>>You've got it! And it makes switching back to Win95 easy if you find yourself in a situation where you've -gotta- have Win95 because something you need (or want) just won't run under NT.
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>Good point, especially since I realized last night that the dragboat website I maintain is hosted by AOL, and AOL doesn't have an NT version of their software. So now I'm thinking maybe I should look at the dual boot deal, but I had been told that doing the dual boot with Win95 & NT was more trouble than its worth. What do you think?
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I'm not a fan of using a dual boot configuration, but it can be done, and if you do it, I'd install the new hard drive as the second drive. Pick up a copy of PowerQuest's Partion Magic 4.0; it comes with repartitioning software and a boot manager (actually, the same boot manager that came with OS/2 Warp) that makes configuration for dual boot easier with both FAT32 and NT (you'd have to reformat and reinstall Win95 without it, since NT's loader wouldn't be cooperative booting from a FAT32 partition, and to make both visible at once, everything would have to be done with FAT16.) parittion magic can adjust your existing FAT32 partition to make a boot partition which will satisfy the needs of both NT and Win9x, and I'd go ahead and make the two mutually exclusive - keep the NT stuff on an NTFS partition, the Win9x stuff on a slightly adjusted FAT32 partition, and let the PQ boot manager select how to boot. You could make a small FAT16 partition that could be used to exchange things between the operating systems. PM will mnake life much easier.

>>I'd still want to get a backup device if you've got the budget, but the rush to get software that will backup and restore for both environments is a far less pressing issue. Cross-platform backup software is far from cheap.
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>I have a big tax return coming... do you have a recommendation on cross-platform backup software for me while we're at it?

Depends on what you get for backup. I use a DAT drive and Seagate's BackupExec Single Server edition; it can back up my NT server and all my workstations, and we have the same program at work. It supports a whole range of drives and removable media, and has done a good job for me. In the same class is CA-ArcServe (formerly Cheyenne). I've never used either with a dual bott, especially where two incompatible operating system disk formats are involved.

I'd check Seagate's Web site for compatibility details on BackupExec with dual boot before buying it.

I know lots of people who use Iomega's Ditto Max drive; it's inexpensive, backs up a lot (depending on cartridge and compression, up to ~10GB/tape), and has backup software for both Win9x and NT. It can do image backups that back up the entire partition as an image, and has a quick restore from boot floppy option. The NT software is not included; it's an extra $75 or so. Since it works in both environments, has quick restore, and is well-supported, it's worth looking into.

You can always hire me with that big tax return to set up the system for you... ;-)

Ed