Hi folks,
I have a machine with 2000 and need to install XP as a 2nd indept OS. When I power up, I need to be able to select 2000 or XP.
I know there are ways to simulate 2000 with XP, but this in this special situation, I either have to have indept boots, or set up a 2nd computer for XP.
Thanks in advance.
Hi folks,
I have a machine with 2000 and need to install XP as a 2nd indept OS. When I power up, I need it to boot to a menu where I can select one or the other.
I know there are ways to simulate 2000 with XP, add sofware, etc., but this in this special situation, I either have to have indept boots, or set up a 2nd computer for XP.
Thanks in advance.
Merry Christmas!!!
Snuffy-
I think you can do it by partitioning the hard drive to two partitions if you do not have a second hard drive. Install an OS on each of the partitions or drives. Then setup the computer to allow dual booting:
Specifying the Default Operating System for Startup If you have more than one operating system on your computer, you can set the operating system that you want to use as the default one for when you start your computer: ? Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System. ? On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings. ? Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system that you want to start when you turn on or restart your computer. ? Select the Display list of operating systems for check box, and then type the number of seconds for which you want the list displayed before the default operating system starts automatically.
Reference:
Note: I have not tried this, especially since I do not normally run a Windows computer!
Fred
You have two basic options. One is to use the boot.ini file on 2000 or XP to provide a menu, after booting to your active partition. The other is to use software to simplify the job and give you more options.
One warning: When installing OSs you need to be careful about partitions. Windows is a parochial system that ignores or doesn't see other systems. Each combination of Windows OSs presents different problems. If you try to install XP on the 2000 machine you might overwrite 2000 if you're not careful. In some cases Windows might also overwrite other partitions. ...So you need to understand about disk partitions and the active partition.
You can also install Linux and use that as a boot manager, but in my experience Linux is somewhat brittle, so I don't like to depend on it. Also, the Linux partitioning/booting tools are poorly designed and not at all intuitive. It's very easy to accidentally erase Windows while trying to get Linux installed.
The barebones approach would be to install both OSs, hoping that one install doesn't screw up the other, then edit the boot.ini file of the active partition in order to show a boot menu for both OSs. (Look up boot.ini for that.)
I use BootIt, which is $35. There are also other options. Windows partitioning and booting options are limited and quirky. To me it's worth buying 3rd-party software. But you also need to be aware that there are differences there. I once used Partition Magic and Drive Image from Powerquest. Then PQ sold out to Symantec, which ruined Drive Image. (As they ruin everything they touch.) DI became a gigantic, bloated .net program for doing backup. Many such programs have become similar. Another example is Acronis, which costs more than BootIt and holds your hand more, but is bloated into a backup program. Backup has nothing to do with disk management, multi-booting, or disk imaging. In fact, incremental backups of the entire OS are not only silly and wasteful, but also defeat the whole purpose of disk imaging. ....So, you might want to research boot/partition managers.
BootIt is a partition tool, disk imager and boot manager. It can fit on a floppy, yet does everything you might need to handle multiple OSs and disk partitioning.
The way I like to do it is to set up room for 3 primary partitions plus an extended partition on each disk. I can then install up to 3 Windows versions. The extended partition can house any number of logical partitions, which can support data and/or one or more Linux OSs.
To avoid Windows install problems I try to install Windows to an extra hard disk first. Then I make a disk image so that I'll never have to run the install again. I like to set up all software and configuration on the OS before making the disk image, so that I can restore it later all ready to go. I can then write my disk images to my main hard disk. Then, with BootIt installed to the first partition, I use BootIt as a handy boot menu.
Example: Clean up Win2000 and shrink down the C drive to only what you really need. (3-50 GB) Keep your data on data partitions so that you don't lose it if Win2000 goes down. Then make a disk image of Win2000. Next, install XP, shrink it, and make a disk image of that. With 2000/XP you should be able to fit your disk image onto a CD for backup.
Then partition a disk with at least enough free space for your 2000 and XP images in front. Make an extended partition of what's left and portion it into logical data drives.
Then restore your two disk images to the empty space. Set the first partition active. Reboot and install BootIt to that partition. Also, make sure to edit the boot.ini file on the second partition. Both boot.ini files will be pointing to the first partition, so the second partition OS needs its boot.ini file edited to point to the second partition. That's it. You can now boot to the BootIt menu and you can restore, or add, any OSs any time you like. If you keep, or mirror, your data on data partitions then if you lose, say, XP to a malware attack, you can delete it, restore your disk image to that space, copy back your data, and be back in business in an hour with no data loss and no hunting for product activation keys or software CDs.
This may sound confusing if you're not familiar with the terms, but you need to know the basics if you want to multi-boot. If you don't know about boot.ini, partitions, active partition, etc then you can read up on that.
If you need more help you might want to try a Windows or XP group.
"Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com... Hi folks,
I have a machine with 2000 and need to install XP as a 2nd indept OS. When I power up, I need it to boot to a menu where I can select one or the other.
I know there are ways to simulate 2000 with XP, add sofware, etc., but this in this special situation, I either have to have indept boots, or set up a
2nd computer for XP.Thanks in advance.
Merry Christmas!!!
Thanks, Fred & Mayayana!
Win 2000 is on the C drive. Slave drive E has plenty of room, so I'd like to install it there. Everything sounds straight forward. The only concern I have is that I have moved the Outlook Express folder from C to E because C was getting crowded. If I install XP on E would that interfere with OE?
I can always rename the OE folder before installing XP if needed.
Win 2000 is on the C drive. Slave drive E has plenty of room, so I'd like to install it there. Everything sounds straight forward. The only concern I have is that I have moved the Outlook Express folder from C to E because C was getting crowded. If I install XP on E would that interfere with OE?
Yes, it will. It will delete the OE folder. You really need to learn at least the basics about disk partitions and how OSs use them before you proceed.
OE *should not* have its app data folder on another partition, though it *is* a good idea to back up that folder to another partition. If you figure out how it all works that statement should make sense.
Thanks. I just renamed the OE folder and pointed OE to it.
I copied the XP DVD to hard drive and ran SETUP.EXE, and got this error:
"MSVCRT.DLL is not compatible with Win32s."
Which will delete the folder if you succeed in installing XP to your E drive.
You seem to be missing a lot of steps. You didn't say what hard drive you copied the CD to, or why you would think you need to do that. The error is about the Visual C++ v. 6 runtime library. Win32s is about running 32-bit software on 16-bit Windows. None of it seems to make sense. I think that if you're not going to figure out the details before proceeding then you need to get someone to do it for you. It's more complicated than you seem to think.
"MSVCRT.DLL is not compatible with Win32s."
OK. Thanks for taking the time with this.
OK. Thanks for taking the time with this.
What do you think about this page?
What do you think about this page?
Looks pretty good. It's old and leaves out a lot of details, but it has the basics. For instance, in the section about partitioning vs using a second hard disk, it really doesn't explain any details. Also, the part about getting a boost by putting the swap file on a different hard disk is not true. But it's a start, if you want to do it without partitioning/ boot manager software.
Thanks, I'll be sure and read all before starting. I really appreciate steering me in the right direction with this. I have partitioned drives and screwed up and unscrewed most other things, but as you can tell from still using 2000 it has been a long time since installed an OS.
Been watching this thread and things don't quite "add up". Would be helpful if you disclosed your special situation so that other alternatives might be presented.
I can tell you from experience that dual booting is a major PITA. Something as simple as reading newsgroups is a hassle. You get caught up, reboot the other OS, you have 200 unread news articles to delete...every time you switch OS.
I had enough accidents, tweaking the wrong thing in the wrong OS, that I switched to plugin hard drives. Swap the hard drive to switch OS. Thumb drive permanently attached and another one in the router allows transfer of files. I got so tired of trying to keep everything in sync that I gave up and have separate computers.
I'm a firm believer in, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." What's broke that you're fixing?
Based on the tone of the thread, I suggest that you'd be way better off to use a second computer for your XP stuff. And migrate your primary stuff to that XP machine at your leisure.
Once you get XP running, you can install VirtualBox and reinstall Win2K as a virtual machine. That's another way to migrate at your own pace...but just about as much hassle as switching over to XP.
If you go the second computer route, there's a cross-platform desktop sharing app called VNC. You can use the same keyboard/mouse/display for both machines. You won't be able to watch a video remotely, but you can do things don't modify the display continuously quite well. They made some protocol changes, so the version compatible with win2k may have some issues with the xp version.
Using 2K, your hardware may be very old. Might be worth the effort to download the Hiren's boot CD. That will run a live subset of XP that may disclose some compatibility issues.
Is there any possibility that you can use linux for your special xp requirement? There's a distro called puppy linux that will let you boot it from a CDRW, customize it, save the customizations back to the CDRW so you can live boot it directly from the CD. I use that for online banking because it starts fresh every time and has never been anywhere but the bank. Also runs in virtualbox if security is not your primary concern.
If you go the dual-boot route, make sure you have a full image backup of everything. There are many ways to trash your system by clicking on the wrong menu choice. It's all very easy and straightforward the SECOND time you do it.
What you can do easily depends a lot on the details of your special situation.
If your BIOS will let you assign the boot drives, the easiest way is to install one system on a drive that is primary master and then swap drives to the primary master on the other IDE adapter. Another option is to boot from a thumb drive if your system supports that My C: is XP, the D: (FAT) has a W/98 loader on it and the J drive, a thumb boots DOS 6.3. The only drive either can see is J: and D: An F12 at POST pops up an option screen that lets me assign C: (the boot drive)
I assure you that if you install XP on a partition /other/ than the one where win2k is installed, it will work out fine and dual boot will automatically be set up. It is absolutely inadvisable to install XP on the same partition as Win2k.
One warning: If there is data on the partition where you install XP....but sure NOT to format that partition. You should take the option to "leave the file-system intact".
In the event of an error, be sure to back up all needed data first.
Bingo! We have a winner!
You can't install XP that way you need to boot from your XP cd
the only way you can install from the hard drive is on a Fat32 partition
and you do NOT run the command "setup" you need to first load
smartdrv.exe (If you don't load smartdrv, the installation will take forever and very likely just plain fail)
then run winnt.exe
After install, then convert the drive to NTFS
a major PITA , so just boot from the CD
[snip]
I never had Linux erase Windows. What did happen is Windows (or Windows software) mess up the Linux bootloader. The software would write it's anti-user code to track 1 of the disk, which is where Linux puts it's bootloader.
This isn't supposed to happen with a modern GPT boot, although 2000 doesn't support GPT and IIRC XP does (in the 64-bit version) but won't boot from it.
Using 2 physical drives should avoid the problem.
Another solution is using a virtual machine (or 2).
forgot to mention that it CANNOT be done from the win2k command console
can only be done by booting to real DOS as from a win98 boot floppy
If you've got beefy enough hardware, you could always install the lesser used platform as a virtual machine. I use VM Player, but there are a number of solutions. I run Win7 as mi primary platform, but I have XP and Ubuntu running as virtual machines. Frankly, it's easy to forget they're not dedicated machines. The added benefit is that they can run at the same time - no need to select one or the other at boot time.
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