I have an 80 Gig harddrive running Windows 2000 Professional. I have been having lots of little minor problems for the past 6 months increasingly getting worse. I would like to switch over to a dual boot using Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000, formatting Windows 2000 after install Windows 98. Can I use Partition Magic, add another Primary partition and install Windows 98 SE on it, then turn around and format Windows 2000 and re-install? If so, how do I begin. Also, with an 80 Gig harddrive...what would be the best way to divide up the partitions. I would like to have a partition for Data, such as My Documents, another one to be used just to backup my computer, as well as one for windows 98 and one for windows 2000. Am I too off-the-wall or am I sort of on the right track. Since I've never done any of this before I could really use some help quick.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;289283

The above link will give you the beliefs that MS has on Dual Booting.

In regards to breaking up your physical disk into logical partitions, I would suggest:

1 for win98
1 for win2000
1 for data (mp3s, docs)

Partition magic will work for non-destructive partitioning of your machine. Fdisk being the destructive partitioning utility.

Remember to keep your file system fat32 and not NTFS, as well as Basic disks.

Install 98 then 2000, if not, you will need to repair the NTloader.

Also in regards to your system backup partition, ntbackup will work to different logical drives, though software such as ghost to require a separate physical disk to backup systems.

HTH

Boot win98 floppy with cdrom support, if c: is Fat32.

then
Ren c:\winnt winold
Ren progra~1 progold
Ren docume~1 docold

E:\win98\setup.exe

This will work if c: is fat32, and your machine has 1 drive with one partiiton.

Otherwise you will need to a) Nuke it using fdisk, or b) Partiiton magic to convert c: to fat32 and resize c: to make room for d: