Before You Install Windows 98: Partitioning

Now we are ready to start installing the operating system.  The first step in that process is getting your hard drive ready to have the OS installed on it.  Windows 98 does this preparation (called partitioning and formatting), and indeed the whole installation, in a different way than Windows 2000 does, so I have split the guide into two at this point.  If you want to proceed directly to Windows 2000, click here. 

(I apologize that the images of the Windows 98 installation are in German.  But it just goes to underscore the advantage of building your own system- you can configure it any way you like!  Hopefully the captions will explain each screen well enough; there isn't any other difference in the installation process besides the language.)

Partitioning means dividing your hard drive into parts, so that the operating system will recognize them as separate drives.  The advantage of this is that you can keep the operating system and program files on one partition and your data files on another.  That way, if for some reason you have to reinstall your OS, or choose to upgrade it, all your data will be kept nice and safe on the other partition.  Another reason for partitioning is that you can make as many partitions as you like, and put different OSes on each, i.e. C: can be your Windows 98 drive, D: can be for Windows 2000, E: can be for Linux, and F: for data.

If you choose to install; both Windows 98 and 2000 on the same computer, be sure to install 98 first and 2000 second.  That way, you will be given a menu of OSes to choose from each time to reboot, which will not be the case if you install 2000 first.

By no means do you have to partition your hard drive.  If you have a smaller drive, say 4 gigabytes or so, you likely will choose not to do so.  However, partitioning a larger drive can save you many headaches later on.  Windows 98 uses a tool called "FDISK" to create partitions:

		Boot the system with the Windows98 CD in the CD drive.  You will be prompted either to start Windows Startup, start the computer with CD-ROM support, or start the computer without CD-ROM support.  Choose to start the computer with CD-ROM support.
We need to run a program called “FDISK.” At the A:\> prompt, type D: (D being your CD drive) and press enter. At the D:\> prompt, type cd: win98 and press enter. At the D:\WIN98> prompt, type fdisk and press enter.
		You will probably have installed (I hope) a hard drive larger than 2GB.  When asked if you want to enable "large" disk support, say yes.
When presented with “FDISK Options,” choose number 1, “Create DOS Partition or Logical Drive”
		In the next screen, again choose number 1, which is “Create Primary DOS Partition.” This will create the partition that will hold the operating system.
FDISK will ask you if you want the Primary DOS Partition to use the maximum amount of space available. Since you want to make a second partition later, choose “No.”
		The next screen will show how much space you have available and ask you how big you want to make the partition. With a 20GB hard drive, 5GB is reasonable, but it does not need to be this large.
The next screen will show you that the partition has been created, and prompt you to press Esc to continue.
		Now we need to make the second partition. In the “Create DOS Partition or Logical Drive” screen (where we chose option 1 before), now choose 2: “Create Extended DOS Partition.”
I only want two partitions here: one for Windows, one for data, so I will use the rest of the space available (here 15GB) for the second partition. If you want more than two partitions, you would want to make this partition smaller, and then repeat this and the previous step to make the other partitions.
		When you are finished creating all the partitions you want, press Escape to go back to the original “FDISK Options” screen and select number 4, “View Partition Data”
Take a look at your partitions to make sure everything is set up correctly. If so, you can quit FDISK and move on.