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I need to install Windows NT 4 on a Pentium computer with Windows 98 installed on a FAT32 partition 160 GB drive. I made a 2 GB FAT16 primary partition before this C partition with PartitionMagic, hidden. I do not have CD access and would avoid the floppy drive. But there is network access. I also copied the i386 folder on the Windows 98 partition.

My problem how to install NT on the hidden partition while being on Windows 98?

Secondly, I would like to install Windows NT on a NTFS partition on the same disk.

I am normally a Mac user and strict beginner on PC.

user3840170
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hubertus
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    Retrocomputing is not the right place for this kind of question. But to help you along, you should create the partitions first, install Win98 on the first partition as a FAT32 and then install WinNT4 on the second partition after 98 is up and running. At least that is what I think I did back in 1996.. it is possible, but 98 first, NT second. Can't help with any of the other things. – bjb Nov 30 '20 at 17:36
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    I wonder how this question could possibly be deemed ‘not about retrocomputing’. – user3840170 Nov 30 '20 at 17:42
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    @user3840170 I'm with you on this one. We've had several well-received installation questions before. The community consensus might've changed; it's probably one for [meta]. – wizzwizz4 Nov 30 '20 at 18:28
  • Each section of SE has a a help section which defines On- and Off-Topic. While I agree that this seems on-topic, best to read the Help. – RonJohn Nov 30 '20 at 18:29
  • Multiple operating systems on the same disk gives additional complexity. Can you install two drives instead and then one on each. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Nov 30 '20 at 21:14
  • Why do you think you need 'hidden' partitions? That adds needless complexity. Make two partitions. Install Win95 on one. Install NT4 on the other. For the latter, browse to the NT4 'setup' program and run it. – dave Nov 30 '20 at 21:25
  • the comment about hidden partitions might be helpful. It was Partition Magic who made it hidden and I had doubts about 2 principal partitions being possible. To the others: at least my kids tell me that the computer looks very retro (a touchscreen windows PC from a intensive care unit). – hubertus Nov 30 '20 at 22:11
  • Actually, I think what I did was to create the Win95 partition and leave the rest unallocated - that made sure Win95 kept out. Then NT4 setup could be used to create the partition for itself. – dave Nov 30 '20 at 23:07
  • @wizzwizz4 This forum usually is interesting, hope it does not turn into an helpdesk/tutorial one. We have already superuser and Windows foruns in stack SE. – Rui F Ribeiro Dec 01 '20 at 19:45
  • Kids saying something "looks retro" doesn't make it retro. They don't have perspective. :) – Greg Hewgill Dec 01 '20 at 20:20
  • @RonJohn Our [help/on-topic] on-topic page isn't brilliant. It was cobbled together badly by me from other people's words in about two hours, then mostly rewritten by Raffzahn, but our policies have changed a bit since so it's not even authoritative. – wizzwizz4 Dec 01 '20 at 22:14
  • The welcome is not that nice on the forum. With still no answer about using a >20 y old system, it is clear that this is not the best place for my question. Even kids without perspective :( do not identify floppy disks as contemporary... – hubertus Dec 02 '20 at 06:15
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    There is a fair bit of retro here. Firstly, neither of the OS versions support 160 GB out of the box. That came around in the run of Win2k, and even that requires patching. Depending on the BIOS, even the 504 or 8G issues could be a problem. Win95 does not support fat32, and is thus limited to the same as DOS 6.30. – wendy.krieger Dec 07 '20 at 12:28
  • The biggest problem with this question is that it mentions several issues: (a) installing NT without a removable drive, (b) installing onto a hidden partition, (c) installing to a 160 GB drive. Everyone seems to have latched onto (c), but the real problem seems like (a). If anything, this warrants closing as “lacks focus”. – user3840170 Mar 11 '24 at 15:04

2 Answers2

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The 160 GB disk is the problem here. You are running into a thing called the 48bit addressing, which would limit the drive to 137 GB. You can still use the 160 gigs, if you overcome the "48BLBA", you should overcome the problem.

Windows NT does not need to be on a primary partition, and my suggestion here is to set the thing up as a small (20 MB) FAT16 partition, and the balance as an extended drive. You could have something like a 120 MB fat partition (this overcomes a DOS problem when the first partition on the extended drive is not FAT32. It is also used for data exchange between the two operating systems. If you make this over 120 MB, Windows 9x will try to change it to a fat32 partition.

Partition E can be a 2 G fat32 partition. You install Windows 9x into this partition, and it will create a small amount of files on the C: drive. My experience is because of the shared C: drive, to install different Windows into different names.

The next partition F can be an NTFS partition. If your machine is limited by the 8 GB limit, it is best to limit this drive to 2 GB also. Install NT here. It will recognise the Win9x and add it to the boot menu.

Neither of these OS versions can access past 137 GB, so the remainder would go missing, but you can create both NTFS and Fat32 partitions up there. Where you have a network, you can copy the Windows NT setup onto the D: drive, and run winnt.exe from there.

wendy.krieger
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  • Another thing to check would be whether the hard drive can be jumpered to only expose 137GB. I remember that being a common thing at the time. – ssokolow Oct 06 '22 at 06:20
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The main issue is the hard drive. 160GB is too big for NT4 to support, the max being 137GB. I would recommend a 2GB partition to install NT4 on, and another 2GB for Win98. As wendy.krieger mentioned you will not have anything past 137GB accessible. I hope this helps with your problem.

EnderSlayer7692
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