Multiple operating systems on 1 hard disk: HELP WANTED PLZ

[Bartman]

Hi,

Is it possible to install a copy of Windows 2000 Pro on a new primary partition, but after the first 8 GB of the hard disk ? (I already have Windows 2000 Pro on the first 8 GB)

Can anyone help me with this ?

Thx.

[Force Flow]

Welcome to PCMech, Bartman!

Why would you want a dual boot of the same O/S?

[bearcub]

force_flow2002
Computer Slayer asked:[quote]
Why would you want a dual boot of the same O/S?[/qoute]

I dual boot my ME O/S. I do it because the orginal loading had errors in it that I don't know how to fix. So, instead of formatting the drive and starting everything all over, and not having a usable computer in the meantime, I partitioned the drive and used both while I got the new ME up to where I wanted it. I can think of other reasons too, but that was mine.

Back to Bartman's original question. I don't know about 2000, but I was able to divide my first 8 GB's so that I could have two bootable ME O/S's . I did it with "Partition Magic." It does take a while. First I had to move a bunch of programs I don't use much to another Drive. Same physical drive, I just added a letter. Which was good as I can now access those programs from the New bootable ME.

Anyway, I started changing things at about 5:00 PM. It took until about 10:00 PM to get done. I didn't have to sit there the whole time, the program did most of the work. Then when I actually ran the bootable drive portion, I started it and went to sleep. Next morning, all done.

Except for all of the loading. First the O/S, then a bunch of drivers, then my ISP program, then the programs that I really like. All the while, adjusting the settings and such. Took about two months for me to get it working better than my old ME O/S.

Now I keep the old ME O/S to experiment with. Not knowing much about computers, having a bootable drive that I can mess with is kind of nice. If I mess it up, I have the other in back up, so that I can come here and maybe get some help.

Sorry, I can't really help more than that. Be advised, that "Partition Magic" is said to be for advanced computer users. I'm not, but I made some mistakes along the way that I was fortunate enough to work through. Good luck.

[Bartman]

bearcub thx for replying, but I knew already how I had to do that (with Partition Magic 7.0).

Another question first:
If I have to install win2k Pro on a new partition within the 8 GB, so on the first partition where already win2k Pro is installed and I want to do this by running the setup on the current Win2k Pro (so I don't have to format again), than is there an option during the install of win2k Pro to choose the partition where you want to install it or will it automatically install on the current active partition ?

force_flow2002, I want the same OS for almost the same reason as bearcub: to experiment with.

[Bartman]

Problem solved.

When running Win2k (Pro) setup.exe from the cd, I first had to choose to install a new copy of Win2k (Pro) and after that I had to select an option that says to choose the partition during setup.

I successfully installed Win2k (Pro) onto the new primary partition located at the end of my 80 GB hard disk, so I did NOT had to install it in a partition located in the first 8 GB.

[bearcub]

Cool. I'm glad it worked. Seems that the first 8GB was a hold over from the old days, about 2 weeks ago it seems, where the large HD's only had 8GB's.

Maybe, when I'm more comfortable with computers, I'll play around with it some more. Which is why I started coming here to learn more. Which I most certainly am.