quickie dual boot question (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Peter]

can i install windows 2000 on top of windows xp without having it eat up windows xp?

thanks

 

[Rob Gillespie]

It depends what you mean by 'on top'. You should be installing W2K to a different partition. I've not tried it that way around (I had 2K on there first) but it should just add another entry to the NT boot loader menu.

You'd need to make an emergency backup floppy from XP incase you need to repair the boot track if it goes wrong.

 

[Ryan Peter]

So am I screwed if I only have one partition? If I bought partition magic, could I fix this? Thanks!

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Yes, you need to install each OS on it's own partition.

Partition Magic should be able to resize or split your one partition into however many you need. I've never used it myself though.

Remember that I don't know if the XP-then-2K configuration will work. I know when you dual-boot Windows NT with 2K, NT must be on the system first. I would hope that MS have gotten rid of that limitation but I'm not sure.

 

[Ryan Peter]

Thanks. How do I make that XP emergency disk in case things go wrong?

 

[Ryan Peter]

OK Forget about Windows 2000, could I install Windows 98 on top of Windows XP? By that I mean, I have WIndows XP, and I want a XP/98 dual boot. Let's say I have two partitions to do that.

THANKS

 

[Rob Gillespie]

No, 9x,95, 98 or Me need to be installed first, on the Primary DOS partition of the drive.

There is a way around it but you'd need to use a third-party bootloader app.

 

[Rob Speicher]

Actually there's a way to install 95,98,ME,XP home AFTER XP/2k, but it's a bit of a hassle.
Assuming you already have your NT-based OS installed, install the "home" OS (let's assume 98). Doing this will wipe out the NT boot loader, and on the first boot, it will automatically boot into 98. Once 98 is configured completely, insert your XP Pro CD and select install. Select "New Install", NOT "Upgrade". This will copy the setup files to your hard drive, and will proceed to reboot.
Now you'll see the boot loader again, listing your home OS, your NT OS, and finally the NT OS setup. Select the NT OS, it should boot normally. Do this quickly, as it defaults to the setup program after 5 seconds if you don't press any keys.
Once it's loaded, right click My Computer, go to Properties, Advanced, "Settings" button under "System Startup and Recovery" and click "Edit." Note, this may not be available in NT4/2k, in which case you'll need to right-click boot.ini in the root of your NT OS partition, go to properties, and turn off 'Read Only', then open boot.ini for editing.
Once boot.ini is opened, delete the "Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup" (or similar). boot.ini should look something like this when you're done:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINNT="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:="Windows 98 Second Edition"

If it does, save and close it. The next step is to delete the NT OS setup files from your hard drive. If I remember correctly, NT and 2k put these files in their own directory on the C: drive. XP probably does the same, but they might be in the WINDOWS directory. You'll know them when you see them - they have very awkward names and are usually the first directories listed.
That should leave you with a restored boot loader. Kind of convoluted, huh?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

[edit]
That would involve first splitting the single partition, then moving the XP installation to the second. I've never been able to do that with 2K. It always hangs just before loading the desktop. AnandTech reckoned it was due to the internal partition pointers - and those can't be changed.
Scary anyhow