Q I can think of at least four different dual-boot scenarios, including one in which Windows 98 is installed on a FAT32 partition and Windows NT is set up on an NTFS partition. But everything I have read says you can't dual-boot NTFS and FAT32 without a third-party boot manager.

A Rest assured that you can have both NTFS and FAT32 file systems on one PC. Ordinarily, the trick to dual-booting Windows NT and 98 is to install Windows 98 first, then NT. During installation, NT replaces Windows 98's bootstrap files with its own multiboot operating system loader, NTLDR, and creates entries for Windows 98 and NT on the multiboot menu. However, Windows NT will not boot (or install) if drive C: is a FAT32 partition. And if your system came with NT preinstalled, Windows 98's install program won't run in Windows NT.

This is where third-party boot managers can come in handy. But why pay good money for such a utility when NTLDR is a perfectly fine alternative and is free? With the aid of Windows 98's Fdisk disk-partitioning tool and the free Boot Partition 2.20 utility (available on our cover CD), you can easily install Windows 98 to a FAT32 partition, then add it to the Windows NT boot menu. Assuming that you have sufficient free drive space to create a FAT32 partition, here's how to dual-boot NTFS and FAT32:

Caption: Using a free utility called Boot Partition 2.20,
you can add another operating system to Windows NT's multiboot menu

1. Prepare a FAT32 partition. Boot the system with a Windows 98 start-up disk. Next, enter fdisk at the A: prompt. When Fdisk asks whether you want to enable large disk support, type Y. The utility will then ask you if you want to treat the existing NTFS partition as a large volume. It doesn't matter what your answer is, since we're not going to touch the NTFS partition. I typed Y. Next, press 1, then 1 again to create a primary DOS partition ù a logical drive in an extended partition. Answer the remaining prompts to finish creating the partition, then reboot the system with the Windows 98 start-up disk. Next, format the new partition using the command format c:. (Don't worry ù your NTFS partition is safe and sound, invisible to Windows 98.)

2. Install Windows 98 on drive C:. Remove the Windows 98 start-up disk, insert the Windows 98 installation CD-ROM, go to the CD-ROM drive, and run setup.exe. If the Windows 98 start-up floppy's generic CD-ROM drivers do not work with your drive, consult your system or drive manufacturer's instructions to add the necessary drivers to the floppy's config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

3. Make NT bootable. Once Windows 98 is installed, reboot your computer with the Windows 98 floppy, launch Fdisk, and press 2, then 1 to make the NTFS drive the active (bootable) partition. Next, answer the remaining prompts, remove the Windows 98 boot floppy, and then reboot. The computer should now boot to Windows NT.

4. Add Windows 98 to NT's boot menu. Download and unzip Boot Partition 2.20, then copy bootpart.exe to your root directory (C:\). Select Start-Run and type command to open a Windows NT command prompt window, and then enter the command c:\bootpart to display a list of boot sectors that are available on the system. Lastly, type the command bootpart 1 boot98.bin Windows 98. Enter exit to return to NT.

The next time you start Windows NT, you'll see Windows 98 at the bottom of the multiboot menu. You can use Boot Partition to add other operating systems (including Linux or BeOS) to NT's multiboot menu as well. However, Boot Partition author Giles Vollant says the tool can't add OS/2 to the boot menu.