Dual Boot Installation of Windows xp

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bigmx

I want to install Windows xp professional edition as a second operating
system on my computer. I do not have enough room to install it on my first
hard drive. I understand that I can have just a few system files installed
in the same partition on my first hard drive (c:) as my Windows '98 operating
system. Is this true? If it is, can I install the rest of the operating
system on my second hard drive in the same partition (d:) as I have Windows
'98 programs and data installed or do I have to create a separate partition?
If I need to install it in a separate partition, I understand that this
partition can be a logical partition. Is this true? I have Partition Magic
8.0 and BootMagic installed on my computer. If I can install just a few
system files on my c: drive and install the rest of the operating system on
my d: drive, what should I look for during the installation process?

I thank you in advance for any help that you can give me.
 
Each Windows operating system must be installed in its own
partition or drive. You cannot install Windows XP in the same
partition Windows 98 is installed in.

How to Multiple Boot Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT,
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, and MS-DOS
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q217210

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| I want to install Windows xp professional edition as a second operating
| system on my computer. I do not have enough room to install it on my first
| hard drive. I understand that I can have just a few system files installed
| in the same partition on my first hard drive (c:) as my Windows '98 operating
| system. Is this true? If it is, can I install the rest of the operating
| system on my second hard drive in the same partition (d:) as I have Windows
| '98 programs and data installed or do I have to create a separate partition?
| If I need to install it in a separate partition, I understand that this
| partition can be a logical partition. Is this true? I have Partition Magic
| 8.0 and BootMagic installed on my computer. If I can install just a few
| system files on my c: drive and install the rest of the operating system on
| my d: drive, what should I look for during the installation process?
|
| I thank you in advance for any help that you can give me.
|
| --
| ______________________________________
|
| Replace "invalid" with "com" to reply.
 
Greetings --

The simplest way I've found to dual boot between Win9x and WinXP
would be to partition your drive(s) roughly as follows:

C: FAT32 Win9x/Legacy Apps & Games
D: NTFS WinXP/Modern Apps

Adjust the partition sizes according to your actual hard drive(s)
size and the amount of space you'd like to allocate to each OS and its
applications.

Create the partitions using Win9x's FDISK so you can enable large
disk support (FAT32). (No need for 3rd party partitioning
utilities/boot managers and their frequent complications.)

Install Win9x first, being sure to select "C:\Windows" (or
D:\Windows, if you prefer) when asked for the default Windows
directory. When you subsequently install WinXP, be sure to specify
"D:\Winnt" (or "D:\Windows," "C:\Winnt" as referred/applicable) when
asked for the default Windows directory, to place it in the other
partition. The WinXP installation routine will automatically set up a
Multi-boot menu for you. The default settings for this menu can be
readily edited from within WinXP. NOTE: If you elect to place Win98
on the "D:" drive, you'll _have_ to leave the "C:" drive as FAT32.

This method can be adapted to using 2 physical hard drives by
placing the boot partition (C:, which still must be FAT32) and either
of the operating systems on the Primary Master hard drive, and the
second operating system on the second hard drive.

It is also possible to have a 3rd partition for shared
applications, but it would be necessary for such a partition to be
formatted in the common file format (FAT32). The applications would
also have to be installed into each OS (to ensure proper system file
placement and registry updates), one at a time, but the bulk of the
program files could be located on this common partition. I do not,
however, actually recommend doing this as, if you were to uninstall
such an application from one OS, you may not be able to gracefully
uninstall it from the second OS, having already deleted crucial
installation data during the first uninstall action.

Just about everything you need to know (URLs may wrap):

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q217/2/10.ASP

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/management/mltiboot.asp



Bruce Chambers

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