[RESOLVED] Kinda like duel booting, only not ... :S Please help, anyway.

Hi people, hope you're well.

I have obtained a copy of WinXP. I am currently running Win98se. Now, I want to upgrade, but I've got a load of rubbish on this machine already, so ideally I'd like to format and start again. This isn't practically possible for reasons I won't go into now, but what I would like to do is sort of like partition the drive such that I am given a choice of which OS to start up at startup. Simple enough - duel booting. My problem is, I'd like to be able to sort everything on the new XP partition and then format the old partition but merge it into the XP one so I get the free space.

Do you see what I mean? So it's really duel-booting, but then merging the partitions at the end of it so I have one drive again.

I don't think I've explained myself very well - please ask if you need anymore info.

why not create a partition thats big enough to hold everything you want to keep. Copy everything there and then pop in your XP CD and Instead of Upgrade select New Install and wipe out the partition having the '98 install?

Then you can merge the partitions in Windows XP and then forget about the dual-booting because then you would have a big mess to clean up when you removed '98.

Partition Magic will do exactly what you want. It's very easy to use too.

Many thanks for your replies.

I'm reluctant to use PartitionMagic as I've had bad experiences with it in the past.

I'm intrigued by <ABX's suggestion, however it's not what I mean. I *need* to duel-boot in some way because I don't have the amount of free time required to do this in one period of time, and the workstation needs to be operational. Basically I need to be able to work behind the scenes getting everything sorted program-wise, and then just delete+merge the Win98 partition right at the end, seamlessly upgrading the PC.

The problem is, if you install Windows XP, you won't be able to use fdisk to merge your partitions. Windows XP just doesn't work with it! You'll HAVE to use some partition managing software.

If you don't like Partition magic, there's BootIt Next Gen... something like that. Check www.bootitng.com

However, I still reccommend Partition Magic, latest version.

My condolences to you. :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Xenonic_Rob
I'm reluctant to use PartitionMagic as I've had bad experiences with it in the past.

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I too have had bad experiences with older versions of PM. However, the latest version is very stable and i have used it at least a dozen times on completely different computers and operating systems without any problem whatsoever.

Many thanks. I guess I am a bit prejudiced against PartitionMagic because of a very, very old version I used when I had Windows95! I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for all the tips - I hope the OS upgrade is successful!

you could still do it in parts

1) Create Partition to Keep Data (depends on how big the drive is)
2) Copy Data to new Partition (depends on how much data)
3) Install Windows XP Removing 98 (30min to 2 hours)
4) Merge the Partitions (about 30min)

All of these you could do at different times if you have a big enough hard drive (it needs to be at lease double the data you want to keep + 2.5 gig for XP + Apps)

I recommend partiton magic because i have never had a problem with 8.0

Don't download the "trial" for Partition Magic 8.0. I had to partition something yesterday, and I downloaded the trial. It turns out you need the full version to actually do the partitioning. This only gives you a feel of Partition Magic.

To anyone else using Partition Magic 8.0 here, have you purchased the full version (paid 70 bucks!!), or have you cracked it?

While I'm not expecting anyone to condone it, I'm in the process of downloading PartitionMagic on KazaaLite. If it does what I want it to do, I'll consider buying it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Xenonic_Rob
While I'm not expecting anyone to condone it, I'm in the process of downloading PartitionMagic on KazaaLite. If it does what I want it to do, I'll consider buying it.

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Can I have a copy? :(

Here isn't the place to discuss it. I'll e-mail you privately.

If anyone wants a copy they could email me or chat with me on msn and i'll give them the ip address of my ftp. NOTE: you must have own a copy of partition Magic 8 Already ;)

[email protected]

btw: its like 50mb