Installing Win2K after XP - Does it work?

[Matthew Jared Koester]

Hi! I have a question about dual-booting Win2K with XP.
Let me brief you as to my situation.

My Situation:
-The only XP disk I have is the one that came with my Sony
PC.
-I have a full retail of Win2K.
-I like Win2K as much/better than WinXP.
-I need to boot 2K after XP.
-I have two (2) physical drives.
-I need XP on the first drive, 2K on the second.

My Question:
I have done some research on this topic, and I have found
that many people believe that it is actually possible to
install 2K after XP by going through a procedure that
involves copying the XP versions of "ntldr"
and "NTDETECT.com" from the boot drive to a floppy and
reinserting them after installing 2K (more on this can be
found by Googling "Install Windows 2000 after XP"). I am
curious as to whether this works. Also, every page that I
found states the process as working when installing 2K on
a different partition, but I see nothing that touches on
installing 2K on a different disk. Is there a major
difference in the two? Has anyone accomplished this? If
no one has gotten it to work on a different disk, what
about just on a different partition?

I have already messed my PC up once by installing 2K after
XP without knowing that it would mess everything up. I
had to reformat, partly because I didn't know about this
process, and partly because I am not familiar with the
Recovery Console (I heard that it could be used to fix the
computer after I messed it up, but I couldn't get it to
work).

Whether I get an answer or not, you people are all
awesome, and I hope to one day be like you Thanks so
much for reading my question, and I hope that you have a
great day.

P.S. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to ask about Linux on a
Microsoft Newsgroup, but I was just wondering if anyone
thinks I would have a problem installing Mandrake Linux
after WinXP and Win2K on the second disk (that is, if I
can successfully install Win2K). If anyone has strong
feelings against Linux, please don't get mad at me. I
have never used it before, and I want to experiment.
Also, I can't imagine not continuing to be loyal Windows,
because I actually like it and enjoy using it, believe it
or not

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Note that Sony support will refuse to talk to you if you do anything like
this on one of their computers. They are really terrible sticklers for
"please boot from your Sony restore CD and go back to the vanilla
installation we gave you and then call us back if you still have the
problem".

I can't address your question directly, but I'm curious as to why you'd want
to go back anyway. You can turn off all the flashy Fisher Price stuff in
WinXP (go back to Windows Classic) and you may not even notice the
difference. XP is really just the same OS as Win2k with a redesigned
interface & some additional bells/whistles like the firewall, etc - I would
never go back to Win2k if it were me. What are your complaints about XP, if
you don't mind my asking?

 

[Jetro]

You can disconnect 1st XP disk and setup W2k on the 2nd disk, then reconnect
1st disk back and adjust the boot.ini.file, i.e. add a pointer to the W2k
installation. You'll have to create the multiple partitions on the 2nd disk
if you want Linux after all and you'll get some troubles setting a loader
menu.
Hardware emulators such as VMWare and VirtualPC are very good on the
powerful PC to create a multi-OS box and Google is your friend.

 

[Matthew Jared Koester]

Thanks for the replies!

Anyway, I don't care what Sony thinks about this, because
I can handle most of the problems with my computer
software-wise, and I have a 4 year extended warranty from
Best Buy which I imagine will cover any failures related
to the original hardware. I have had the new XP style
turned off for a long time now, and I like it much better
this way, but some things still differ from 2000. Mainly,
I like the way the Win2K Explorer is set up. In XP, I
like the Details part of the side panel in Explorer but I
have no need for everything else, so because I like to
have the Details, I can't turn everything completely off;
I can only collapse the other items.

My other reasons are mainly personal, and probably very
stupid. I do realize that XP is a better OS overall, but
I spent a lot of time on 2K when I was younger and I want
to have it on a computer once again. Also, there are some
things about 2K that make it feel more "Professional" to
me. First, I have 2K Pro, but only XP Home, which makes
me feel as if 2K is in some way better. I know this is
not the case, but I probably just have a mental disorder
that makes me feel attached to 2K Second, I have a few
games (like Aliens vs. Predators Gold Edition) that *Do
Not* work on XP, although they work on 2000. I can't
explain to you why this is, but Google can, although it
offers no solutions to the problem.

Finally, I would like to use 2K as an experimental
platform and also a multimedia center-type device. I want
to use it to test out some applications and stuff without
messing up my XP install. In addition to that, I would
like to try out some different configurations that I have
in mind to use it as a dedicated multimedia device.

I realize that XP is better in most aspects, but I have my
reasons for wanting 2000. Also, there are probably
software solutions for a lot of the things I have
mentioned here, but I would rather have a separate
installation of Windows for some of the things I want to
do, like the software testing. I don't see why my reasons
have anything to do with whether or not installing 2K will
work, although I can understand why you would think that I
am insane for wanting to do this. If no one can help me
out on this site, maybe I could be directed to another
community that may be able to provide me with more
information.

 

[Andy]

Yes, it works. It doesn't matter whether Windows 2000 is on the same
or different physical hard drive. The key point is Windows 2000
versions of ntldr and ntdetect.com are unable to boot Windows XP.

 

[David Lawson]

Greetings Mathew,

I agree to all you guys and especially to Jetro. You can remove the first
disk and install 2k on the other physical dis.
Now, as far Linux is concerned, I have used that and would like to share
that Linux is a good operating system same as Windows. But, to install Linux
you need to be experienced and its always recommended that you install Linux
after installing Windows or else the Windows installation will overwrite the
Linux Boot Loader. Campared to Mandrake, Red Hat 9 would be more much
considered as a good one.

I think that should answer your very last question on Linux.


regards
Nilesh