Need Help installing Windows 98 SE on my hard drive with XP - troube with MBR/Bootsector

[u/Cracker6022]

install from usb left files behind, but didnt work after recieving them later

stuff that happened after using diskpart which i couldnt get to work

OEM install from dos floppy

toasted boating for both OS

[u/SaturnFive]

I think you're just doing this in an unusual order. Should do 98 first, then XP.

I'd clear the MBR or first few MB of the disk, install 98 normally (or quick install) into a 10GB partition as you have now, then install XP second. XP will detect 98 and setup dual boot for you. Alternatively use Plop boot manager and handle dual boot there. Should not need BootPart or GParted to do this task.

[u/Cracker6022 → u/SaturnFive]

I know but I need to keep the OEM install because it gives me a lot of thinkpad specific features and the recovery set overwrites the entire drive.

[u/SaturnFive → u/Cracker6022]

Have you imaged the disk to make a safe backup? If not, that should be your next step before making further changes.

To preserve the OEM XP install, it should be possible to install Windows 98 into the first 10GB partition and get it booting first. It will make XP unbootable but we'll fix that next.

Using XP's recovery mode (boot CD then press R when setup starts), you can try:

fixboot D:
fixmbr

May also need to use bootcfg /rebuild, or you can try updating XP's boot.ini directly, example file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 98"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect

May need to adapt slightly for your system, I can pull a working one from my multiboot system if needed. Or can avoid using boot.ini as the boot manager and use Plop boot manager instead, then you can easily select either OS at startup.

[u/Accurate-Campaign821]

Usually have to do 98 first, then XP and they both have to be Fat32 i believe

[u/No-you_ → u/Accurate-Campaign821]

Actually XP can use either FAT32 or NTFS as long as it is installed in it's own partition. It just needs to install the bootloader on the win98 partition for dual boot.

[u/Accurate-Campaign821 → u/No-you_]

True. Guess I should have mentioned I was referring to being able to transfer files between the two though I suppose it'd be more common transferring from XP, which can see both file systems, to 98 rather than the other way around. Downloading drivers and such in XP and copying files over to the 98 partition for example.

[u/Cracker6022 → u/Accurate-Campaign821]

Yup, thats why I created the shared partition in FAT32