Wondering how to do this.

[dickster]

Wasn't sure which forum to put this in. I have a computer set up for dual boot with Win98 SE, and Win2k. Been running 2k to see how I like it compared to 98. Think I'm going to stay with it, but that brings me to the problem.

First, here is a PCpitstop test of my unit.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/techexpress.asp?id=KHXTWWZPBCPS7QGD

Drive C is set up for Win98. Drive D is empty right now, and drive E is Win2k. Short of having to format the whole drive, is there a way to format C and then move Win2k over to it?

If I format C, and then use Partition Magic to put everything back to 1 partition, will that do it? I could then create new partitions later if I wanted.

If that doesn't work, any other ideas? Oh, and I forgot to mention, Win2k is an upgrade disk. So if I have to reformat, I can still do a clean install since I do have the 98 disk.

As always, appreciate all your help!!:D

[Dashwood95]

From what I understand of it, Partition Magic will help you format then merge your partitions.

[GretaP]

Yes, you can merge partitions with Partition Magic, but they would have to be adjacent partitions. Since drive D is empty, you could try merging D into E and then C into (what I imagine, after the first merge, would be) D, or merge C and D and then the resulting partition into what is currently E. If you have WIN2K on an NTFS partition, and are going to be merging FAT32 partition(s) into the NTFS partition, check the cluster size of the NTFS partition. If the cluster size of the NTFS partition is 4 KB, choose to convert the FAT32 partition(s) to 4K-Aligned before you convert it to NTFS.

Also, since you had a dual boot going, you would probably have to either:

1) edit the boot.ini file (possibly have to do this by booting from a DOS boot disk, if on NTFS), since it would reflect the fact that WIN2K is on the third partition,
or

2) see if you can access the second repair option install of WIN2K to "repair" the boot.ini file.

Since you are not "opposed" to having to format the whole thing and reinstall WIN2K, you might want to give the above a shot, bearing in mind Murphy's Law, especially with all the variables attached to this one.

[dickster]

Appreciate the answers. All 3 partitions are in FAT32, so that part shouldn't be a problem. But after reading all that I would have to go through, sounds like it would be easier just doing a format, and clean install. Pretty sure I could do it using the Win2k disk

If I go that route, should I delete drives D&E first? Not sure if I can format all three using the disk.

[Alfons]

If all the partitions are FAT32 and you want to reconfigure your partition configuration, then you can use FDISK which resides on the W98 Startup Disk. If you don't have one of these disks then you can download the program file to create one from HERE (http://www.bootdisk.com/original.htm). Just download the file, double click on it and follow the prompts and it'll create this bootdisk for you, then:

1. Insert it into your computer and start it up.
2. You'll be asked if you want CD-ROM support - it doesn't matter what you select here.
3. Eventually it will come to a command prompt that looks like this:

A:\>

4. Make it look like this and then press Enter:

A:\>FDISK

5. Now you'll get a bit of a description on Large Disk Support and a question as to whether you want this. If you select N for NO, then you'll be using FAT16, and if you select Y for YES, then you'll be using FAT32. You want FAT32 so answer with Y and press Enter.

6. Now you'll get the Fixed DISK Utility Menu which will have 4 selections if you have one physical disk and 5 if you have more. If you have more than one physical disk, then select #5 and then make sure that you have the proper disk selected that you want to configure.

7. Selecting #4 will give you a report of what your disk currently looks like.

8. If you want to change the partition size of the Primary Active Partition (your drive C) using this utility, then you'll need to remove all partitions and start over again - don't forget that you'll lose all data on the entire disk when you go through this.

9. If that's what you want to do, then you'll start with menu item #3 which is Delete partitions or Logical DOS Drive. This will take you to a submenu for deletions and you'll need to perform this operation in the following order: First you'll remove the Logical Drives, and for this you'll use the submenu item #3, Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended Partition, then you'll need to delete the Extended Partition which is submenu item #2, Delete Extended DOS Partition, and finally you can remove the Primary Partition with submenu item #1, Delete Primary DOS Partition.

10. After this is completed, press ESC to get back to the main FDISK menu and there you'll want to select menu item #1, Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive. This brings you to the Partition Creation Submenu and here you'll start with submenu item #1, Create Primary DOS partition and if that's all you want done to your drive, then you'll be finished after you've gone through this step, otherwise you'll need to setup your Extended Partition and the Logical Drives on it, so you'll need to select submenu item #2, Create Extended DOS Partition and follow all of it's prompts, then you'll need to select submenu item #3, Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition. When you've done all this then ESC back to the main FDISK menu.

11. Finally, you'll need to set your Primary Partition as Active and you do this with menu item #2, Set active partition.

12. When you've done all that you'll need to restart the computer to get the new partition tables written to the hard disk, and when it restarts, booting to the bootdisk, you'll need to FORMAT each disk that you created, so at the command prompt you'll type FORMAT C: and press Enter and the program will ask you if you're sure - answer YES. After the format is finished it'll ask if you want a Label - you can enter one if you wish, like PART1 etc. and press Enter. Format any other logical drive that you've made in the same manner and then you'll be ready to install your OS.

Good Luck and Post if you need any more instructions. :D

[GretaP]

You should be able to do the format and clean install using the WIN2K disk.
Boot from the install CD, opt to boot from CDROM (if this is one of the opening options), then choose Install a new copy of Windows 2000 (Clean Install)
Accept EULA
key in Product Key
In Select Special Options, click on the Advanced Options button, and click in the checkbox beside "I want to choose the installation partition during Setup"
Copies installation files
At blue Welcome to Setup screen:

To set up Windows 2000 now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows 2000 installation, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows 2000, press F3.

Press ENTER.

Should then be at a screen showing the hard disk(s) and partition(s), including any unpartitioned space.
Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select an item in the list.

To set up Windows 2000 on the selected item, press ENTER.
To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C.
To delete the selected partition, press D.

Use the arrow keys to highlight the partitions that you want to delete, and when highlighted, press D. You will get one or two "Are you sure you want to do this?" screens before it actually will delete the partition...probably one verification screen for the empty logical partition, and two verification screens for the WIN98 and WIN2K partitions........follow the instructions to delete.

Once this is done, you should be left with Unpartitioned space for the drive. Now, you can create the partitions that you want by ensuring that the Unpartitioned space is highlighted, and then pressing C. You can create more than one partition by adjusting the size of the partitions that you are creating. You can also create extended and logical partitions via Disk Management from within WIN2K, so if you had wanted to create more than just the operating system partition, you can adjust the size of the partition for WIN2K at this screen, do the formatting in the following screen, install WIN2K, and then create other partitions once WIN2K is installed.

When you have created your partition(s), use the arrow keys to highlight the partition where you want WIN2K installed, and press ENTER. Now you'll be at the formatting screen where you choose your file system using the arrow keys.

Once formatted, will automatically restart, then launch into the install routine for WIN2K.

[dickster]

Want to thank Alfons and GretaP for the responses!!

I ended up taking the easy (chicken) way out. Just fdisk, reformatted, and loaded Win2k.

Everything went just fine!! Now, just have to meet you guys, and gals, in the network forum to get my computers talking to each other.

Once again, thanks for the help.:D

[GretaP]

You're very welcome for the responses, dickster. But ya gotta promise me that someday, you'll do your partition work during the Setup routine :D