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Dual Boot for Windows

  • 16-01-2005 10:29pm
    #1
    Cork Skate
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 884 ✭✭✭


    Lads, i have Win XP on my C: drive and want to install another OS on my other drive. I have Windows ME from my last PC so want ot put that on. I heard that there are problems with putting on earlier versions of Windows on after a newer one ..... is that true ??
    Could i take out my XP drive and make the other the primary and install ME and then swap them over again ??


Comments

  • #2
    kaimera
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,396 ✭✭✭✭kaimera


    why bother with ME if you have XP?

    ME == the bastard child of OS'


  • #3
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,567 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Cork Skate wrote:
    Lads, i have Win XP on my C: drive and want to install another OS on my other drive. I have Windows ME from my last PC so want ot put that on. I heard that there are problems with putting on earlier versions of Windows on after a newer one ..... is that true ??
    Could i take out my XP drive and make the other the primary and install ME and then swap them over again ??
    You would need a seperate license for ME because of M$ licensing (maybe you might get away with a downgradable corporate licensing one - but IIRC that means it has to be on subscription advantage or something stupid like that)
    Also if it is OEM ME then you can't install it on another machine - ever.
    Also AFAIK XP does not have downgrade rights so you couldn't install ME instead of it.
    Also if you had an upgrade copy of ME that was used to upgrade an OEM version of windows then it also can't be moved to another machine.


    If you had a retail version of ME then you could remove it from the other PC and try to install in on XP. Since Microsoft insist on NTFS on most OEM installs you would need to make some room for a FAT 32 partition. Also NTFS is slightly different from that used in NT4. (best option with dual boot machines is to always partition / format with the oldest OS and intall the oldest one first) With some Manu's this could be as easy as formattting D: - if only C: then use ntfsresize (Linux tool) to free up some space and then make the partition and then install.


  • #4
    Cork Skate
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 884 ✭✭✭Cork Skate


    I have an ME disk ..... I bought it, it had it on another machine and that is chucked out now, (lighting, PC toasted, horrible experience :p ) so i want to install ME on another drive .... a totally seperate slave hard drive, not a partition at all. Its drive letter is F: ...... can it not be done ???


  • #5
    Cork Skate
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 884 ✭✭✭Cork Skate


    Any takers on this one .... Would be handy to if i can !!


  • #6
    MrPinK
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,502 ✭✭✭MrPinK


    I'd say most people are still in shock that you want to inflict ME on your machine.

    You can install ME on the other HD, no problem with that. Getting XP to boot again afterwards will require a bit of work. Read this. But installing ME sounds like a complete waste of a perfectly good HD if you ask me.


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  • #7
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I've done this many times, but it can be very complicated to get working, especially the first time.

    There's not a huge problem with installing older versions over new ones, provided you install each OS to a different partition. The biggest problem is that the boot sector might get overwritten, rendering XP unbootable. However this is easily fixed by using the free BootPart utility which you can download from http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm. You can also use BootPart to dump the Win9x partition's boot sector to a file so you can use the NT bootloader screen to dual boot.

    If your XP drive is formatted in NTFS it could get tricky. You'll need to shift it up a few gigs and put your DOS/Win9x partition at the start of the drive (DOS can only boot off a primary partition situated within the first 2GB of your boot drive). Swapping drives over won't work.

    Let me know if you still want to try it and I'll be more specific, lol.


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