computer help

[daddywarbucks]

I am ready to upgrade my computer, as it is now over 4 years old.

I checked with Peachtree and the accounting program I am using will not run using XP Windows. The up grade is about $1,200.

I have a small two person business and the current program does everything we need.

I would switch over to Quick Books but must be able to access the files now in Peachtree for audit purposes. The Tax Man might cometh.

My question is, is there any way to divide my computer so that I can run Peachtree using Win 98 on part of it and use xp for the other things that I do???

Or do you have any other suggestions on how to get around this problem.

DWB

 

[static]

Start here

 

[cancowboy2001]

My question is, is there any way to divide my computer so that I can run Peachtree using Win 98 on part of it and use xp for the other things that I do???

Or do you have any other suggestions on how to get around this problem.

The short answer is that it is do-able. I have not done it personally so I don't know what to look out for.
This http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=dual+boot+win98+winxp&btnG=Google+Search&meta= will aim you at more info than you probably want to know. And some shop local to you can probably do it for you.

My question would be does your machine meet the hardware requirements to run WinXP. A four year old machine is likely to be close to the minimum requirements. It can work but may be very slow. New machines are relatively cheap and are ready to run XP. If you had two machines (one apiece!!) would that be a problem? Especially if there is nothing really wrong with your old one.

 

[pegger]

I've gotten rid of XP on three machines this year. Eveyone is writing viruses for XP. Windows 200 or 98 are nearly problem free for me.

pegger

 

[Fotura]

daddywarbucks,

If your machine can work with XP, you can install XP and have the option to boot to either Win98 or XP when your machine boots up.

There are several places to check for Dual Booting. This will give you the option to use either OS.

Be careful if you do the upgrade on your own, the install will ask you if you want to dual boot or install over Windows 98.

Make sure you backup before you do anything.

Good luck.

 

[hitrack]

What kinda computer you gonna buy??

Also like the others said dual booting is a easy setup, just time consuming as all hell. I've done it tons of times.

 

[RobBC]

Just a note from personal experience, but if you want to set up dual booting between 98 and XP make sure you install 98 first. If you install XP first, and then install 98 you will toast the XP installation (for those who care why: the reason is because 98 just wipes the MBR of the hard drive and places it's boot loader there, whereas XP will detect if you already have another version of windows installed and set up a boot menu to choose). This is true even if you install 98 to a different physical drive than XP. I once installed XP onto my first hard drive, and then tried installing 98 onto my second hard drive, and lost everything on the first hard drive (98 totally messed up the XP partition)

Another thing to consider is the fact that XP wants to use NTFS as it's file system. If you do this then all the files on your XP installation partition will not be accessible from Win98 since Win98 can only read FAT32 partitions (XP can read both without any problems, so you'll be able to access everything from in XP). You can install XP onto a FAT32 partition, but NTFS is *waaaaaaaay* better, so it's not entirely recommended.

One program you might consider looking into is Bootmagic, as it's mean to allow booting between different OS's. I haven't personally used it, but I know soem people who have and had success with it in the past.

RobBC

 

[daddywarbucks]

Thanks everybody. Maybe this non nerd will be able to make it work.

DWB

 

[carefulone]

Can you export the peachtree data to Quickbooks? If so, you might be able to simplify your life somewhat.

 

[magoomba]

I'm running a P4 3.0E and have Windows 2000 installed.
Any chance your accounting software will work on it?