Please help - installing another OS in Windows XP

[ByTor]

I suppose I need to reword that, now, as some boot managers have
improved. There's nothing specific, really. I've just seen a lot of
people have problems installing and understanding 3rd-party boot and
partition managers. Since there's really no need to add an additional
factor into the boot process to create potential complications, I simply
don't recommend them, unless they're truly necessary. The boot manager
built into WinNT. Win2K and WinXP is simple almost to the point of being
fool-proof, and serves the needs of most multi-booters quite well. I'd
recommend the use of a 3rd party boot manager only when dissimilar
operating systems (i.e., Microsoft & Linux) or different language
versions of Windows are involved.

Thanks....Like I said I was just curious. Sometimes I lose site of the
"Simplicity" factors involving, how can I say it nicely, not so
*experienced* users wanting to dual boot.....Not saying anything bad
about them of course..."Keeping It Simple" goes a long way I
suppose.......... ;0)

But hey we all eventually learn more than just click click
clicking........I have been dual booting for years with hardly a
complication, but I *do not* let windozez tools manage it, I learned a
hard lesson as my curiousity with different scenarios became more
pronounced.....And as you pointed out different configurations require
more advanced tools..........

Thanks for responding.........

 

[Tom]

Can't speak for Sharon, but I was trying to keep it relatively simple, by
providing a solution that didn't require the use of a 3rd party boot
manager. As you've correctly pointed out, though, my answer really wasn't
complete.

The reason I added this, is because the OP stated his first partition is
already XP-NTFS, and I guess he doesn't want to lose that, but install 98
after that. But personally, and this is my preference, I would prefer my
other installs on Primary partitions, and not extneded logical, even if the
OSes are Windows versions. They all still depend on the boot partition on
the first (usually C partition, and if that gets stuffed, then the others
likely follow suit. Boot loaders are better these days anyway, and if one
has a boot disk (though this take an extra minute) they can use the FDISK to
make what install active to boot to.

 

[John]

Hi!

I'd like to install Windows 95/98/ME. I have a system running Windows XP
and have partitioned a seperate drive to install Windows 9x.

However, it says that I can't install Windows 9x while running Windows 2000.
I booted up with a Windows 98 disk and it said I cannot install because the
hard drive cannot be accessed (since it's NTSF) or something like that.

How can I install Windows 9x on a seperate partition in Windows XP???
Thanks in advanced!

There are so many *gotchas* in this scenario I seriously doubt its worth
the trouble. A few ...

1. All Ms Os's including XP must have their boot strap files on the
*active* *primary* partition at boot time. The OS itself can be elsewhere.

2. If you were to unplug the XP drive and install W98 on the separate
drive (assuming you meant you had two actual hard drives) when you get
done and plug the XP drive back in W98 will still be hosed due to drive
letters changing even if you can find a way to boot it. And as you know
W98 doesn't allow you to change drive letters. XP lets you change drive
letters but that will mean nothing to W98.

3. Putting W98 at the back end of a modern drive may be tricky if not
impossible. The W98 installer may not be able to see the partition where
you want it. Especially if intervening partitions are NTFS ... aka
unreadable as far as W98 is concerned.

4. Some have suggested using Fdisk to make the W98 target partition
active. This may work but it must be a primary and you will still need a
boot loader that is capable of making the selected OS's partition active
and then finding the boot files at that location instead of them being
on the active partition at boot time. Partition Magic's Boot Magic can
do this and probaly Linux boot loaders. I doubt XP's boot loader works
this way but I could be wrong.

5. If you *must* have both OS's always install the older OS first.

John