Installing xp on a dual boot (W2K and ME)

[Guest]

Hi,

I need to install xp professional on my machine, it's a
dual boot (windows 2000 and windows me). The original os
I had was windows me (c drive), I then installed w2k (f
drive), I used partition magic 6.0 to partition my disc.
I now would like to install xp in addition to the 2 os I have. This is
because I ran upgrade advisor (thinking it would be ok to upgrade from ME)
and I found that my printer/scanner and alot of my hardware and software
incompatiable. So I wish to keep ME but install xp as well. If I use
partition magic 6 (which is not compatible with xp) to reduce the size of
drive c (ME) to free up more space for xp, it doesn't create space, it just
adds up the freed space to the other os.
Do you know what should I do? If I insert the xp cd, would I be able to
create a new partition for the installation?

Thank you

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hi Maha,

One way to get around the fact that Partition Magic 6 is not compatible with
any particular OS is to create and use the Emergency Disks (requires two
floppy disks.......first disk is bootable floppy, the second disk contains
the files to load Partition Magic). Instead of resizing ME, try using the
Create New Partition wizard.

In order to use the XP CD to create a new partition, you would need to have
unallocated (unpartitioned) space on the hard drive, it will not create a
new partition by utilizing space from an existing partition without first
deleting an existing partition.



Regards,

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi,

I need to install xp professional on my machine, it's a
dual boot (windows 2000 and windows me). The original os
I had was windows me (c drive), I then installed w2k (f
drive), I used partition magic 6.0 to partition my disc.
I now would like to install xp in addition to the 2 os I have. This
is
because I ran upgrade advisor (thinking it would be ok to upgrade
from ME) and I found that my printer/scanner and alot of my hardware
and software incompatiable. So I wish to keep ME but install xp as
well. If I use partition magic 6 (which is not compatible with xp)
to
reduce the size of drive c (ME) to free up more space for xp, it
doesn't create space, it just adds up the freed space to the other
os.
Do you know what should I do? If I insert the xp cd, would I be able
to create a new partition for the installation?

Thank you

The simplest way I've found to multi-boot between Win9x/Me, Win2K
& WinXP would be to partition your drive roughly as follows:

Primary Partition:
C: FAT32 Win9x

Extended Partition:

1st Logical Drive D: NTFS Win2K
2nd Logical Drive E: NTFS WinXP

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.) You need
only format the Win9x partition at this time, the Win2K/XP
installations can format their own respective partitions as part of
their setup routines.

Install Win9x first, being sure to select "C:\Windows" when asked
for the default Windows directory. When you subsequently install
Win2K/XP, be sure to specify "D:\Winnt" and E:\Windows," as
preferred/applicable) when asked for the default Windows directory, to
place them on the other partitions. The Win2K/XP installation routines
will automatically set up the Multi-boot menu for you. The default
settings for this menu can be readily edited from within Win2K/XP.

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 and/or third operating system(s) on the second hard drive. Just
remember to keep each OS in its own partition.

It is also possible to have a 4th 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/third OS, having already deleted crucial
installation data during the first uninstall action.

Just about everything you need to know (URLs may wrap):

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/management/mltiboot.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gettingstarted/multiboot.asp

--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

Hi Patti,

Thanks for your reply.
How would I create the emergency disks? and when would I use them during the
installation of xp?
I just tried creating a new partition using partition magic; it asks if you
want to install os, if you say yes, it gives you a list of all os but no xp,
if you say no, it allows you to create a "logical" partition because
"primary" is grayed out. Is it possible to install an os in a logical drive?

Thanks loads,

Maha

 

[Patti MacLeod]

You're welcome for the reply. It's been a while since I've had Partition
Magic installed, so I can't recall whether you can get to the option of
creating Rescue disks (don't remember whether they were called Rescue Disks
or Emergency Disks.....I think it was Rescue Disks) from the main program
window, but you should be able to access this option via
Start>Programs>PowerQuest Partition Magic

You wouldn't use them during the install of XP, but I have found the Rescue
Disks quite handy to have at the ready in case you can't boot into the
operating system in which the Partition Magic program is installed.

XP can be installed on a logical partition, yes.



Regards,