Can you have two HDDs running two OS's on your PC?

eatingrich · Jan 16, 2007, 05:24 PM

Alright folks! Another odd question...

Basically I've come across an abundance of hard drives, and in the past few weeks I've also come across games that are too old to run in XP, but too new to run properly in DOSBox. I can get Daggerfall to work but not properly, and games like Settlers3 and Creatures 2 I can't use.

So I was wondering if its possible to set up another hard drive on my pc, which has Windows98, and then when I boot up choose which hard drive I want to use.

My bro-in-law doesn't think you can do it but I was using this other PC and when I pressed F8 or something similar during bootup it asked me what I wanted to use for bootup, floppy disk, cd-rom or EITHER hard drive in the PC, so I'm now wondering if its possible after all.

Hope you can help, thanks in advance!

CDsDontBurn · Jan 16, 2007, 06:09 PM

yes, it is possible to do. however, when you do it, you'll want to install win98 first, then install winXP. installing winXP first may cause issues w/win98. Not very difficult to do at all

.

eatingrich · Jan 16, 2007, 06:57 PM

thanks for the reply, its good to know. I have a spare 20GB HDD and a spare 80GB, which do you reckon will be best for Win98? I think 20GB simply because I can sell the 80GB one for more and I'll only have a few games installed on it really.

When you say, install Win98 first, you know I mean two seperate Hard Drives, right? I already have the first hard drive up and running with WinXP, if I use a seperate computer to install the 20GB HDD with Win98, then put it in my current PC that has the WinXP HDD in it, will that work?

Also, how should I set the jumpers on the hard drive? They can't both be masters I presume?

Thanks again!

CDsDontBurn · Jan 16, 2007, 07:03 PM

you should keep both drives. install win98 on the 20Gb drive, and then install winXP on the 80Gb drive. Also, DO NOT install any OS on a seperate machine then bring that drive to the machine where the drive will be used. it messes everything up. It's very likely, that you'll need to install both OSes at the same time.

and the drives should be set up in master/slave configuration if they will be on the same IDE controller.

but, another question has arised. Have you ever used winXP compatibility mode?

**temeteus82** · Jan 16, 2007, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatingrich

When you say, install Win98 first, you know I mean two seperate Hard Drives, right? I already have the first hard drive up and running with WinXP, if I use a seperate computer to install the 20GB HDD with Win98, then put it in my current PC that has the WinXP HDD in it, will that work?

Also, how should I set the jumpers on the hard drive? They can't both be masters I presume?

Thanks again!

It won't work. If you don't know how to boot from winxp cd to it's recovery console and run bootcfg (not recommended for newbie).... hard drives usually have pic where you can see all the jumper configurations...

Dyre Straits · Jan 16, 2007, 07:12 PM

I, too, was wondering if you've tried running those old games under XP Compatibility mode? It's actually quite simple to do once you know how to do it the first time.

Install the game under XP. If you opt to put an icon on the Desktop, once the game's installed, just right click on that icon. Then select Properties from the bottom of the popup menu. There will be a Compatibility tab in the next screen. Click on that and then select the compatibility mode you want to use. If that one doesn't work, try another.

If you don't select to create an icon on the Desktop, you can do the same procedure by going to where you installed the game and right click on the game.exe. Follow the previous steps from that point.

Good luck!

AND, like CDs said, you can't install an OS on another computer and then simply put the hard drive into another one. BAD, bad, bad things happen.

Judas · Jan 16, 2007, 08:14 PM

hmmm..

You "could" with 2 hardrives,

to keep things completely isolated (best way anyways)

is to setup xp on one drive (usually the larger one) for your main OS as the primary hd,

set the bios to boot from that one,

and then when done, and wanting to isntall 98, you could, go into the bios, and set the primary boot for the secondary drive, and isntall away, this should keep the MBR on both completely seperate, and the windows files and registry settings completely seperate, the windows XP OS will see the secondary drive as simply another HD, while when running windows 98, (and ntfs used on the windows xp install) shouldn't see anything for the first drive at all.

The only thing is, you'd have to go into the bios and manual change which drive you would like to boot from every time you'd want to change.

OR

in some motherboard setups, they allow you to set no boot drive at all, and to bring up a bootloader choice for which device to boot from. But that's usually a rareity.

Freulein · Jan 16, 2007, 10:52 PM

would it be more clever to install win98 or a DOS - Box on your current winxp installation virtual ?
maybe you like to use 'software virtualization solution', software at www.altiris.com/download.aspx ; key www.altiris.com/svs-free .
packages ready to use ? www.svsdownloads.com

Dowaco · Jan 17, 2007, 12:36 AM

http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/dualboot.htm

PangingJr · Jan 17, 2007, 12:54 AM

Layers of Multi-Booting...
http://cquirke.mvps.org/multboot.htm#PBR

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 18, 2007, 01:07 AM

Why bother... use Microsoft's Virtual PC then install windows 98 on that. Virtual PC is free and you can install and try any OS in it and its actually quite fast.

Your games would have no problems with that.

BlueMak · Jan 18, 2007, 09:31 AM

Since when is Virtual PC free? Care to provide a link?

**temeteus82** · Jan 18, 2007, 09:47 AM

BlueMak: take a look of this link...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...loads/sp1.mspx

BlueMak · Jan 18, 2007, 12:54 PM

Hmm, I will try to download it, but I have XP Home, not professional.

BlueMak · Jan 18, 2007, 02:58 PM

It does work under XP Home.

**Mousey** · Jan 18, 2007, 03:44 PM

i was running OSX 10.4.3 and OSX 10.4.6 (after upgrade) on one HDD and XP on the other and everything was fine, provided i unplugged the Windows HDD or the OSX HDD when i wanted to use eitheir

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 18, 2007, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueMak

Since when is Virtual PC free? Care to provide a link?

VMWare is free now too. Xen 3.0 has always been free and it works astoundingly well for virtualization enthusiasts

eatingrich · Jan 20, 2007, 12:06 PM

thanks for all the answers guys.

I have tried it in XP under compatibility mode, to be honest I've never ever known it to make a difference even though I do still try it.

This Virtual PC thing sounds interesting, I'll look into it.

It sounds like the easiest thing to do would be to install the second, smaller HDD as a slave drive, then set BIOS to boot up from that instead, install Win98 and whenever I want to use that drive particularly for Win98 just change the order of booting up in my BIOS. Sounds easiest!

Thanks again, I'm intrigued by these virtual PC apps...

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 25, 2007, 04:56 PM

Its better than a 2nd hard drive IMO... less power consumption and hassle. Plus it seems like every device you tell Windows about slows it down by minimum 20%

eatingrich · Jan 28, 2007, 03:55 PM

Well I downloaded Virtual PC but when I started to install it says for Windows2000 or Xp Professional only, are you sure it will work on XP Home without screwing up my computer?

OldBuzzard · Jan 28, 2007, 04:46 PM

HyperOS 2004SE It isn't free, but will do what you want to do. HOS 2007 and OneClick won't work because they don't support Win98.

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/ Click the products button at the top of the page, then scroll down till you find 2004.

BlueMak · Jan 28, 2007, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatingrich

Well I downloaded Virtual PC but when I started to install it says for Windows2000 or Xp Professional only, are you sure it will work on XP Home without screwing up my computer?

I have XP Home and it worked just fine. The only problem is the very bad graphics card you are forced to use in the vpc (an old trio 64 with 4 or 8 ram).

eatingrich · Jan 28, 2007, 07:00 PM

cool, thanks. I think an 8MB card will be good enough for the games I'd most like to run. As long as it works on XP Home! Thanks again!

eatingrich · Jan 29, 2007, 07:39 PM

Hey guys, I got it up and running - hurrah! its quite surreal using it actually.

one thing though, it does give you a range of graphics cards, but how do I set it to 8MB instead of 4? They're all of the 'xxx64' type cards, but the trio one seems to be 4MB.

Ironically, Theme Park running way too fast to possibly play, while Daggerfall runs slightly too slow and has sound issues because the emulated sound card is crap!

BlueMak · Jan 29, 2007, 10:06 PM

I don't think you can change the amount.
And you don't need w98 to run theme park or daggerfall.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 30, 2007, 09:49 PM

Virtual PC actually uses the CPU to do the GFX rendering so as long as the game isn't TOO intense (usually a game that WON'T run on Windows is so old that its no prob) you should be fine

eatingrich · Jan 31, 2007, 12:24 PM

thanks for the replies.

I know Daggerfall does work on XP, when you download the unofficial patch. I played it but it doesn't run as fluently as it used to when I ran it on Win98, I'm not sure why. I run it in DOSBox and its too slow, but I run it in XP and it isn't smooth at certain points and slightly too fast in others. Playing it in Virtual PC and its slow but not jerky, if you see what I mean.

Finding an 8MB graphics card option for it would be great.

As for Worms, I only have a backup CD I made of it and using that it doesn't work in XP or DOSBox, however, it also doesn't seem to be working in Virtual PC so I think the cd may be damaged! God knows who I lent the original out to but I'm not impressed that I never got it back!

I'm trying to run Theme Park but its just way too fast, even in Virtual PC. For some reason it won't work at all in DOSBox.

So you can't choose an 8MB card, you said you could earlier? Or did you mean 'it is either 4 or 8'? In which case - its 4! I'm surprised they didn't just let you choose the amount really.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 31, 2007, 04:54 PM

You can't just choose the amount I don't think... I think you need to install Virtual PC Additions, but the point is moot in DOS: It installs no drivers for the video card, in Windows 95+ I remember going from 4 to 8 on the GFX memory once I installed the additions

PangingJr · Jan 31, 2007, 06:35 PM

that sounds not fun at all, eatingrich, i mean, you could just config a dual boot of Windows 98 and Windows XP so fast and so easy.
with the help of a third party boot manager that supports an advanced partition hiding then you could have the Windows 98 on the old and on the 2nd BIOS hard drive and boot from it by choosing it from the boot manager's boot menu at the system startups. or even with just dual-booting the two Windows's with the XP's NTLoader. but then that is probably just me! thinking.

Jan 16, 2007, 05:24 PM	#1
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Can you have two HDDs running two OS's on your PC? Alright folks! Another odd question... Basically I've come across an abundance of hard drives, and in the past few weeks I've also come across games that are too old to run in XP, but too new to run properly in DOSBox. I can get Daggerfall to work but not properly, and games like Settlers3 and Creatures 2 I can't use. So I was wondering if its possible to set up another hard drive on my pc, which has Windows98, and then when I boot up choose which hard drive I want to use. My bro-in-law doesn't think you can do it but I was using this other PC and when I pressed F8 or something similar during bootup it asked me what I wanted to use for bootup, floppy disk, cd-rom or EITHER hard drive in the PC, so I'm now wondering if its possible after all. Hope you can help, thanks in advance! __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 16, 2007, 06:09 PM	#2
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	yes, it is possible to do. however, when you do it, you'll want to install win98 first, then install winXP. installing winXP first may cause issues w/win98. Not very difficult to do at all . __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Jan 16, 2007, 06:57 PM	Thread Starter #3
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	thanks for the reply, its good to know. I have a spare 20GB HDD and a spare 80GB, which do you reckon will be best for Win98? I think 20GB simply because I can sell the 80GB one for more and I'll only have a few games installed on it really. When you say, install Win98 first, you know I mean two seperate Hard Drives, right? I already have the first hard drive up and running with WinXP, if I use a seperate computer to install the 20GB HDD with Win98, then put it in my current PC that has the WinXP HDD in it, will that work? Also, how should I set the jumpers on the hard drive? They can't both be masters I presume? Thanks again! __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 16, 2007, 07:03 PM	#4
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	you should keep both drives. install win98 on the 20Gb drive, and then install winXP on the 80Gb drive. Also, DO NOT install any OS on a seperate machine then bring that drive to the machine where the drive will be used. it messes everything up. It's very likely, that you'll need to install both OSes at the same time. and the drives should be set up in master/slave configuration if they will be on the same IDE controller. but, another question has arised. Have you ever used winXP compatibility mode? __________________ Her First Day \| A year later Last edited by CDsDontBurn; Jan 16, 2007 at 07:11 PM.

Jan 18, 2007, 09:31 AM	#12
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	Since when is Virtual PC free? Care to provide a link? __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Jan 16, 2007, 10:52 PM	#8
Freulein HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 129 Rep Power: 58	would it be more clever to install win98 or a DOS - Box on your current winxp installation virtual ? maybe you like to use 'software virtualization solution', software at www.altiris.com/download.aspx ; key www.altiris.com/svs-free . packages ready to use ? www.svsdownloads.com

Jan 17, 2007, 12:36 AM	#9
Dowaco DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: East Coast, USA Posts: 217 Rep Power: 0	http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/dualboot.htm

Jan 17, 2007, 12:54 AM	#10
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	Layers of Multi-Booting... http://cquirke.mvps.org/multboot.htm#PBR

Jan 18, 2007, 01:07 AM	#11
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Why bother... use Microsoft's Virtual PC then install windows 98 on that. Virtual PC is free and you can install and try any OS in it and its actually quite fast. Your games would have no problems with that.

Jan 18, 2007, 12:54 PM	#14
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	Hmm, I will try to download it, but I have XP Home, not professional. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Jan 18, 2007, 02:58 PM	#15
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	It does work under XP Home. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Jan 18, 2007, 03:44 PM	#16
Mousey Synth's Long Lost Bro Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Web Design Hell Posts: 7,189 Rep Power: 245 System Specs	i was running OSX 10.4.3 and OSX 10.4.6 (after upgrade) on one HDD and XP on the other and everything was fine, provided i unplugged the Windows HDD or the OSX HDD when i wanted to use eitheir

Jan 20, 2007, 12:06 PM	Thread Starter #18
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	thanks for all the answers guys. I have tried it in XP under compatibility mode, to be honest I've never ever known it to make a difference even though I do still try it. This Virtual PC thing sounds interesting, I'll look into it. It sounds like the easiest thing to do would be to install the second, smaller HDD as a slave drive, then set BIOS to boot up from that instead, install Win98 and whenever I want to use that drive particularly for Win98 just change the order of booting up in my BIOS. Sounds easiest! Thanks again, I'm intrigued by these virtual PC apps... __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 25, 2007, 04:56 PM	#19
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Its better than a 2nd hard drive IMO... less power consumption and hassle. Plus it seems like every device you tell Windows about slows it down by minimum 20%

Jan 28, 2007, 03:55 PM	Thread Starter #20
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well I downloaded Virtual PC but when I started to install it says for Windows2000 or Xp Professional only, are you sure it will work on XP Home without screwing up my computer? __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 28, 2007, 04:46 PM	#21
OldBuzzard DH's oldest Geek Join Date: May 2003 Location: Oberlin, OH Posts: 2,783 Rep Power: 145 System Specs	HyperOS 2004SE It isn't free, but will do what you want to do. HOS 2007 and OneClick won't work because they don't support Win98. http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/ Click the products button at the top of the page, then scroll down till you find 2004. __________________ When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Jan 28, 2007, 07:00 PM	Thread Starter #23
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	cool, thanks. I think an 8MB card will be good enough for the games I'd most like to run. As long as it works on XP Home! Thanks again! __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 29, 2007, 07:39 PM	Thread Starter #24
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Hey guys, I got it up and running - hurrah! its quite surreal using it actually. one thing though, it does give you a range of graphics cards, but how do I set it to 8MB instead of 4? They're all of the 'xxx64' type cards, but the trio one seems to be 4MB. Ironically, Theme Park running way too fast to possibly play, while Daggerfall runs slightly too slow and has sound issues because the emulated sound card is crap! __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 29, 2007, 10:06 PM	#25
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	I don't think you can change the amount. And you don't need w98 to run theme park or daggerfall. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Jan 30, 2007, 09:49 PM	#26
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Virtual PC actually uses the CPU to do the GFX rendering so as long as the game isn't TOO intense (usually a game that WON'T run on Windows is so old that its no prob) you should be fine

Jan 31, 2007, 12:24 PM	Thread Starter #27
eatingrich HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 159 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	thanks for the replies. I know Daggerfall does work on XP, when you download the unofficial patch. I played it but it doesn't run as fluently as it used to when I ran it on Win98, I'm not sure why. I run it in DOSBox and its too slow, but I run it in XP and it isn't smooth at certain points and slightly too fast in others. Playing it in Virtual PC and its slow but not jerky, if you see what I mean. Finding an 8MB graphics card option for it would be great. As for Worms, I only have a backup CD I made of it and using that it doesn't work in XP or DOSBox, however, it also doesn't seem to be working in Virtual PC so I think the cd may be damaged! God knows who I lent the original out to but I'm not impressed that I never got it back! I'm trying to run Theme Park but its just way too fast, even in Virtual PC. For some reason it won't work at all in DOSBox. So you can't choose an 8MB card, you said you could earlier? Or did you mean 'it is either 4 or 8'? In which case - its 4! I'm surprised they didn't just let you choose the amount really. __________________ Check out my gaming blog for stuff about Windows Phone, retro gaming and Xbox - www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

Jan 31, 2007, 04:54 PM	#28
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	You can't just choose the amount I don't think... I think you need to install Virtual PC Additions, but the point is moot in DOS: It installs no drivers for the video card, in Windows 95+ I remember going from 4 to 8 on the GFX memory once I installed the additions

Jan 31, 2007, 06:35 PM	#29
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	that sounds not fun at all, eatingrich, i mean, you could just config a dual boot of Windows 98 and Windows XP so fast and so easy. with the help of a third party boot manager that supports an advanced partition hiding then you could have the Windows 98 on the old and on the 2nd BIOS hard drive and boot from it by choosing it from the boot manager's boot menu at the system startups. or even with just dual-booting the two Windows's with the XP's NTLoader. but then that is probably just me! thinking.