Next step past setting up dual-boot PC, any potholes?

[Kiwi]

I've installed XP once as a second OS to Win98, and another time as second to Win2000. Seemed much the same as when W2K was installed that way.

But I hope to set up a PC that is next beyond that, and want to know about potential mis-steps in the idea. I have one PC with Win98se, and Win2K already installed, each in its own separate partition, on a 120 GB Hdd. That is the one that I now want to add XP onto (I believe it will be the XP-Home, even though I do run a LAN at the house).

Not as an upgrade; I want to install onto a third partition. One thing I'm uncertain about is whether it will be best to run from the WinNT.Exe command line startup, or from W2K, or W98se. I already copied the i386 folder to a new folder on the partition (FAT32 - all partitions are FAT 32), and will run from there, not the CD.

I suspect that I will have to edit the boot menu to make it show all three. I don't know for certain how _that_ will work, however. This particular PC has 512 MB's of RAM, an Asus A7N8X-X system board, XP 3000 cpu, and an FX 5900 video adapter.

[Zend]

Firstly, there is no problem make any changes to the boot menu to show all 3 options. Secondly, you can install as many OSes on one HDD as long as you dont screw up during the installation procedure. And thirdly, why do you need so many OSes in the first place?

As for copying the i386 folder and running the WinNT.exe command....there is no need for that as long as you have a bootable installation cd, which they mostly are. Just keep in mind that before installing Win2k or Win XP Home/Pro, you have to install Win9x (Win98/ME) OSes first. Because the XP and 2k installations take care of the boot menu and add the options accordingly which the 9x installations dont. So if you have to install say, Win98, WinXP, Win2k, then you have to install Win98 first then you can install WinXp and Win2k in any order after that.

[glc]

Not exactly - oldest to newest - 2K before XP. You should just be able to install XP and the dual boot menu will become a triple boot menu if I'm not mistaken.

[Zend]

it shouldn't matter if it is old or new....should it?

i dint know that and i have even tried the other way round and it still works.

[Kiwi]

As Robert Browning wrote in a poem, "the best laid plans of mice and men .. "

Both copies of WindowsXP, Home and Pro, have sat on a software shelf since shortly after purchase. I tested the Pro version when it was still fairly new, on this PC I'm using today (XP 2100 now, it had a 1500 then, I think). I did not like it and deleted the partition it was on before ever activating. Before upgrading this PC to where it is now, I replaced a P-II/450 with a new system based on an XP 2600, and tested XP Home for an even shorter period on that one.

Same thing, it went back onto the software shelf. About the same time, I did end up with two PC's that were dual-booted between W98se and W2K. I still like using Win98se for dial-up to the net. It's faster and less targeted by the vandals writing malware. I also still boot W98 up occasionally for some older PC games.

I've waited on trying XP a third time until I couldn't avoid it, I didn't think. I'm an RPG game player, single player or LAN, not MMORPG. That's why I never thought I wanted to invest in state of the art 3D video, at the elevated cost that shooter players put up with. Oblivion supposedly won't run in W2K, and it supposedly wants a lot of 3D VGA accelleration. It's due out in another month, plus or minus.

TTBOMK, there was no SP1 being discussed before I turned my back on XP Home, so now with SP2 out, I was going to slipstream the Service Pack into the CD's install files. But I also decided not to let XP share the partition I'd been putting games into on the PC here that has an XP 3000 in it (A7N8X-X, 512 MB RAM, 120 MB Seagate primary Hdd, WD 60 GB Secondary, FX Vanilla 5900). When I used Partition Magic to cut off a separate partition in the unused space, it screwed Windows98 around enough that I might have to reinstall all of the game software.

It doesn't look like I can do what I wanted to do on that PC's primary drive, and it's my fastest PC. The secondary drive on it is basically a local system backup, so the logical drive lettering on it, other than "D" meant no difference to any programs. I expected the new partition to become H, and push the secondary drive's second and third partitions down the alphabet chain from H and I to I and J. Instead, at least in Win98se, the original G drive is now considered "inaccessible", and the contents are now renamed to J instead, with K as the newest logical drive.

I haven't looked at what happened from Win2K's orientation yet, but I don't think I can salvage the mess with what I know about Windows98 and Partition Magic. It looks like I'll have to kill the "K" off, and on this PC, use the utility from PM to redirect G's program shortcuts and links into J. Very bad bandaid stuff in my view. I might ask something about it in the W9X forum here first, though.

Yes, when it comes to Win9X, any variety, and WinNT, also any variety, the former must be on the system first to get the boot menu working. Oldest before newer is the route. Anything else requires even more work to repair the NT-based OS' install than doing it the right way.

I haven't decided what to do about Oblivion and XP yet.

[Zend]

WOW...what a mess.....

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Kiwi I have one PC with Win98se, and Win2K already installed, each in its own separate partition, on a 120 GB Hdd. That is the one that I now want to add XP onto (I believe it will be the XP-Home, even though I do run a LAN at the house). I want to install onto a third partition.

The XP install is pending -- I still want to run it from the CABs on the hard drive, but I will have to find the SP2 CD to work with first. It wasn't where I thought it should be. There also was a Microsoft walk-through about slipstreaming I'd found before my initial disappointment that I want to relocate. Today I wanted to run in Safe Mode.

It seems that a third reboot (of Windows98, anyway) is a charmed one. I didn't have that XP 3000 PC booted at all on Sunday, after some disappointing early examination of the results from Partition Manager's repartitioning job. This morning I'd thought to load an OS (either one) in Safe Mode, but there was some looping of the boot menu with W2K's separate F8 menu.

Instead of Safe Mode, I ended up in normal mode this morning. And suddenly Win98se is finding the "G" again, where it belongs, along with a new "H" the way I wanted. I don't think I've done anything myself that "should have" changed the previous odd naming of logical drives.

As previously noted, I'd expected the new partition to become H in Windows98, and push the secondary drive's second and third partitions down the alphabet chain from H and I to I and J. Instead, at least in Win98se's "My Computer", and in Windows Explorer, following the first two reboots of the OS after PM's procedures were supposed to be complete, the original G drive was being considered to be "inaccessible", and its contents were renamed to J instead, with K as the newest logical drive.

Previously, I'd reloaded Partition Magic, and found that IT was naming the drives the way I expected. Then, on the last reboot (Saturday?) before today, I loaded the (also Powerquest, since it's still version 6) utility "Drive Mapper" and didn't see any useful options in it, either.

Thanks to any and all who replied. Now, does anyone happen to recall where the F8 and Safe Mode access actually FITS IN when there is a dual boot? Immediately after choosing which OS I'll use? (That didn't seem to work just now in Win98 -- maybe I was a bit slow? I would swear that during the year and a half that I've had W98 & W2K dual-booting on that particular PC, I have had W2K running in Safe Mode, and just that way -- in between choosing it and seeing its splash screen.)

[glc]

Yes - it's immediately after choosing which OS to boot - and you have to be VERY quick.

[Kiwi]

Thanks!

Reflexes are one of the first things you can easily see slipping away when you enter your "Senior" years! I still haven't located my copy of the Service Pack, and I remember I received one. What I don't recall is exactly where I put it after it came! If I order another, it will be awhile before I get it (the MS order page said 4-6 weeks, but as I seem to recall in the past, most times it's been a little less).

(Added in edit: MS' download page tells me it's ten hours' worth to d/l on dial-up.

My neighborhood is 50 years-plus now, and the original POTS copper is still up. The only fiber is the cable company, and with almost no competition for wideband, their cost is too steep to budget for. I'm on a penurious fixed income, so dial-up has to be it for now.)

[glc]

If you have broadband, why not just download the whole SP2 install?

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...35-SP2-ENU.exe