Dual Boot - Installing 2000 after XP

S

Sean

I have a Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop.
2.4 GHz
512 Mb RAM
DVD/CD Burner

It has 60 GB in 2 partitions on the hard drive.
XP is installed in partition 1.
I want to install 2000 server in partition 2.

I know you are supposed to install 2000 first but its too
late for that.
I know about the workaround steps - backing up ntdlr and
ntdetect.com from the XP partition and then reapplying
after installing 2000.

The problem is that I cannot get the 2000 install CD to be
recognised as bootable.
I have set the CD as the boot device and it is ignored
when the 2000 cd is in but OK if I try to boot from an XP
cd.
I have tried manually selecting boot device also (this is
a menu option during Dell laptops startup).
There is nothing wrong with the 2000 cd - it is recognised
as bootable by a machine already running 2000
(professional).


I tried booting from 2000 boot floppies.
Doesnt work.
The first step is 'loading files (machine identification)'
and it always hangs there (left it for 8 hours!)
Booting from an XP bootable floppy works OK so it should
be possible.

Is there any hack for getting a 2000 install CD to be
recognized as bootable on a machine which already has XP?
 
J

Jim

Yeah, nothing says you can't XCOPY the CD contents to the partition!

Just get yourself a bootable Win98 floppy (http://www.bootdisk.com). It
includes universal CD drivers, so when it boots, create a directory called
D:\i386 and copy the files from the CD's same i386 directory. Switch to that
i386 directory, and execute setup manually (winnt.exe as I recall). I do
this all the time, now you don't even have to grab the CD every time Windows
needs drivers, or other components, it's all there on the HD (of course,
after the install completes, you can delete D:\i386 if you prefer, but with
all the HD space these days, I just keep it there). Now you can keep the CD
safely tucked away.

HTH

Jim
 
B

Brian Desmond [MVP]

Actually no need to copy i386 over to the drive. Get a Win98 disk from
bootdisk.com, and boot to that. Run setup from the CD once you've booted.

After 2000 is installed, you'll need to boot from the XP CD, run the
recovery console, and do a "fixboot everything back in order

--
--
Brian Desmond
Windows Server MVP
(e-mail address removed)12.il.us

Http://www.briandesmond.com
 
S

Sean

Thanks Brian and Jim,

2 Problems.

1. The laptop does not support simultaneous use of floppy
and CD!
2. Both logical partitions are, and need to be, NTFS.

Jim's idea about copying the I386 folder to the HD
sounded like a good workaround allowing me to boot from
floppy and then change dir to the HD to execute
winnt32.exe amnually.

Problem is that I cannot get execute access to the NTFS
drives.
I have obtained the readntfs.exe utility and used it
inconjunction with a bootdisk.
It all works but readntfs.exe only provides read access to
the NTFS partitions (as its name suggests!).
I can analyse winnt32.exe but I cant run it...
Are there any boot utilities that allow execution of exe
files on NTFS partitions?
 
J

Jim

Then don't use NTFS! Use FAT32, then convert later (w/ convert.exe)!

One suggestion though. Win98 FDISK (or similar) might not align the FAT32
partition properly for the *best* blocking on a future NTFS conversion.
Because of this, you'll end up w/ 512 byte sectors. I suggest you download
BootIt NG ( http://www.bootitng.com ).

Once downloaded, unzip, execute bootitng.exe, and create the floppy (or ISO
and burn it, your choice). Now boot that floppy/CD, and when Welcome screen
appears, hit Cancel (to abort install), and follow the prompts to the
desktop. Select Partition Work and Create the FAT32 partition. You'll be
prompted to Format. Be sure to check "Align for NTFS conversion", then hit
OK. Now when you convert the FAT32 partition later to NTFS, you'll end up
w/ 4k sectors!

When done partitioning, hit Close, remove floppy/CD, and reboot.

HTH

Jim
 
S

Sean

Thanks Jim,

I formatted 2nd partition to FAT32 (did it while running
XP on partition 1)
Copied I386 to 2nd partition, which is e:\ (c:\ is
partition 1, d:\ is the CD).
When I boot with floppy I can now cd to partition 2 and
run winnt32.exe.
but...
Partition 2 isnt e:\ when you boot from floppy, it becomes
c:\ if you boot from floppy!!
I suspect this will cause the OS install to not work
properly.
I will give it a try later but cant afford to trash my
machine at the moment since I am busy next week!
 

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