Hello vaac,
I understand that you want to use Windows 98, but do not want to
damage your Windows 95 installation. By removing the hard drive with
Windows 95 on it, and using a blank hard drive to install Windows 98
on it, your computer will work perfectly fine with the new
installation of Windows 98, but you will NOT have access to any
programs or data files that were on your Windows 95 installation
(because you have disconnected that hard drive).
If you later remove the Windows 98 hard drive and put the Windows 95
hard drive back in, your Windows 95 installation will NOT be damaged
at all if you make sure to do the following things:
a) Do not change any hardware devices, ie: do not install a new video
card etc. If you do, you must be sure to put back the old video card
before booting up Windows 95 again. Even if you do this, chances are
your Windows 95 installation would not be damaged, but it would be
best to avoid any major hardware changes.
b) Be careful with the Windows 95 hard drive. After removing it, you
must store it in a safe place, away from magnets, extreme temperatures
and so on. I recommend that you store it in the same container and
packing materials that your new hard drive came in.
c) Try not to make any changes to your BIOS such as updating the
firmware. Again this probably would not hurt your Windows 95
installation, but it is better to be safe.
In summary, you will be safe. I personally would just plug in the new
hardrive and use Partition Magic (
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/ ) to run both operating
systems, but your method would be much safer, especially for someone
who does not have experience with dual booting.
Let me know if you need any clarifications, and I will do my best to
further assist you!
tisme-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
vaac-ga
on
13 Jan 2004 20:53 PST
Unfortunately, because of my ignorance I need clarifications. I do not
have a clear understanding what BIOS and firmware are. Would
appreciate if you could explain how you change BIOS or firmware so
that I should know what to avoid doing.
Since you answered this so knowingly I would like to add: If I do not
take out the windows 95 disk but only change its jumpers to make it
2-nd master or slave, and then insert the new disk as 1-st master or
slave and install windows 98 on it will windows 95 be damaged?
If not, if I do not change the disk with windows 95 but insert a new
hard disk as master 2 or slave 2 and change the active partition using
FDISK will installing windows 98 damage windows 95 which is now on the
disk which has not the active partition?
If not, will not installing a new disk, but merely changing the active
partition to the secondary partition using FDISK and installing
windows 98 on the secondary partition of the same disk damage windows
95 which is now on the first partition which is inactive?
I realize that this should be a separate question for which I should
pay extra. I will do this by giving you an $ 5.00 tip for your
additional answers.
|
Clarification of Answer by
tisme-ga
on
13 Jan 2004 21:26 PST
Hello vaac,
Nice to hear a response from you!
First, the BIOS is what happens on your computer before the boot up
sequence starts. When you start your computer, it may say "Press DEL
to enter SETUP" or something to that effect. Changing the BIOS would
involve pressing the DEL key and making specific changes. BIOS stands
for Basic Input Output System and it is basically what allows you to
run your Operating System (windows 98 or whatever it may be). It
allows you to make changes such as boot from floppy first, or boot
from hard disk first and so on. Some other changes you can make are
such things as AGP or PCI video card, disabling/enabling floppy
drives, etc. Not something you need to worry about, unless of course
you are having problems installing Windows 98 onto the blank hard
drive because it will not take your floppy start up disk, in which
case you would have to change the settings so that the floppy disk
would boot up first. This would in no way harm your Windows 95
installation, but flashing your BIOS (updating firmware) would:
Changing your BIOS firmware would involve going to the website of your
motherboard maker (the component in your computer that has the CPU
chip on it) and downloading a file or set of files to a floppy disk.
Sometimes (in rare occasions) when installing a new operating system,
a firmware update of the BIOS is needed. This can be a very dangerous
thing, as flashing your BIOS with the wrong files can ruin your
motherboard beyond repair. This is not something you need to worry
about if you do not plan on doing it. You will not need a firmware
update to go from Windows 95 to 98.
Regarding your question about changing the jumpers, yes I believe that
would be perfectly safe, as long as you DO NOT ERASE ANY FILES,
especially in the Windows directory or in the D: from the second
drive. This would be a disaster because you could no longer boot into
Windows 95 after switching the drives back. If you have never done
this before you would be a lot safer just installing Windows 98 on the
fresh drive (as master) and after all the installing is done, plugging
in the Windows 95 drive as a Slave drive. Either way though, you will
be safe as long as you DO NOT erase any files from the Windows 95
drive. And believe me, it has happened to me where I thought I know
which drive was which and went ahead to format the wrong one... it
really hurts!
DO NOT CHANGE ANY PARTITIONS AT ALL ONE THE WINDOWS 95 drive. This
could, and probably WOULD turn into a disaster for you. You have to be
sure that if you doing partitioning, that it is ONLY ON THE NEW
DRIVE!!! If you use a program like Partition Magic, you WOULD be
perfectly safe, but fdisk is a dangerous tool, and you should avoid
using it on the old hardrive altogether!
I did not quite understand what you were trying to ask in this paragraph:
"If not, if I do not change the disk with windows 95 but insert a new
hard disk as master 2 or slave 2 and change the active partition using
FDISK will installing windows 98 damage windows 95 which is now on the
disk which has not the active partition?"
Here is my attempted answer to this: If you make the new hard drive
(to be win 98) master and the old one (win 95) slave, you do NOT need
to change anything with fdisk!!! Although the Windows 95 drive will
still have the bootup information to start Windows 95, it will NOT
boot Windows 95 because the BIOS will be looking for boot up
information ONLY from the master drive. (Now if you used a program
like Partition Magic, the BIOS would boot up Partition Magic and
Partition Magic would allow you to select which drive you want to boot
up, Win 95 or Win 98).
I hope this helps you! Please let me know if you have any further
questions and I will do my best to get back to you ASAP.
tisme-ga
|
Clarification of Answer by
tisme-ga
on
14 Jan 2004 16:35 PST
Hello vaac,
Thank you for the tip for the additional questions. If you want my
services again in the future, feel free to ask for me (tisme) by name
in the question topic or question body.
I agree that one needs to experiment while learning new things! It is
nice however to have a grounding before heading out into the unknown.
:)
tisme-ga
|
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