By John Nightwolf
Well, it finally happened. My old computer got flakey enough for me to take the plunge and get a new system.
My main problem is that I run an older version of Pro-Tools (5.1.1) which only runs on Win98. I do a lot of work on computers and felt the need to start working with XP (don't laugh, Ive always been kind of retro and behind the times).
Anyway, the obvious solution is to make a Dual Boot system. Since there was some discussion on the boards about this, I thought I would write this in order to save anyone else thinking of doing this the trouble I went through.
PowerQuest, now owned by Symantic, makes software for making a Dual Boot system. 70 Dollars American allows you to download "Partition Magic 8" & "Boot Magic 8". I paid $7 extra to allow me to re-download it if it gets lost. I downloaded it 3 times before I realized I could burn it to a disc and save myself download time.
The Symantic website has a pretty good tutorial for these programs, but they don't mention some very important things. I found out the hard way that Win98 does not include some of the drivers that newer computers need.
So how do I get started?
OK, so here we go. Go to
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/.
and download it (boot magic is included in the download).
Then you need to download Win98 versions of your video and modem drivers. XP automatically zipped the files when I burned them so I would advise snagging a copy of an unzip program while your at it. Burn all these files to a disc!
The rest of this won't make much sense until you have read the tutorial. Install and open PM. I won't concentrate on the parts that the tutorial covers, I only intend to cover the holes.
I strongly advise printing the tutorial from the site. What you need to know is that if you get anything wrong or miss a step, you will need to reload XP and start from scratch.
Basically, you need to resize your "Active" hard drive and move it up far enough to house Win98 at the beginning of the hard drive. IMPORTANT: If you choose to make your new Win98 drive "Active" (this means to change it to your "C" drive) this action will not happen until a complete reboot has occurred.
My mistake was trying to install Win98 before my new partition was truly set as my "C" drive, this corrupts XP and requires a full reinstall of the XP system (laughing yet?).
Once I successfully installed Win98 my icons were 3"s square, this is the reason for incuding the video driver on the disc. The modem driver is in case you need something else (CD drivers and such).
Now install Boot Magic, once BM is installed your computer should give you a choice on boot up of which system to boot into.
Sounds simple huh? Good Luck, I hope I saved someone the aggravation that I went through.
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About John Nightwolf
John Nightwolf is 42 years old and has been playing since the age of 13. Although John also plays Guitar, Keyboards, and Drums, he would tell you that Bass is his real passion.
John plays a Regal acoustic Bass, an Ibanez 4string, and a Schecter 5string. Hartke Amp with a Genz Benz cabinet.
He has played for Witch, Intox, Stressmonkey and Two and a Half WeeKs over the years.
John Nightwolf is a member of the Songstuff music community.
