May be this might be useful. I install 98 with backup/restore utility.
My way of auto installation of XP.
Then on second partition or the same partition XP without pagefile.sys.
Then i get a dual boot. So after booting into XP, Install all ur fav progies
n games. Test each of them, to make sure they work... etc etc... all
ur drivers also. Tweak ur xp.
make sure u unhide all files relates to win xp dir and progra files.
Then boot into 98 > goto backup utility of 98.
Select the folders used by XP, eg
my documents and settings
winxp (or windows- what ever name u gave to windows dir)
check all files in the root
program files folder
and like this all folders and files used by xp.
then start the backup process.
make sure u have ~ > 3gb of free space on the disk / partition
u r planning to save the image file.
Then when ur XP crashes or U crash it ... lol
then just boot into 98, goto restore option,
and click ok. Over write old files or new ones as u like.
It takes ~20min to install
Windows Xp including
Office Xp
Interdev
.net framework
winzip
winrar
tweaks
easy cleaner
adobe
gif animator
acdess 6
service pack1 , and now service pack 2b
lan settings
mcafee antivirus
zone alarm
cute ftp3 pro
Easy CD-DA Extractor 7
Eraser
Ahead
Links Organizer
Bulk Rename Utility
BitStrike Software
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Visual Studio
Opera
Onlinetimer
Nokia
Ulead Systems
UltraISO
Virtual CD v4
SlimBrowser
Yahoo!
Msn
Webroot
Spamihilator
inetpub
U can exclude any folder, u think is not needed at that time for reinstallation.
The whole task id completed in 20 minutes ... in the mean while
I make a nice cup of tea for myself and wait for XP to start
