This is a general way to partition your hard drive for installing any version of NT.
The reason for the change is that with Win98, if the operating system failed to boot,
you could easily reinstall and the previous settings and applications would still be installed.
With NT based systems, this is not always possible and often requires a complete reinstall.
Even the Recovery options don't always work that well.
I've had it erase my C: drive on more than one occasion!! Good thing for backups.

1. Create a smaller C: partition
With NT 4 - 2 gigs - FAT
With Windows2000 or WindowsXP - 4 gigs - FAT32
2. Install the base operating system on that partition
3. Create a D: partition for the rest of the drive
4. Install all your apps and keep your data on the D: partition
5. Then use a program like Partition Magic or Ghost to make an image of the C: drive
6. If you keep this image relatively current, should the OS fail to boot, you can simply restore that image.
7. This restore typically takes only about 10 minutes. Much faster than reinstalling any OS.

http://www.justvb.net/it/