Bill, You can do what you want and then some. Install the Maxtor ATA100
controller card you mentioned in your other post. Your computer will see it
as a SCSI device. Set the bios so you can boot from SCSI. Get a removable
hard drive tray/drawer for each hard drive. Jumper all HD's as master.
Connect the top tray to the #1 ATA100 controller and the bottom tray to the
#2 ATA100 controller. Connect your CD(s) to #1 IDE controller on the MB.
Disable #2 IDE controller on the MB to recapture the IRQ. Each tray (HD) is
now the master on the ATA100 port it is connected to. The computer will
boot from the HD in the top tray (C:) and if there is a HD in the bottom
tray, it will be D:  Thus you can boot from either HD and, have the other
as a second hard drive (D:) copying files from/to it. I have mixed (W98SE
and XP) in the top and bottom drawers but have kept the same file system
(Fat32) in both. As a bonus, you can use Norton Ghost to clone the top HD
to the bottom HD and you have bootable backup(s) at a moments notice. Get
extra drawer inserts and you can have your drive for AOL, one for your
broadband ISP, one for XP, one for business, one for play, one for the
wife, one for the kids, etc, etc, etc. For the price of a HD (under $60) it
is like having  another computer. I've been doing it for quite a while with
no problems, only advantages.

What you'll need:
2 empty 5 1/4" external bays
1 empty PCI slot
2 HD drawers and a drawer insert for each HD


I guess my ignorance is showing. When I said "dual boot", I meant having the
>option of booting one hard drive, or the other, not using them or accessing
>them simultaneously.  (Does "dual boot" normally mean having two operating
>systems running simultaneously??????)
>
>The idea would be so I could continue to access the original drive, if
>necessary, but loading up Windows 98 and running things on the new drive,
>with AOL never running when I use the new drive.  Will AOL mess with the new
>drive if I never run AOL after booting up on that drive?
>
>Again, the goal is to install a new hard drive, load it with original HP8380
>software, then load software for new DSL ISP.  The old hard drive would
>remain on the system, and I would boot to that drive to access AOL to close
>things out and access files, if necessary.  Am I on the right track?
>
>William Closure