reformatted ,went well ,BUT
 

i have an xp1800+ on an ecs k7s5a board , 40 gig hd.i installed win 98 in c:drive . i then partitioned the drive with partition magic.i have 98 on c,d: for downloads , e:whatever , now h: iwas going to install xp pro ,going is the imperative word,everything was going fine when i got a fatal error , so after all the work i had just done i was afraid i`d lose it all. i had installed @3 grand worth the software and all the lovely headaches to go with it . i cancelled the install of xp. i had to use ext.exe to get up and running again.does anybody know what the fuck went wrong .maybe i should have installed xp first .the reason i did it this way is because i know all the software works with 98 but was not sure how xp pro would react
:cool:

Did you move the partitions after you installed windows 98 or before? Often times if you already have data on a drive, then use a program like partition magic to move the partition sizes, it'll cause problems.

Scott

Partition Magic screwed my drive up pretty good trying to edit them (if I could back up all my data, why would I want to resize my partitions on the fly???)

Hope you can sort all this out. But I stay away from apps like that. I stick to the basics. disk druid and fdisk.

Install XP first then 98. I've had the same problem with a co-workers computer and this had seemed to work. I had done a lot of research and for some reason the order does matter.


Let us know how everything works out,

Celeb

Just about every single program that still renders use today will run on xp, espically wiht the compatibaly features built in.


also updating to sp1, and getting the sp2 hotfixes makes games run just that much better, .. oh and photoshop too

Can you be more specific on the error? I would try to slap in another HD for kicks, just to see if XP installs by itself. Bios Level maybe? Here's a link on the board's compatibility, see if that's the level you're at:

http://www.matrox.com/video/support/.../ecs_k7s5a.cfm

Install Xp, use PQ magic to dual boot. It will instruct you on what to do next to install 98 for dual boot. PQ magic works great for me, I don't try and second guess it.
Shoulin made a comment about XP understanding older software, I agree. It is older hardware XP doesn't like, and some older apps granted.
Also, don't install OS' on different drives as you did. Boot sectors come into play and you don't want your Operating Systems spread out all over your drives.
Define c: as the drive for your OS', and partition the rest of your drive(s) as you wish, data, games, video, etc..., but don't try to put 98 on c:, and XP on h:.
As you have seen, it doesn't work.

You screwed yourself the minute you used the PartitionMagic.

PartitionMAgic doesnt work well with WinXP.

98 SHOULD go on first because of its lame boot loader, XP second.

If you could tell what the exact error code was somebody here might be able to help, also when does it crap out during the install?

It's cleaner to have OS's on diff partitions, the boot loader for xp, win2k, linux, BeOS, etc can handle it fine only 9x has problems, and that only arises if you install it second(in dualboot configs).

Hey merkdr are you in the AZ area?

have to agree with the poster above who mentioned XP and partition magic having issues. It took me more time then it was worth to get PMagic and XP to agree.

well thanks , i`m really leary now over this , i had a bitch of a time right from the get go ,and bud no i`m from the great white north and by the way it`s just about 100 degrees here.i`m just now having some serious thoughts about wiping the drive again and giving xp pro a go.gotta run they`re shutting down the power here for 8 hrs. something about burn in.thanks

Partition magic is notorious for screwind up partions and partition tables.