Dual boot Win 2000 and Win XP Pro

[JoeBlack]

Hi all,

Just a quick question about dual boot systems:

I have a laptop that I want to have a dual boot system on, these
operating systems are:

Windows 2000 Pro
Windows XP Pro

The laptop is over and above the minimum required spec to run these
operating systems.

I want to reformat my hard drive, create two 20 GB partitions (the hard
drive is 40GB) and put XPPro on the first partition and WIN2K on the
second. I have done this before with Win98 and Win2K, I had to install
Win 98 first followed by Win2K.

What I would like to confirm is:

Will XPPro and Win2K allow me do what I have described above?

Do I need to install one O/S before the other (i.e. a specific order)?

If anyone has done this before, are there any pitfalls I need to watch
out for?

I am assuming all should be OK, but I don't want too much downtime, so
any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Joe

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi all,

Just a quick question about dual boot systems:

I have a laptop that I want to have a dual boot system on, these
operating systems are:

Windows 2000 Pro
Windows XP Pro

The laptop is over and above the minimum required spec to run these
operating systems.

I want to reformat my hard drive, create two 20 GB partitions (the hard
drive is 40GB) and put XPPro on the first partition and WIN2K on the
second. I have done this before with Win98 and Win2K, I had to install
Win 98 first followed by Win2K.

What I would like to confirm is:

Will XPPro and Win2K allow me do what I have described above?

Do I need to install one O/S before the other (i.e. a specific order)?

If anyone has done this before, are there any pitfalls I need to watch
out for?

I am assuming all should be OK, but I don't want too much downtime, so
any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Joe

Unless you want to restore some system files retrospectively, you
must install Win2000, followed by WinXP.

Note that with your method, Windows 2000 will be on drive D:,
and that's where it will always have to be. A more modular
approach requires a third-party boot loader such as XOSL (free!).
It lets you install each OS on its own drive C:, completely
independent of any other OS.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi all,

What I would like to confirm is:

Will XPPro and Win2K allow me do what I have described above?

Yes, certainly.

Do I need to install one O/S before the other (i.e. a specific order)?

It's almost always best/simplest to install the older OS first, but not
strictly necessary. Work-arounds exist if you wish to do it the hard way.


How to Multiple Boot WinXP, Win2K, WinNT, Win95, Win98, WinMe, and MSDOS
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q217/2/10.ASP

Multibooting with Windows 2000 and Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/management/mltiboot.asp

Multibooting with Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gettingstarted/multiboot.asp

Install Win2K after WinXP is Installed
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_2k.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

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[William Cooper]

Hi

I would favor the use of a third party utility such as Boot Magic which I
use and would recomend. The only other thing I would suggest, is that you
create a third partition, that both OS's can see, as there will be times
when you are in Win 2K and want somthing thats on your XP partion. This also
depends on how you configure Boot Magic.

William

 

[JoeBlack]

Hi there,

Thank you all for your responses.

Joe