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Thread ID: 35502	2003-07-14 10:48:00	Dual boot Dell	Davesdad (923)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
159685	2003-07-14 10:48:00	Does anybody know if it is possibly to set up a dual boot system with Win 98, and Win XP using the Dell Win XP recovery cd. Thanks Davesdad	Davesdad (923)
159686	2003-07-14 11:10:00	Not possible	Merlin (503)
159687	2003-07-14 13:04:00	Well it just may be possible . I would use the recovery CD to do a clean install of Win98 in the first place . Then I would use Partition Magic to change partitions on the clean install and make a new partition or resize C: and D: to suit . You will have Win98 installed on the C: drive and can install WinXP on the D: drive . You can also buy another Hard drive and install that first and put WinXP on an extended partition in the new hard drive . WinXP will install on an Extended partition drive as it doesn't have quite the same limitations as to what cluster it installs at like over 1024 . I believe it can be done but you don't say why you want to do it . I upgraded an Artec computer today for instance . This had a 20 Gig hard drive in it . That drive was partitioned into C: and D: . 355 Megabytes for drive D: and the rest for Drive C: Drive D: was a recovery partition and held the WinME setup and CAB files . I have changed the Case, Motherboard, CPU and RAM and also put in a new 60Gig hard drive . I used a Win98 boot disk to FDISK ( Partition) the NEW 60Gig hard drive and also installed the OLD 20Gig hard drive in a removable tray to be used as a BACKUP drive . At this stage ALL info, documents, O/S WinME was on the OLD hard drive now as drive D: and I: I tried to install WinME of the I: partition and it was installed onto C: which was the NEW hard drive . Installed perfectly but didn't give me the option to select what parts of the O/S I wanted to install . Took the serial numer off the side of his case for WinME as was installed from his recovery partition . I got as far as rebooting in WinME after finding legacy hardware then got the message to press CTRL, ALT, DEL to restart WinME . I did that three of four times then realised that the O/S was probably keyed to the BIOS which of course I had changed . I reformatted the C: drive and installed WinME again using my copy and his serial number off the side of the case as before . He wanted a dual boot system as he had an Apaptec SCSI PCI card in the old computer and wants to run a Scanmaker 4 scanner and I couldn't say for sure that that card and scanner will work under WinXP . He HAS bought WinXP Pro and I have installed that on the D: drive . Parts out of the OLD system I have put in include the Adaptec PCI card, Conexant 56K modem, CDRom drive, CDWriter and his OLD 20 Gig hard drive which is now FDISKED into ONE Partition and in a removable drive bay for BACKUP . The new Seagate 60 Gig hard drive is patitioned as one primary C: 5 Gigs, containing WinMe and Photoshop 6 . D: 20 Gigscontaining WinXP and all other applications like OfficeXP . E: is 20 Gigs containg my Docs and all things they want to keep . F: 10 Gigs is a scratch drive for Photoshop and what is left after formatting becomes the Windows swap file for WinXP . The OLD 20Gig hard drive is removable and just used for backup of the E: drive . I know this is a long post to answer your question but I think it can be done to dual boot on a Dell PC . Depending on the size of the hard disk and depending if you want to add another hard disk and depending on whether you know about disk partioning etc . You don't say what processor you have currently and you give no info about what printers, scanner and other hardware you have so therefore your mileage may vary .	Elephant (599)
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