NTFS File system

Windows 98 does not support the NTFS file system. The file system common to Windows 98 and Windows 2000 for large drive support is FAT32, so that is the drive format required on any partition that needs to be visible to both operating systems.

The official answer is that you can't convert an NTFS partition to FAT32 - you must reformat and start over.

There is a possibility that you might be able to use a third-party utility such as Partition Magic to convert the NTFS partition to FAT32.Be sure to back up any data before trying it.

You can't convert back to FAT....you'll have to reformat the drive. I would recommend fdisking the HD, the MBR and then formatting from scratch.

Good luck...hope this helps.

If I understand your situation, you want to dual boot to W98/2K -- you will receive a "menu" to choose between which OS to boot to. In order to accomplish this, the safest and most reliable way to do it is like the previous posters said: Fdisk/reformat your drive to FAT32. The Fdisk utility will give you the opportunity to create partitions. You will want to create a Primary (DOS) partition, then a Secondary and within that secondary partition, create a Logical Drive. All the choices will be presented to you in menu form. It is recommended that you create 2 partitions on your drive if you wish to run a dual-boot (have 2 separate operating systems). Exit FDisk, then format the drive when you reboot the computer. Install W98. By default, W98 will install to the Primary (first) partition. Once the installation is complete, then install 2K. In the setup process, it will ask you to choose which partition to. The W2K setup utility will give you the option of which partition to install to (C: or D:). Select D: then let Setup format using NTFS. The rest is simple, just follow the setup procedure and you have a dual-boot system.

Windows 9x does not recognize the NT file system, unfortunately. However, W2K can actually beinstalled on a FAT32 file system, however not really recommended.

Partition Magic is a very powerful program and highly recommended but if you use it for installing another OS using a different file system, such as NTFS, it may prove to be unstable. I normally use Partition Magic if I want to create another partition but not using a new file system. The thing with PM is if you miss one detail, your existing OS could be hosed.

So, my best suggetstion is to follow my first one.

Hope this helps! :)

Looking over question and answers, do not see problem, if you want to reload system pick fat 32 partition for Win 98. Otherwise forget it. Use Fdisk to find it.

1 = C:
2 = D:
3 = E:
etc

Hello,

If you don't need any of the information you have already on your hard disk I recommend you to just run fdisk and format it, then you can install Windows 98 or Windows 2K if you want.
You can download a proper boot disk from
www.bootdisk.com and then you should be all set

Good luck,

@lberto
alberto@pancarib.com

I would recommend that you get/use a WIN98 boot disk and boot from it. Then you will have to type 'sys c:' to get rid of the NTFS nloader.
The next problem you may have is FDISK to remove the extended DOS partition. It will give you some crazy answers.
What you then need to do is do a "GOOGLE SEARCH" for a file called "DELPART.EXE" which is supposed to be available at Microsoft support but hard to find and download there. Put it on a separate disk and after WIN 98 boot disk, replace disk in drive with "DELPART.EXE" and give it a go. Also, Norton GHOST program has a partition remover for NTFS and is supposed to be available free from Norton but they keep referring to GHOST.
After you have completed it put the boot disk back in and do a new FDISK. I just had to go through this with a laptop and couldn't just put the hard drive aside. Had to get it running.
Hope this helps and also hope this makes sense.