Dual Boot XP & NT 4.0?

[Joe Befumo]

I have an old, but still valuable, piece of software that gives me an access
fault when I try to run it under XP Professional. I know for a fact that it
runs okay under NT 4.0. I'm wondering whether there's any practical way to
install 4.0 so that I have the option at bootup as to which OS to start.

BTW -- I've actually tried to go backwards on this machine, but experienced
difficulty. I did try wiping the master boot record before reinstalling,
but when I get to the point where NT asks where to install, if I point it to
an existing partition, it will not recognize the large (NTFS) partition,
forcing me to wipe out the disk upon which I'm trying to install.

I suppose I could start from scratch, install 4.0 on its own 4GB partition,
then install XP onto another partition (would that work?) , but I'd really
prefer to avoid rebuilding this machine just now.

Thanks

Joe

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How to Use the Program Compatibility Wizard in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301911&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559&Product=winxp

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

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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


|I have an old, but still valuable, piece of software that gives me an access
| fault when I try to run it under XP Professional. I know for a fact that it
| runs okay under NT 4.0. I'm wondering whether there's any practical way to
| install 4.0 so that I have the option at bootup as to which OS to start.
|
| BTW -- I've actually tried to go backwards on this machine, but experienced
| difficulty. I did try wiping the master boot record before reinstalling,
| but when I get to the point where NT asks where to install, if I point it to
| an existing partition, it will not recognize the large (NTFS) partition,
| forcing me to wipe out the disk upon which I'm trying to install.
|
| I suppose I could start from scratch, install 4.0 on its own 4GB partition,
| then install XP onto another partition (would that work?) , but I'd really
| prefer to avoid rebuilding this machine just now.
|
| Thanks
|
| Joe
|
|

 

[Tim]

I suppose I could start from scratch, install 4.0 on its own 4GB partition,

then install XP onto another partition (would that work?) , but I'd really
prefer to avoid rebuilding this machine just now.

I believe that's what you have to do. Windows NT 4.0 Setup won't install on partitions larger than
4GB. You can select to format it with the NTFS file system, however, it does this by first creating
a FAT16 partition, then upon next boot, converts it to NTFS.

Boot Partition Created During Setup Limited to 4 Gigabytes
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=119497

Windows NT Does Not Boot to a Partition That Starts More Than 4 GB into Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=197295

Installing Windows NT on a Large IDE Hard Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=197667

To Create a Multiple-Boot System with Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306559#7

a little bit of technical info...

Windows NT Boot Process and Hard Disk Constraints
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=114841

 

[Jim]

I'm not clear exactly what you've done here already, first you indicate you
have tried to "go backwards", I suppose that means rebuild?? But then
mention preferring not to rebuild from scratch, so I frankly don't know
EXACTLY what there now, how you're concurrently configured, and thus, the
true hangup.

If you have an existing NT4.0 partition and/XP partition, it's trivial to
support them independently with a proper boot manager. No big deal, I use
BootIt NG ( http://www.bootitng.com ), you simply make sure NT4.0 is the
first partition (since it has boundary limitations, where XP does not), and
XP is the second partition. Install BootIt NG to its own partition, setup
boot menu items for each, and boot either one you please.

Again, no big deal, I've done it many times. Or else I'm missing some key
point.

Jim