Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 Dual Boot

[Guest]

Dear all,
I am in a pretty complex situation.

Here is the issue I am facing.
I am trying to install
Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 4) and Windows XP Professional
Edition for a client of mine.

Here are the laptop configurations on which I am installing the dual boot
environment:

Memory : 512 MB
Laptop Brand : Dell
Laptop Model : Dell Inspiron 8100

I tried this approach for installing Windows XP and Windows 2000
Professioanal SP4 dual boot environment:

1.) 1st I installed Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
2.) After installing Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4, I
installed Windows XP

Here is the Partition Information
C : NTFS Partition - Windows 2000 SP4 - 4 GB
D : Windows XP Professional with SP2 - 30 GB or greater

Now, when I boot Windows 2000 Professional it shows me a similar error
message:

could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Press repair .........

Since this is a fresh installation, I dont think any of the files should be
missing.
But I still spent 4 hours troubleshooting this problem by:

1.) Following Microsoft's advice by copy pasting the system and other files
again.
2.) Fixing the registry hives and so on

No Luck

However when I tried this:

1.) Windows XP Professiaonal with SP2 and
2.) Windows 2000 (NOT WITH SP4)

the dual boot environment worked.

Should it be concluded that Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
and Windows XP Professional SP2 dual boot environment is not possible.

If anyone of you has time or is eager to test this boot environment and can
post the results whether Windows 2000 Professioanal with SP4 and Windows XP
with SP2 dual boot environment are possible , that would be really great.

Or if someone is encountered a similar problem and can post recommendation
and resolution for solving this problem would be highly appreciated.

Regards

 

[Trevor]

Dear all,
I am in a pretty complex situation.

Here is the issue I am facing.
I am trying to install
Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 4) and Windows XP Professional
Edition for a client of mine.

Here are the laptop configurations on which I am installing the dual boot
environment:

Memory : 512 MB
Laptop Brand : Dell
Laptop Model : Dell Inspiron 8100

I tried this approach for installing Windows XP and Windows 2000
Professioanal SP4 dual boot environment:

1.) 1st I installed Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
2.) After installing Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4, I
installed Windows XP

Here is the Partition Information
C : NTFS Partition - Windows 2000 SP4 - 4 GB
D : Windows XP Professional with SP2 - 30 GB or greater

Now, when I boot Windows 2000 Professional it shows me a similar error
message:

could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Press repair .........

Since this is a fresh installation, I dont think any of the files should be
missing.
But I still spent 4 hours troubleshooting this problem by:

1.) Following Microsoft's advice by copy pasting the system and other files
again.
2.) Fixing the registry hives and so on

No Luck

However when I tried this:

1.) Windows XP Professiaonal with SP2 and
2.) Windows 2000 (NOT WITH SP4)

the dual boot environment worked.

Should it be concluded that Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
and Windows XP Professional SP2 dual boot environment is not possible.

If anyone of you has time or is eager to test this boot environment and can
post the results whether Windows 2000 Professioanal with SP4 and Windows XP
with SP2 dual boot environment are possible , that would be really great.

Or if someone is encountered a similar problem and can post recommendation
and resolution for solving this problem would be highly appreciated.

Regards

Its unclear if you are saying in your second example that you
installed Windows XP FIRST. Then installed Windows 2000 second.
That would be the recommended way. Then which ever OS you boot into
you will be able to apply the appropriate service packs.
Rule of thumb is to always install the newest OS first then the older
one.
Respectfully,

Trev

 

[Guest]

I will try it in your way.
Usually I used to think oldest first and newest last.

I installed oldest which is Windows 2000 Professioal with SP4 first and
Windows XP with SP2 last.

I will now try your method. Windows XP with SP2 first and Windows 2000 with
SP4 last.

Regards

 

[John John]

Your thinking is right, Trevor got it upside down... ;-)

John

 

[Guest]

Thanks John. You saved 2 hours of my time

Your thinking is right, Trevor got it upside down... ;-)

John

 

[John John]

No problem. Looking quickly at your original question I see that you
say that booting to Windows 2000 returns error:

file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Press repair .........

That doesn't quit jive. By default Windows 2000 should be installed in
folder WINNT. Look at your boot.ini file to see where the Windows 2000
installation points to, it seems to be pointing to a non existent folder
on the partition in question... if it even points to the right partition.

John

 

[Trevor]

OOPS.....Sorry guys....my thinking was right but my fingers outsmarted
me. I'm so sorry for that. I will be more careful in the future.
Thanks John for catching that.

Your thinking is right, Trevor got it upside down... ;-)

John

Respectfully,

Trev

 

[John John]

Boot to your Windows 2000 installation then change the system files
called NTDETECT.COM & ntldr with the ones from your Windows XP cd.
These are hidden files at the root of the system partition, usually C:\.
These files were replaced with the Windows 2000 versions when you did
the dual boot installation and the files are incapable of booting the
newer Windows XP, the XP version of the files are capable of booting
both Windows versions. Being that your colleague installed Windows 2000
on the same partition as Windows XP you probably now have a fine mess
with some of your folders, like the My Documents or the Program Files
folder...

John