Dual booting xp and 2000 pro

[Guest]

I have one WD 160 gb hard drive that I partitioned in half (C), and (D). (C)
has windows 2000 pro on it, and (D) has windows xp home on it. everything
seams to be o.k. The only problem that I have had is when I install, or
re-install the new ATI drivers, and catalyst control center for my ATI
graphics card on (D) windows xp home. the install locks up toward the end. I
am able to close the window and after a error message, the install continues,
and completes the installl. After the install, I looked in (C) windows 2000
pro, and found that some files were put on the (C) drive from the install. I
choose the (D) drive to install the drivers, and sofware, but some of the
file that are put on the (C) drive are also on the (D) drive as I chose them
to be at the begining of the install. Everything works ok before, and after I
deleted the extra files on the (C) drive. I followed ATIs install
instructions by the book. Is there any way to hide the two operating systems
from each other? I am pretty sure that xp needs to boot up to get the choice
at startup to boot eather 2000 pro or xp home, so that must mean that the mbr
is in the xp partition. So I hope this can be done without scraping the
dualboot menu at startup. All I want to do is keep all the 2000 pro files,
and xp files to install on the correct drives, and to avoid any install
problems in the future.

 

[Pennywise]

I have one WD 160 gb hard drive that I partitioned in half (C), and (D). (C)
has windows 2000 pro on it, and (D) has windows xp home on it. everything
seams to be o.k. The only problem that I have had is when I install, or
re-install the new ATI drivers, and catalyst control center for my ATI
graphics card on (D) windows xp home. the install locks up toward the end. I
am able to close the window and after a error message, the install continues,
and completes the installl. After the install, I looked in (C) windows 2000
pro, and found that some files were put on the (C) drive from the install. I
choose the (D) drive to install the drivers, and sofware, but some of the
file that are put on the (C) drive are also on the (D) drive as I chose them
to be at the begining of the install. Everything works ok before, and after I
deleted the extra files on the (C) drive. I followed ATIs install
instructions by the book. Is there any way to hide the two operating systems
from each other? I am pretty sure that xp needs to boot up to get the choice
at startup to boot eather 2000 pro or xp home, so that must mean that the mbr
is in the xp partition. So I hope this can be done without scraping the
dualboot menu at startup. All I want to do is keep all the 2000 pro files,
and xp files to install on the correct drives, and to avoid any install
problems in the future.

It was a badly made install, figureing everybody uses C: as their OS
drive.

You can't really hide the OS's from each other, XP reads W2K registry
when it boots up (just turn off W2K, boot into XP and it will do a
disk check.)

And nothing boots up first, the Boot.ini is read you make a choice and
that OS is then booted.

The MBR is always the first track on the hard drive.

 

[Ron Sommer]

NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR and BOOT.INI are boot files for XP.
The ntdetect from XP replaces the Win2000 ntdetect and will detect Win2000.
The Win2000 ntdetect will not detect XP.
These files are on C.
After boot.ini is read and a system selected that system will boot.
XP does not start to get the system selection.
--
Ron Sommer


:I have one WD 160 gb hard drive that I partitioned in half (C), and (D).
(C)
: has windows 2000 pro on it, and (D) has windows xp home on it. everything
: seams to be o.k. The only problem that I have had is when I install, or
: re-install the new ATI drivers, and catalyst control center for my ATI
: graphics card on (D) windows xp home. the install locks up toward the end.
I
: am able to close the window and after a error message, the install
continues,
: and completes the installl. After the install, I looked in (C) windows
2000
: pro, and found that some files were put on the (C) drive from the install.
I
: choose the (D) drive to install the drivers, and sofware, but some of the
: file that are put on the (C) drive are also on the (D) drive as I chose
them
: to be at the begining of the install. Everything works ok before, and
after I
: deleted the extra files on the (C) drive. I followed ATIs install
: instructions by the book. Is there any way to hide the two operating
systems
: from each other? I am pretty sure that xp needs to boot up to get the
choice
: at startup to boot eather 2000 pro or xp home, so that must mean that the
mbr
: is in the xp partition. So I hope this can be done without scraping the
: dualboot menu at startup. All I want to do is keep all the 2000 pro files,
: and xp files to install on the correct drives, and to avoid any install
: problems in the future.

 

[Ron Sommer]

:
: You can't really hide the OS's from each other, XP reads W2K registry
: when it boots up (just turn off W2K, boot into XP and it will do a
: disk check.)

I have never heard your "XP reads W2K registry when it boots up" comment
before.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have one WD 160 gb hard drive that I partitioned in half (C), and (D). (C)
has windows 2000 pro on it, and (D) has windows xp home on it. everything
seams to be o.k. The only problem that I have had is when I install, or
re-install the new ATI drivers, and catalyst control center for my ATI
graphics card on (D) windows xp home. the install locks up toward the end. I
am able to close the window and after a error message, the install continues,
and completes the installl. After the install, I looked in (C) windows 2000
pro, and found that some files were put on the (C) drive from the install. I
choose the (D) drive to install the drivers, and sofware, but some of the
file that are put on the (C) drive are also on the (D) drive as I chose them
to be at the begining of the install. Everything works ok before, and after I
deleted the extra files on the (C) drive. I followed ATIs install
instructions by the book. Is there any way to hide the two operating systems
from each other? I am pretty sure that xp needs to boot up to get the choice
at startup to boot eather 2000 pro or xp home, so that must mean that the mbr
is in the xp partition. So I hope this can be done without scraping the
dualboot menu at startup. All I want to do is keep all the 2000 pro files,
and xp files to install on the correct drives, and to avoid any install
problems in the future.

Separating the drives carrying each OS is not only feasible -
it is in fact the preferred method for multi-booting. Third-party
boot loaders such as XOSL (free!) include the facility to hide
any drive from any other drive.

In your case it's really too late, because you built your system
on the native Windows boot loader. While a non-destructive
conversion is possible, I would advise against it - too much
work and a considerable risk that you might lose the lot.