Dual boot question

[Pool]

Hi Everyone,

I have a dual boot system in partition C windows Me is installed and in
partition D windows xp professional is installed.I want to replace windows Me
by installing windows xp home edition since i don't use windows Me anymore.
so i would very much appreciate if you can tell me the steps i should do to
install it since i'm a newbie in computers.Thanks in advance.

 

[sgopus]

Why do you want to dual boot with xp home? just get rid of ME!

boot with the install cd and direct the install partition to the proper one,
format and install over ME.

 

[Roy Smith]

Hi Everyone,

I have a dual boot system in partition C windows Me is installed and in
partition D windows xp professional is installed.I want to replace windows
Me
by installing windows xp home edition since i don't use windows Me
anymore.
so i would very much appreciate if you can tell me the steps i should do
to
install it since i'm a newbie in computers.Thanks in advance.

May I ask a dumb question? Why do you want to install WinXP Home? Windows
XP Professional is basically an advanced version of Windows XP Home with
more features. If I were you, I'd just make a backup of the Win XP Pro
partition using something like Acronis True Image, then erase the drive and
make just one partition and restore Win XP Pro onto it.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Everyone,

I have a dual boot system in partition C windows Me is installed and in
partition D windows xp professional is installed.I want to replace windows Me
by installing windows xp home edition since i don't use windows Me anymore.
so i would very much appreciate if you can tell me the steps i should do to
install it since i'm a newbie in computers.Thanks in advance.

You want to end up dual-booting between XP Professional and XP Home?
Why? I would seem to make no sense at all. XP Home is exactly the same
as XP Professional except that it's missing a few features, mostly
related to networking. There is never an advantage to running Home
instead of Professional.

 

[Pool]

Hello Roy

I want to install windows xp home b/c i have an original copy and i need
two OS in my computer one for internet use and another for work.So i would
very much appreciate if you can tell me the steps i need to do in order to
replace windows Me which is on the C partition and install windows XP home
since i am a newbie to computers like i mentioned above.Thanks again.

 

[John John (MVP)]

It's pretty easy and simply to do. Boot the computer with your Windows
XP Home cd and select the option to install Windows. When you get to
the disk and partition selection screen select the Windows Me partition
(C for the install location and have the setup program format the
partition NTFS and then install on that same partition. This is an easy
and safe procedure but anything can happen when you install an operating
system, a simple user error or other glitch could wipe out your whole
disk, if you value your data you will make sure that you have a proper
working backup of your precious files!

When you install XP Home the setup program should see the XP Pro
installation on the second partition and it should automatically add an
entry to the boot.ini file to allow dual booting between the two
operating systems, if it doesn't it isn't hard to fix, you only need to
edit the boot.ini file and add the required line to boot the XP Pro
installation.

John

 

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

I have a dual boot system in partition C windows Me is installed and in
partition D windows xp professional is installed.I want to replace windows Me
by installing windows xp home edition since i don't use windows Me anymore.
so i would very much appreciate if you can tell me the steps i should do to
install it since i'm a newbie in computers.Thanks in advance.

While running XP, delete C:\Program Files and C:\Windows.
Then boot from the XP Home CD and install on C: partition using
existing file system.

 

[sgopus]

instead of two different operating sstems, you can create a seperate profile
for "WORK" that has no internet connection.

 

[Pool]

Hi John

Thank you so much for the information you provided me and i will follow the
steps you gave me.I have a question for you.Windows XP Professional i have on
parition D is FAT32 same as the other three partitions i have.Should i still
choose FAT32 when installing XP home and if not how can i convert it to
NTFS.My other question is how to edit boot.ini file.Thank you so much again
for helping me.

 

[John John (MVP)]

It's up to you as to which file format you want to use, being that you
will no longer dual boot with a legacy Windows 9x/Me operating system
you will no longer need FAT32 compatibility for these older operating
systems. Windows XP can be installed on FAT32 but NTFS is the native
and preferred file system for windows XP. NTFS is more robust and
offers advanced features that are not available on the FAT32 file system.

When you boot the computer with your Windows XP cd and select to install
the operating system you will be presented with a list of disk and
available partitions for the installation, at that screen you can select
and format the partition to your preferred file system, you can select
to format using NTFS file system (Quick) or a regular NTFS format, the
only difference between the quick and regular format is that the quick
format doesn't check the drive for bad sectors and the regular format does.

As for the boot.ini file you will only need to edit it if the setup
program fails to add the second installation to the file, if that is
necessary you can post again and paste the contents of the file with
your post and someone will tell you how to add the second installation
to the file. You can read here for more information:

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

John

 

[Bill in Co.]

It's up to you as to which file format you want to use, being that you
will no longer dual boot with a legacy Windows 9x/Me operating system
you will no longer need FAT32 compatibility for these older operating
systems. Windows XP can be installed on FAT32 but NTFS is the native
and preferred file system for windows XP. NTFS is more robust and
offers advanced features that are not available on the FAT32 file system.

Those "advanced features" in using NTFS for a *single user system* primarily
being (as I recall):

1) with XP it's MUCH more robust, and blue screens are quite rare,
and
2) you can have files larger than 4GB, if needbe.
3) you don't have to worry about the restrictive limits of FAT32 cluster
sizes and wasted disk space.

I'm not sure if there are any other tangible benefits for *a single user*,
but the first one above almost makes up for everything.

I think the one drawback with using NTFS is that you can no longer use some
of those DOS utilities for trying to restore windows should it "collapse"
(Except for a few very special and limited utilities, like NTFS4DOS or
whatever). Instead, you have to use that Recovery Console, or else some
pretty special utilities (which I think is a bit of a PIA, by comparison)

And also that Win9x systems can't see the files on NTFS partitions (part of
that compatability thing you mentioned).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It's up to you as to which file format you want to use, being that you
will no longer dual boot with a legacy Windows 9x/Me operating system
you will no longer need FAT32 compatibility for these older operating
systems. Windows XP can be installed on FAT32 but NTFS is the native
and preferred file system for windows XP. NTFS is more robust and
offers advanced features that are not available on the FAT32 file system.

I agree with the above, and wanted to point out one of those "advanced
features" that is very important to many people. Using the FAT32 file
system, you can not create a file larger than 4GB.

 

[Bill in Co.]

I agree with the above, and wanted to point out one of those "advanced
features" that is very important to many people. Using the FAT32 file
system, you can not create a file larger than 4GB.

Only people editing very large video files!