StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I have windows XP installed and can easily shrink the partition it's on to make room for windows 98. However, every guide to dual booting says I must install windows 98 first, but I already have windows XP installed with all my programs and definitely don't want to have to reinstall it and all my programs as well.

Looks like I may have found the answer
I just didn't think of these search criteria.

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

I just have some questions about the process

If your C: drive is not FAT or FAT32, you CANNOT complete this procedure. You will need a 3rd party boot manager. I recommend BootIt Next Generation, www.bootitng.com.

No, it's not FAT16 or FAT32 (the partition XP will be on) Easy enough, just when should I install the boot manager? What steps of the process on this page shouldn't I do because I won't be using XP's boot loader? As far as installing the boot manager itself. I guess I would just boot up with the bootit CD to install it after I've done the rest of the process.

2) Create a Notepad file with the following entries, exactly as shown:

L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q

3) Save the file to the Win98/Me Startup Disk as READ.SCR

I can create that file easily enough. But...........just what exactly is the process by which a disc is booted, what part does the BIOS look at first to see if it's bootable? For example, when you make a dos bootable floppy, you must type SYS (floppy drive letter) copying all three files to the disc won't make it bootable. If I add this text file to the boot disk, could it mess up the process? Sofar, I've just burned ISO's of bootable CD's to discs that I knew were bootable already. I just want to do it correctly is all.

Why do you want to dual boot Win98? If its do to some compatibility issue, I'm thinking that running it in a VM would be a vastly preferred method. Grab the free VirtualPC (or VMWARE, although they are mostly oriented towards linux with their free offerings, or any other of the multitude of virtualisation programs) and set it up - its real easy these days and you get desktop performance that is more then acceptable, with the only sore point being 3D acceleration - but then again, needing Win98 for 3d accelerated program compatibility seems unlikely.

^ what he said. Unless you have a very good reason to dual-boot 98, it's not worth the bother or the risk (the fact that you're worried about losing programs suggests to me you're not really prepared to lose your XP install - which is a very real risk if you try the solution you linked to).

A virtual machine really is the way to go. What's this 98 install for, anyway?

http://www.virtualbox.org/ is also an option for virtualization, I've found it to perform significantly better than vmware server for desktop usage (at least for running windows on Linux, not sure about vice-versa).