When installing Windows 98, be sure to create a new Windows 98 Startup Disk. Because of changes in the real mode and protected mode kernels to support FAT32, versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98 are not compatible with each other when booting to a floppy disk. A new Startup Disk is highly recommended.
Note
You can also create a Startup Disk through Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk.
To ensure disk integrity, have Task Scheduler run ScanDisk regularly. You can set this up with the Maintenance Wizard. Also, run Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals to optimize disk I/O performance.
For more information about Maintenance Wizard and Task Scheduler, see Chapter 27, "General Troubleshooting," and Chapter 23, "System and Remote Administration Tools."
You cannot dual boot Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 if you use FAT32. Windows NT 4.0 cannot access or boot from a FAT32 drive.
Be sure to use disk and file management utilities designed specifically for Windows 98. The disk and file management utilities for Windows 98 work with both FAT32 and FAT16 file systems. You also avoid losing long file names and data.
In some cases, the LFNBK utility lets you remove and later restore long file names on a disk. This makes it possible to run a utility not compatible with long file names.
For more information, see "Using the LFNBK Utility for Temporary Compatibility" later in this chapter.
Caution
Stacker 4.0 from STAC Electronics and similar disk optimization utilities are not compatible with long file names. If you use such software under Windows 98, the long file names already on the computer will be destroyed, and other critical errors could occur.
Contact the software manufacturer for information about Windows 98 – compatible upgrades for your disk utilities.
Windows 98 automatically provides long file name support. However, Windows 98 file systems and OS/2 High Performance File System (HPFS) each have slightly different ways of defining 8.3 file name aliases for long file names. If you are using a mixed network environment, be sure to understand the differences (as described in this chapter). Then to help minimize any naming conflicts, define and publish a file-naming policy for users who share files.