Dual Boot or single boot?

[MurphmanL]

To be frank Im kinda sick of using windows xp, and its look and the recent amount of problems ive had. I managed to fix the problem with battlefield,and was able to play online for a solid hour without a hitch. So im thinking of switching my OS to either windows 98 SE or windows ME as both can do DX 9 and run faster with games and have better compatibility than xp does.
So what would you recommend? I tried Windows ME instead of XP a while back, but i noticed that video placback using the DIVX player was serverly performance cut under the ME OS. It appeared the frame rate of the video and the overall reaction speed of the player application had slowed down... perhaps this is the old windows version taking its toll on newer apps? Or perhaps i didnt have the latest drivers for windows ME?
Anyway i found ME to be Sh*t (scuze my language) it was really bad and leads up to the bad reviews ive seen on the net. However i have used windows 98 on my old pc and it was neat, also i can play my old games like Populous the Beginning, plus the windows install will take less HD space. The only thing im unsure of, is poor performance on video playback with DIVX, so im wondering if to dual boot with xp, so i can use that for tv capping etc, but if windows 98 SE will do all this fine, then do let me know..
I was remotely thinking of windows 2000, but when i tried to format using the setup engine, it was taking ages so i gave up and rolled back to xp from ME.
I am hoping to make the switch tonight, but i would like your views on this.
Finally, if windows 98se is my ticket, does anyone know anything useful i can get for it? Eg: an msconfig type utility and a system restore type utility>

[streetster]

if you want to install windows2000, basically you need to load smartdrv (some kinda disk caching dos program which basically speeds up access/transfer speeds in dos).. in order to do this boot the comp with your windows 98 cd, 'start computer with cd-rom support', at the command prompt, get to the cd drive (d: [enter] usually) then into the win98 dir (cd\win98) and then type SMARTDRV, hit enter, and type it again and hit enter just to ensure its done something (nothing comes up the first time you type it btw)...

anyhow then whck your win2k cd in, navigate to d:\i386, type WINNT, hit enter and windows will install within minutes rather than hours

hope this helps


Mark

[MurphmanL]

But wouldn't I be better off with Windows 98SE than win 2000?
Or do you think that will suffer from slower DivX playback like Widnows ME does?
It cannot be my graphics card, its a Geforce FX 5600 Ultra 256mb, so thats not it.

[Ferral]

If you install Windows 98 or Me first. You can dual boot the system.

Get yourself Partition Magic or a program that is similar and once you have 98 or Me on you install it then create startup disks for it. Reboot the PC with the disks you have just created and it loads a mouse controlable interface that allows you to create a partition to support a 2nd OS (2nd Primary DOS). You have to use a program like Partition Magic as FDISK won't allow you to create 2 primary DOS partitions. Its really easy to use, its just select what you want to do and assign space for the 2nd OS using a slider bar, then just apply it. I havn't used the latest version of this program. Last version I used was pretty old but I should imagne the newer versions will have wizards built into them to help you along if you get stuck. It is pretty simple though.

Once the extra partition is created setup the 2nd OS you want (2000 or XP) on the next assigned drive letter (2nd partition you created) then once that is done when you boot the PC you get a menu up asking which OS you want to boot to (Menu is setup automatically)

Reason Me and 98 are slower on vid playback is that those 2 OS don't support / utilise full system ram (256 maximum) where XP and 2000 will support and use full ram

[Blub2k]

Why do you want to take a step BACK to windows 98se, it is no longer supported etc, not a very smart move in my opinion. Windows 2000 at least if not the wonderful XP, you may have problems with it but in my opinion these problems are from bad driver ports mostly and not XP's problem, I have been using it for two years now at least and not had any problems.

[streetster]

like blub2k says, you dont want to be going back to win9x, stick with either win2k or winXP, they are much better


mark

ps - blub2k nice to see you got your set sigbox working shame you have almost twice as many WU crunched tho

[MurphmanL]

Thanks for the help guys, ill proberly stick win2k back on when i get home as Win 98SE ive just found will no longer run as I have just upped my RAM to 1024mb.

[Kezzer]

imho, stick to XP, get used to it, don't go rolling back

[Blub2k]

like blub2k says, you dont want to be going back to win9x, stick with either win2k or winXP, they are much better


mark

ps - blub2k nice to see you got your set sigbox working shame you have almost twice as many WU crunched tho

ai well that is the advantage of having 4 machines on my desk and a lab with some large machines in that I use now and again

[Blub2k]

The other thing is that the grass is always greener etc and 98 was total rubbish if I remember correctly.

[directhex]

Windows ME and all previous consumer versions are MS-DOS with a pretty clickable front-end.

one thing i've discovered after messing around with different operating systems for many years is that whilst 98 is better than ME, the MS-DOS codeline is not as good as the NT codeline. it's that simple. NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Longhorn, they're all better than the MS-DOS based systems. they can deal with real modern-world amounts of memory (i.e. more than 640k), they are more stable, they are BETTER.

XP has better compatability with older apps than 2000 (in my experience), but a few apps don't like playing ball. such is life. i can't put my old LP's into my PC, but I don't cry about it, I move on.

note that if an application crashes under a DOS-based OS, then the entire system will be in a state of semi-limbo until a full reset - memory will not be correctly freed up due to the A-level quality memory management subsystem in all Windows 4.x versions. the NT codeline is much more recoverable - assuming problems are not driver based.

as for the look, if you don't like it, change it! www.themexp.org

[MurphmanL]

So in a word basically, shall i stay with XP or is 2000 a better choice for someone with 1024 ram? The only reason im considering switching is because of the problems im having with Battleifled 1942 and when i capture some videos.

[Kezzer]

That's if you know how to edit ze dll file which only allows digitally signed windows themes. If not you could always get stylexp but that's another program having to be used

[Blub2k]

XP all the way, the analagy with the lp's is an interesting one and I noticed the same myself when I upgraded and certain games no longer worked, then I had to weigh up UT2003 vs dune, I went for the flashy graphics as that is why I set up the rig I have listed below. You could almost buy a cheaper ready made system and run 98 on that for yor legacy games, would be handier.

[directhex]

XP is a point update to 2000. You're unlikely to cure any problems installing 2000 that you wouldn't cure with a format & reinstall of XP.

[directhex]

You could almost buy a cheaper ready made system and run 98 on that for yor legacy games, would be handier.

not a bad idea, that!