Re: XyWrite & Windows 2000

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

"Martin J. Osborne" wrote:

> > Also a question: Has anyone purchased a new desktop and installed W98SE
> > just to keep XyDos running well? If so, was this done in a partition?
>
>   That's not as easy as it sounds ... If you buy a computer with W2K
> loaded, at least, it appears to be difficult to install W98SE over it. The
> Windows information says you can't do it. I presume in fact there is *some*
> way of doing it, but if there is, it must involve some low level work (more
> than just inserting a CD in the drive...)

The key problem here is that every MicroSquish OS is built on the fundamental
premise that it *owns* the C drive. There is an "out" in that NT-4 and later
versions of Win provide a boot-loader based mechanism by which you can install
to and run from a much later partition. For example, when I ran NT, and with
the W2K I'm running now, Win boots to either J: or N:. It is a bit more trouble
to set up. BUT, you aren't going to find that option in a preload . . . unless
it was a custom job, done to your specifications.

Trying to do this after the fact would be more difficult. You can have up to 4
Primary partitions on your PC. Two of these can be "alternate" C drives, only
one of which can be active at a time, and which would not be able to see each
other. My assumption is that a tool like Partition Magic would be able to
re-work your hard drive layout, carving out the space needed for the extra C:,
particularly if you had not already added several later partitions after this
point, and had the h/d real estate to spare. That should work, _unless_ W98se
insists on not only being C:, but also on being located at the beginning of the
drive. Naturally, you would require some sort of boot manager utility, to
choose which C: is the official, functional C: at boot time, and which is in
full eclipse.

Jordan