I have a dual boot system with winxp and mandrake 10.0, what I want to do is install windows 98 without overwriting lilo. Anyone have any answers?

You can install Lilo onto a floppy or make a boot disk for Mandrake Linux. Install Windows 98, then boot into Linux using your Lilo floppy or your boot disk, then run "/sbin/lilo" to reinstall it to the mbr. While you are at it you can add Win 98 to your /etc/lilo.conf before running /sbin/lilo.

my questions are:

A: Will it affect my windows xp? I have read a ton of articles by microsoft about installing windows 98 on a systems that has windows xp will "overight important windows xp file". Does microsoft mean to say the boot loader?

B: How do you create a Lilo or Mandrake boot disk? Which is better for my problem?

I really want to install windows 98 on my comp. Some programs and hardware that I like are old won't work on windows xp. Athough I love linux, I really want to make this happen.

You mention that some programs you have wont work in windows xp. Have you tried just using the "compatibility wizard" or whatever its called to get your programs running. I used it to get some software working to access my mobile phone. Worked like a charm, wouldnt want to see you install another OS just to get some things to work when you already have XP

I have, but its kinda like WINE on linux when I use it, it crashes and doesn't work well . These apps I use are really old (program uses quicktime 2). It's just a lot easier If I have windows 98 on it.

Have you considered using plug-in IDE drives? This is actually the simplest and least stressful way to switch operating systems.


Now, to follow up what you wrote earlier... XP is actually NT 5.5 ; 2000 is NT5 ; NT is NT4 unless you have 3.51 which is way old, and incompatible

The NT installer allows you to install NT on to a machine that has a pre-existing earlier version of Windows. It writes a bootloader that allows you to scroll on boot to which OS to boot. This is NOT the same as a LiLo or Grub boot menu.

However you need to have the earlier OS already installed before you install the NT variant of choice (in your case XP)

If you install NT/2000/XP into the same partition an earlier Windows is in, it has to be FAT32 (FAT16 or FAT does not allow a large enough partition size). This is because 98 and Me will not read or recognise an NTFS partition.

By default NT, 2000 and XP will install to a directory called WINNT if you use this method.

Hope this helps.

For Windows, maybe you can install Win98 in other partition. This may destroy your windows boot-loader and also lilo, but I believe (yes, I'm not sure) that you can use your WinXP CD to repair the WinXP loader. This will destroy (thanks MS!) the Win98 loader, but you can always configure WinXP to make you choose which Windows to start when booting.

For Linux: just create a boot-disk or CD and leave Windows to do whatever it wants with the MBR. At the end you only have to boot with the disk and run lilo again.

No matter what you go for, remember that to do a backup shouldn't hurt too much.

Hope it helps...

Mandrake should have a tool to create a boot disk in the Mandrake control center. Also you can create a lilo floppy by changing a line in "/etc/lilo.conf" from "/dev/hda" to "/dev/fd0" then run "/sbin/lilo" as root. Once you have done that, change the line back to /dev/hda and run /sbin/lilo again.

let me clarify, I have another partition that is FAT32 on an other hardrive (the hardrive that has linux). I have windows xp on my main hardrive, pre-installed when bought and didn't include winxp installation media. I want windows 98 becuase certain Hardware like scanners and 5in floppy drives. I have Software that work on any winos BEFORE windows xp. I tried to install ALL of my old devices and software that I wanted to use, but it didn't work. (so please, everyone get away from trying to tell me how to install my old hardware. Plus, it's very hard to clean up the mess that is left after the WOW config after it tries to install the old software)

I understood you the first time, sorry if it didn't seem so.

I have the same problem with Win2000 (and had the same problem with NT4 and 3.51 also, in their day). I chose not to "downgrade" from 2000 to XP

That was why I suggested you use plug-in IDE drives, accessible from the front of the 5-1/4inch drive bays. I even wrote and posted an article about it on one of my websites.

I use this method on two computers specifically to avoid dual or multiple booting and the strife you can get into when a reinstall is needed.

This is my only machine that is not currently equipped in that way.

By powering down, I can change my primary master drive out on the machine by my left elbow, to boot from Windows98, Windows2000, SuSE9.1, Lindows 4.5.122, the Linspire 5 betas I download from time to time, or whatever I choose.

I am limited purely by the number of spare hard drives I have. I have standardised on 8Gb to 10Gb because they are readily available, second-hand, where I live.

There is no software switching, it is all done by pulling out and replacing while the power is turned off. They are NOT hot-plug.

I have a second bay I can plug drives for data storage on to.

Worth considering if you are going to do this over a lengthy period, as it appears.

The only facility you don't get, which you do with a dual boot, is that you can't read and/or write to your windows drive from linux. But if you really need to do this, you can work round it using a seperate data drive which will appear as hdb, hdc or hdd according to whether you have it patched at Primary Slave or Secondary Master/Slave.

If you have Norton Ghost, and enough spare drives, you can even ghost a backup image from a working OS to a backup, so theoretically you don't need ever to do a reinstall. It has worked for me on win2000, win98SE, Lindows and Linspire, SuSE9.1 and several other oddballs I have tried.

Now that is a HUGE timesaver. And does not changed the configuration of ANY OS after you have painstakingly set it up.

I have been thinking, but might it be possible to install windows 98 on another computer by taking the hardrive out and puting it in another comp, install it, then put the drive back in my main comp? Theroretically it doesn't overwrite Lilo or Winxp boot because it is written in the systems mbr. My queston is would this affect my linux?

p.s. where is the link to your website about plugin-ide eagles-lair?

(also, my other comp is super old and has pentium1 75mhz, 16ram, and can't access the internet through broadband. I really don't like using it.)

You can find the article with photos here...
http://www.eagles-lair.org/computers...bledrives.html
I think there are larger version photos if you double click, although the quality has been sacrificed to compress the files so they don't take for ever to load.

You could install Windows98 on your spare HD in that way, but it does not solve how you are going to boot from it. You will need to modify the XP boot loader to do that. I never have, so someone else more knowledgeable needs to help you there.

However if you put it in a plug-in cradle that was plugged into a Primary Master IDE, then it would automatically start.

I truly think that is a good way out of your difficulty. In Australia, you can buy those cradles and racks for about $20 a combination complete with all mounting hardware. That is about $10 US. You would need two sets, one for your XP drive, and another for your 98 drive.

Then add another one later so you can use the same machine for any other OS. I think I have about a dozen altogether