Problems installing Win2X to partition

[miko]

Hi! Newbie here with some serious problems. I have a 40 GB hdd. Win ME is active. I'm wanting to place Win 2000 on a partition. I have Partition Magic and Boot Magic installed and have partitioned my hdd with 10GB for the Win 2000. The 10GB is NTFS and hidden. When all is partitioned after reboot, the Boot Magic loads and I click on the newly partitioned and named Win 2000. A message appears "Preparing machine to load Win 2000..." I have placed my Win 2000 cd in the cd drive and waited and waited and waited....... Nothing happens.

So, I went on a search on the internet and found this wonderful forum with some great information. I came across the Multiple Operating System Setup page. Included in the information is the XOSL.zip link with information regarding setup and installation. So, alas, I printed all of this information out, downloaded the XOSL.zip file, and proceeded to follow the directions.

Well, when I come to adding a second OS is where I run into a problem. When I place my Win 2000 in the cd drive and reboot, a message comes up "Loading Win ME..." Well, now it is hidden and doesn't load, of course. And, my computer totally disregards my cd drive and doesn't install the Win 2000.

Yikes!!! Can someone help me? I am so very lost and confused. My hair is turning grey and all I want to do is accomplish my tasks. Thank you so very much.

[glc]

It's really very easy to dual boot ME and 2K using the standard Win2K bootloader assuming that ME is already installed on C - just uninstall all the bootloading software you already have and remove the extra partition, leaving the desired space UNPARTITIONED. You may have to resys the C drive and run fdisk/mbr, if the machine will boot straight to ME you are ready to go. Then just boot with the 2K cd and tell it to install a fresh copy (NOT upgrade) on the unpartitioned space - and let 2K do the partitioning and formatting for you.

[miko]

Thank you. I will try that.

[miko]

Well, it's been 2 days since I began my journey of fixing this. I began by disabling my bootloading programs. XOSL gave me an error and when I exited the program I ended up with a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner of my screen. I tried to reboot....same blinking cursor. Got out the system disk I made when I first bought this computer. Thank God I made it. Well, Win ME refused to boot. So......here I go again...... I placed the system restore cd in the cd drive and rebooted to try and restore. Went through the process of restore. Rebooted and still a blinking cursor. So.... I did an entire format and restore. Rebooted.....still a blinking cursor. So....here I go again. Back to the fdisk and debug. Then the format and recover. Yeah!!! Now I have my Win ME working and I was able to get the partition taken care of. (I didn't reinstall the XOSL.) And I was able to install the Win 2K. Thank you so much.

Now I have a problem with my cd rom. Weird! I've spent many an hour now with HP and have again reinstalled system software. I will place this problem in another named forum "Problem with Mitsumi" so others can read it if they are having similar problems.

I'm so glad you guys are out there to help.