what I am telling you is only true if you are doing this the Official way. Like I said before there are many other ways you can set up a dual boot system. You could in theory create a system where both OS were truly hiden from each other but that would require tools like Partition magic. In doing so doesn't make the system better it just makes for more headaches with no real world benefits.

Or just use an MBR resident boot loader that supports automatic partition juggling.

ya you could using something like XOSL i think its called it's been a long time since I used it and install both operating systems in logical drives. I used to do a lot of dual booting before i had more PCs than I knew what to do with. Now i just have beast computers i made to do exactly one thing each. I got a nice 90s rig, a Great core 2 quad XP rig, and a Nice I7 windows 7 rig. I dont need dual booting.

ChAoS Overlord wrote:

Some advice that may already be of interest to me:

If I'm to create a multiboot environment with Windows XP and Windows 98, what precautions should I take? Any insights on, Install order, boot loader, disk setup,...

Two approaches:

- Install Windows 98 first and let the XP installation later take care of the multiboot environment (via "preserve exisiting OS" or something like that)

- Use a multi booting utility like Masterbooter

Note that, XP always wants its own boot loader in your boot drive. So, if you really want to have 100% separated paritions for each OS, you need to install XP first into your boot drive (or 1st primary partition), then install w98 into your other drive (or second primary partition). Masterbooter will have you much in that regard.

If you're wanting a multi-boot system, I'd recommend going with a hot swap 5.25" drive bay instead of using a boot loader on startup, preferably one that can hold multiple drives and comes with power buttons for each drive (Icy Dock makes a variety of these). Just power on or off the drives you want to boot, that way you don't have to hassle with installation order or worry about one OS doing something under the hood to your other OS's partitioned drive. Once I went with this as a multi-boot solution, I'll never go back to doing it in software. If your motherboard only supports IDE, you can always use an IDE to SATA converter, though I've never tested a hot swap bay with one of those devices, so I can't speak to compatibility.

Also, if you're going balls out on a win 98 rig, not caring about period correctness and all that, the biggest factor to me worth considering is whether or not you will want to play DOS games with FM synth sound. If you do, then you will want an ISA slot, which will basically determine your hardware configuration for you. If not, then your choices are much more open. I've used a Yamaha PCI sound card in the past that did pretty good FM, but compatibility was spotty and it sounded a bit washed out and muffled. Good luck with your build!