Running XP and 98 on Separate Disks

I recently purchased a new computer with Windows XP Home Edition. My prior
O/S was Windows 98, and I have some games that will only run on it due to
issues with XP. I was planning on taking the hard disk out of my old
computer and adding it to the secondary IDE cable in my new computer, and I
wanted to makes sure that I would not have any conflicts running either O/S
on the separate disks. The only information I can find regarding multi-boot
computers is when a single hard disk is partitioned; there is no mention of
simply adding a hard disk with everything ready to go into a computer already
running something else. As a follow-up, will I have to go into the BIOS each
time I want to change the boot order depending upon which O/S I want to run?
Thanks to anyone with advice.

"Adam McConnell Starling" wrote:
 > I recently purchased a new computer with Windows XP
 > Home Edition. My prior O/S was Windows 98, and I
 > have some games that will only run on it due to issues
 > with XP. I was planning on taking the hard disk out of
 > my old computer and adding it to the secondary IDE
 > cable in my new computer, and I wanted to makes sure
 > that I would not have any conflicts running either O/S on
 > the separate disks.


You'd at least have problems with the drivers on Win98
not knowing the devices on the new system. The usual
procedure is to install Win98 in the new system, then
install WinXP (in that order). Separate hard drives are
just separate partitions to the OS, so you can use 2
hard drives.

Check this out (from the Groups.Google archives):
<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&threadm=3a9a01c247a5%2433044910%2436ef2ecf%40tkmsftngxa12&rnum=3&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dwindows%2B98%2Bxp%2Bdual%2Bboot%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26selm%3D3a9a01c247a5%252433044910%252436ef2ecf%2540tkmsftngxa12%26rnum%3D3" target="_blank">http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&threadm=3a9a01c247a5%2433044...%2436ef</a>

The search was on "windows 98 xp". There has been
a lot of postings in the past 2 years about dual booting
Win98 and WinXP.


 > The only information I can find regarding multi-boot
 > computers is when a single hard disk is partitioned;
 > there is no mention of simply adding a hard disk with
 > everything ready to go into a computer already
 > running something else. As a follow-up, will I have to
 > go into the BIOS each time I want to change the boot
 > order depending upon which O/S I want to run?


No. In WinXP there is a built-in boot manager which
does multi-booting. You can use it or you can use the
BIOS's boot sequence (or both). Just keep track what's
in the boot.ini file in the HD's "active" partition so that
you know which OS is which.

*TimDaniels*