dual boot win-xp and win-me

[Guest]

I have a computer with win-me on one hard drive and I want to install a
second hard drive and load win-xp on it. When I boot I would like to choose
the OS that is loaded. Do I have to set the jumpers on the 2 hard drives in
a specific way or can I just use cable select. Will I have to edit boot.ini ?

 

[Malke]

I have a computer with win-me on one hard drive and I want to install a
second hard drive and load win-xp on it. When I boot I would like to
choose
the OS that is loaded. Do I have to set the jumpers on the 2 hard drives
in
a specific way or can I just use cable select. Will I have to edit
boot.ini ?

You can use cable select or master/slave. This has nothing to do with the
actual dual-booting. You will not need to edit boot.ini. First make sure
that your older hardware has drivers for the XP operating system and that
your computer will support the more demanding system requirements of XP.

Then install your second hard drive. Jumper it depending on which IDE
controller you put it and whether you prefer cable select or master/slave.
Some computers like Dells prefer cable select, but it usually doesn't
matter. If you have any questions about jumpering, go to the drive mftr.'s
website and read the instructions there. If the drives are different
brands, you should go to both drive mftrs.' websites and review the
jumpering for both drives. This is no big deal.

Then install XP. During the installation process you'll be given the choice
of where to install the operating system. Make sure you choose your new
drive! After XP is installed, it's bootloader will allow you to choose
which operating system into which you want to boot.

Malke

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a computer with win-me on one hard drive and I want to install a
second hard drive and load win-xp on it. When I boot I would like to choose
the OS that is loaded. Do I have to set the jumpers on the 2 hard drives in
a specific way or can I just use cable select. Will I have to edit boot.ini ?

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

C: Primary FAT32 Win9x/Me/Legacy Apps
D: Extended 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/Me 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
Win9x/Me 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/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gettingstarted/multiboot.asp



--

Bruce Chambers

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