tough dual-boot question

Vampyromaniac

Is there any way to boot into a Windows 98 partition that starts more than 8 GB into the drive?

Hope I'm clear enough...

uf4

Vampyromaniac,
never try one..
i would say no..
but if you give me more infos like HDD dirive's config, HDD's name & mobo's name..
i will try to get a hard look on that.

;

Vampyromaniac

Well let's say a Primary partition starting at the 20 GB mark, and is 5 GB in size (ends at 25 GB mark.)
After that, a couple Logical FAT32 partitions (inside an Extended FAT32 of course.)

HDD is an IBM DeskStar 120GXP, size = 80 GB.
mobo is an ECS K7S5A (SiS 735 chipset).
Oh, and the drive is on IDE, not RAIDed, if it matters.

Thanks for any help!

uf4

Vampyromaniac,

IBM DeskStar 120GXP - okay

ECS K7S5A - Bios Supports Pnp 1.0A, Multi Boot, DMI..
pls check again closely at the cmos setting if it's supports INT13 extensions..
i wud say it is but not sure tho..
and if you are sure it's supports INT13!!!
then..
you will need to set that partition active either by fdisk or somes like PQmagic
AND you will only do it with WinME.(becoz, i have done once but that's long time ago and the partition did not go that far only some like just after 8g.marked and i also used tools like PQmagic and Bootmagic)
for win98 only hope that you will not get err during or b4 installation.

FWIW, you may not get it boot at all or more harm than you think,..
ask yourself why? do you want to do this Get way around it and do somes easier.

OR.. if you really like this Many Boot environment..
go with a empty HDD and tools i mentioned and you will get the most for your system.

;

Vampyromaniac

Well, MS's site claims it is definitely not possible at all... So I'll probably have a 5 GB partition at the beginning of the drive, then another partition right after that. The point is I want to be able to have 2 separate installations of Win98 at the same time. Tha should solve it.