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Can I Run Both Win 98 and Win 2000?

Q: My office IT department wants to upgrade me to Windows 2000, but I want to try it out first. Can I keep Windows 98 on my PC while I try out Windows 2000?

A: Running two operating systems on the same PC is no problem. All you need to do is set up a dual-boot system so that when you turn on the machine you can fire up either Windows 98 or 2000. It's the safest way we know to test drive Windows 2000 without making a major commitment.

Before you even consider it, though, make sure your hard drive is big enough for both operating systems. Windows 2000 Professional, for instance, needs a minimum 2GB partition on your hard drive, with at least 650MB of free memory. The more business-oriented Server and Advanced Server versions might need a little more space than that, depending on the options you install.

If your system has one large partition, you'll need to carve up the mega-gigabyte C: drive with Windows 98 into two or more smaller partitions. In the end, you'll end up with a C: drive, called the physical drive, and a D: drive, the logical drive. (Each OS must be on its own logical drive.) To divide up your drive, you'll need a high-quality partitioning utility such as PowerQuest's PartitionMagic or Vcom's Partition Commander, which cost $50 and $30, respectively.

The no-cost alternative to buying a partitioning tool isn't a viable option in this case. The FDISK utility that comes with Windows wipes the drive clean, forcing you to reinstall everything.

When you've separated the C: drive into two partitions, you'll have the option to format your new logical drive using the FAT (pre-Win 98), FAT32 (post-Win 98), or NTFS (Windows NT) schemes. If you choose FAT or FAT32, you can easily share files such as Word documents or digital images between the two operating systems.

Once you're ready to install Windows 2000, insert the CD. When the first screen appears, select "Install a new copy of Windows 2000." In the following screens, make sure that you're installing the new OS to the new, empty logical drive you just created (D:, in our example).

After Windows 2000 has installed and you've rebooted, you'll see a new menu at start-up. This DOS-style menu lets you choose which OS to load. If you don't make a choice within 30 seconds, Windows 2000 fires up by default.

The tough part is over, but the job isn't done. Grab all your application installation CDs. To use your apps in Windows 2000, you must reinstall them under the new OS on the new partition. As long as you formatted the drive as FAT or FAT32, you can reinstall them to their current directories (even though that's on another logical drive). In the end you'll have one copy of the application on your hard drive and the correct entries in Windows 2000's Registry. You also save space by installing only one copy of your applications. And of course, you'll need to run Windows Update a few times to download and install the latest service packs and patches.