[MagicMarkie]

First, I am new here (first post) and I don't know if I'm in the correct forum. I also don't understand how or why tho use the items below this message space. Please excuse my being new.

I have a Pentium 200 w/MMX, 128 MB Ram, Three 20 GB HDD's & CR/Rom.
The System is running Windows 98 SE. I'm using Fat32 on the Drives.

I want to make this system a Dual Boot with Window 2000. I would also like to make the third drive NTFS so I can study and learn all the security and encryption features. I know that Win 98 will not be able to see that drive after I convert it to NTFS

First, is the P200 w/ MMX fast enough to run Win 2K & is 128 MB enough Ram ?

Second, how do I go about adding Win 2K. Does it have to be installed in a separate partition on the boot drive ? I read that the OS's have to be put on the system in Legacy order; Win 98 SE FIRST, then Win 2K, etc.

Please correct me if I have that wrong.

I read in an older Windows Magazine that I can just install Win 2k on the same partition as Win 98 SE, however, I would like some expert opinions on the proper way to do this.
I would appreciate any help I can get with this, as I need to have Win 2k on one of my machines for study purposes (A+ Essentials & A+ IT Tech).
Having the Dual Boot system would also be a good learning tool.

Thank you.
MagicMarkie

[ZeRealBigBoss]

Windows is a very egocentric system and also amongst each other the different versions do not like to share a machine at start-up. Dual Windows boot systems is asking for trouble; but if you want to try do this:

Transfer the data from the disk that you want to convert to NTFS to the other non-system disk, disconnect the drive with W98 and and connect the drive of w2k as first master. Install W2k; it will ask for conversion of the disk to NTFS. Connect the W98 drive as second master or primary slave. Edit the BOOT.INI file on C: as required; look here: http://labmice.techtarget.com/window...ll/bootini.htm That should do the job.

Better is to get a boot manager; GRUB is a good one.

Why do you not convert the whole thing to W2K?

You can run W2K on your machine as it is, but you will notice that in speed you will lose a lot. Getting more memory would improve that somewhat but not much.

[Dan Penny]

The steps outlined above seems to be excessive for accomplishing a 98/2000 dual boot.

Simply boot with the 2000 CD and install to your "extra" drive, making it NTFS in the process. The 2000 SETUP process will show all hard disks found. Just ensure you're working with the correct hard disk.

Win 2000 will place a boot.ini file in the root of C: (the 98 drive) with any dual boot parameters automatically put in place. That's it. No editing of the boot.ini or "extra" boot managers involved.

If you decide to remove 2000 later on, just boot with either a Win98SE Boot Disk (floppy ), or a FAT16 or FAT32 capable boot CD and delete the NTFS (NON-DOS) partitions with fdisk, then run the "sys C:" command. This will "reset" the MBR on C: and enable booting straight into 98 again. The boot.ini file on C: can then be deleted.

[MagicMarkie]

Thanks for the info Dan. I'll give that a try. I'm told it may be a bit slow, but I just want to have Win 2000 running for study purposes to work towards my A+. I appreciate your help.
Mark

[Dan Penny]

Glad to help. Download the Win2000 SP4 (129.2 MB) then install it as soon as you finish the 2000 installation, prior to loading any other software.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

The page takes a while to load (at least on my machine).