Windows 95 and 98 on same PC?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

rpgs rock dvds - 04 May 2008 11:55 GMT

Is it possible to have a PC (that has one HDD) which allows you to
'dual-boot' to either Windows 95 or Windows 98?

The reason I ask is that I don't seem to be able to get an old 3dfx
voodoo1 card to work using Windows 98SE. The latest driver that
appears to be available to Win9x users for the voodoo1 card is a
Direct X 5 version. As Windows 98SE ships with Direct X 6, (and then
gets updated to Direct X 9 when I install my primary graphics card
driver package), I don't think I have a suitable system to use this
card.

When I run dxdiag or a 3dfx game, I get serious problems such as the
screen goes all weird looking and I then need to reboot.

Perhaps I'd have more luck with the voodoo1 card if I was using an
operating system that had Direct X version 5, such as Windows 95?

Thanks for any advice, Best regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

John John (MVP) - 04 May 2008 13:26 GMT

Hmmm. If you can't get the card to work with Windows 98SE then what is
the use of having a dual boot at all on the computer? What's the use of
the Windows 98 installation if it can't use the video card?

Yes, you can dual boot between Windows 95 and Windows 98 but it takes a
bit of "tinkering" to get it to work properly. You need two separate
partitions to do this properly and you have to boot one of the
installations with a floppy diskette or you have to change the msdos.sys
file when booting from one installation to the next. The easiest way to
do this is no doubt to use a third party boot manager like BootItNG or XOSL.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000346.htm
http://thpc.info/dual/dualboots.html
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm
http://www.ranish.com/part/

John

> Is it possible to have a PC (that has one HDD) which allows you to
> 'dual-boot' to either Windows 95 or Windows 98?
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> Thanks for any advice, Best regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

rpgs rock dvds - 05 May 2008 17:09 GMT

> Hmmm. If you can't get the card to work with Windows 98SE then what is
> the use of having a dual boot at all on the computer? What's the use of
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks for those links. I think I might buy BootIt. I'm thinking of
having a 95/98/XP system. But do you know if I can also have MS-DOS
6.22 as well? (I have old legacy Creative Soundblaster software that
fails to install/run on DOS versions 7 and above. Being able to very
occasionally boot into DOS 6.22 might be handy -- perhaps I could
create a new 'old-style' FAT partition on my HDD which DOS would
recognise.)

Thanks, regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

John John (MVP) - 05 May 2008 21:19 GMT

> Thanks for those links. I think I might buy BootIt. I'm thinking of
> having a 95/98/XP system. But do you know if I can also have MS-DOS
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Thanks, regards, Robert.

Yes, you can boot all of these with BootItNg, it would be the easiest
way to accomplish this. You can also boot all of these with the XP/NT
(ntldr) boot loader but there is a problem booting more than one W9x
operating system with the XP boot loader, it would be better to use a
third party boot manager if you want to boot more than one W9x version.
You may also find this useful: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306559

John

Reply to this Message

rpgs rock dvds - 06 May 2008 08:15 GMT

> > Thanks for those links. I think I might buy BootIt. I'm thinking of
> > having a 95/98/XP system. But do you know if I can also have MS-DOS
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> John

THanks.

>> If you can't get the card to work with Windows 98SE then what is the use of having a dual boot at all on the computer? What's the use of the Windows 98 installation if it can't use the video card?

I was thinking of having this situation -

Dual-boot 95 and 98.

95 = uses the graphics card (it's actually a 3D accellerator), and
runs DirectX 5 driver. (There's nothing else available.)

98 = install the 3D accellerator, but simply don't use it. Continue
to use primary graphics card in AGP slot and don't run any 3D
accellerated software.

I think that would work ok.

Best regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

Claudehl@aol.com - 12 May 2008 21:33 GMT

You could, but keep in mind that normally you can't have more than 4
[primary + extended] partitions, so if you use one partition per OS
(DOS/95/98/XP), you'll use up 4 primary partitions and won't be able
to create an extended partition.

Having an extended partition with some logical drives in it is very
useful when you have multiple OSes in separate partitions, you can
store your own files there and they will be accessible, no matter
which OS you boot into (at least one logical drive will have to be FAT
if you want to access it from DOS 6.22).

I think BootIt Next Generation allows you to overcome that 4
partitions limitation.

Claude

> Thanks for those links. �I think I might buy BootIt. �I'm thinking of
> having a 95/98/XP system. �But do you know if I can also have MS-DOS
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Thanks, regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

rpgs rock dvds - 18 May 2008 14:38 GMT

On 12 May, 21:33, Claud...@aol.com wrote:

> You could, but keep in mind that normally you can't have more than 4
> [primary + extended] partitions, so if you use one partition per OS
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks very much for the info -- I am in fact going to purchase BootIt
NG.
Best regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

J. P. Gilliver - 04 Jul 2008 16:59 GMT

[]

> Thanks for those links. I think I might buy BootIt. I'm thinking of
> having a 95/98/XP system. But do you know if I can also have MS-DOS
> 6.22 as well? (I have old legacy Creative Soundblaster software that

I was going to say why not just boot into DOS ...

> fails to install/run on DOS versions 7 and above. Being able to very

... until you said that. What exactly happens when you do try to install it?
(And what does this software do that you actually want, that the W9x
software/drivers/whatever doesn't do - or are you just wanting it for
completeness as it were?)
[]

Signature

J. P. Gilliver | Tel. +44 1634 203298

Reply to this Message

thanatoid - 05 May 2008 20:22 GMT

rpgs rock dvds <rpgsrockdvds@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in
news:46c8c39e-6320-49f2-abea-a845836ddbd1@l64g2000hse.googlegr
oups.com:

> Is it possible to have a PC (that has one HDD) which allows
> you to 'dual-boot' to either Windows 95 or Windows 98?
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Thanks for any advice, Best regards, Robert.

Since Win95B/C is almost the same as 98 except for USB support
and the stupid IE/Active desktop integration (which can be
disabled using customizers such as that found at
http://www.litepc.com - an IE remover is on the free page), it
seems a little silly to run both.

AFAIK, any DirectX version can be removed and replaced with an
earlier one - in fact EVERY new DirectX version comes with a
variety of scary warnings about how "some things might not work
any more" (good ol' Microsoft).

Vers. 6-9c can be found at
http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=directx

It is possible you might be able to find ver 5 somewhere else,
or just istall THAT component from the 95 disc to win98SE after
removing ver. 6.

OTOH, a new (or used - we are on Direct X ver 10 now!) video
card which would handle a later version of DirectX wouldn't cost
much either. Like maybe 3-15 dollars in a small computer shop or
eBay.

Summing it up, while I can /kind of/ see someone wanting to run
98 and XP (or Windows and Linux) on the same machine, running 95
AND 98 seems kind of insane, no offense :-)

Signature

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but
to be overcome--to be got over.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Reply to this Message

rpgs rock dvds - 06 May 2008 08:11 GMT

> rpgs rock dvds <rpgsrockd...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote innews:46c8c39e-6320-49f2-abea-a845836ddbd1@l64g2000hse.googlegr
> oups.com:
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks for reply. Please note I need to run software (drivers) that
use DirectX 5, and also I do have lots of other software that would
benefit from higher versions of DirectX, such as versions 6 to 9. So
my requirement appears to be for both DirectX 5 and DirectX 6-9 "at
the same time". Therefore I think that having both '95 and '98 (on
the same PC) seems like a reasonable idea.

Best regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message

glee - 11 May 2008 04:10 GMT

Just changing the topic a little.....why do you think you need to have no newer
version of DirectX installed than v.5, in order to install the correct driver for
your 3dfx voodoo card? It really does not matter that the driver package comes with
DX5....voodoo drivers should operate fine with DirectX 9 installed.

I have a Phoenix Maxi Gamer AGP card installed on a 98SE system with DirectX 9.0c.
The card is Voodoo Banshee based, and the last drivers available were for Win95/98
and DirectX 7.0

Exactly what card do you have, what drivers have you installed and from where did
you get them?

Signature

Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+
http://dts-l.net/
http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm

Reply to this Message

rpgs rock dvds - 18 May 2008 14:38 GMT

> Just changing the topic a little.....why do you think you need to have no newer
> version of DirectX installed than v.5, in order to install the correct driver for
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

That's really interesting, because I've just this moment got the
voodoo 1 card working for the very first time since I got it, and I
installed Windows 95, and made sure DirectX version 5 was on, and it
all seems to work.

I have a Diamond voodoo1 card. The driver available for it is directx
5. I think your banshee works because the driver it expects is
directx version 7. Directx version 9 is very similar in API-style to
version 7, which is why they are kind of interchangeable in this
regard. Not so for directx version 5 drivers, which is why I couldn't
get my voodoo1 card to work under directx version 9.

I got the driver from falconfyl de website. They were the official
diamond voodoo 1 drivers. I installed the starter driver package,
then updated them to the latest official diamond drivers. It works
reasonably well - a few graphical glitches here and there. But
beforehand when I was using windows 98 with directx 6, then 7, then 9,
nothing worked at all - very nasty crashes, etc.

Best regards, Robert.

Reply to this Message