Dual-booting Windows 9x and Windows 2000 The majority of Windows users usually have only one version of Windows installed on their PC, but it is possible to have multiple versions of Windows installed and switch back and forth. This process is called dual- booting. The reason for setting up a dual-boot environment could be if you prefer one version of Windows for some things, but prefer another version of Windows for other things. For example, you might prefer using Windows 2000 (W2K) for working, word processing, e-mail, etc., but prefer Windows 98 for playing games. Another reason could be compatibility issues. You might not be able to run certain applications in W2K, or might not have a driver for a certain piece of hardware for one of your OS's. Or maybe you'd like to poke around W2K, but are not ready to make the commitment yet and want to keep your existing Windows 98 installation. Whatever your reason is, you can have the best of both worlds and you'll be astounded at how simple and easy it is to configure a dual boot system. Microsoft may be criticized for many things, but one thing they got right is how they've set up W2K to dual boot with any of their consumer oriented operating systems. It's a cinch to do. Before you get started Before you do anything, back up your data. Copy anything you cannot afford to lose to some form of safe removable media. With the extremely low cost of either recordable CDs or tape there is no reason not to do this. We recommend reviewing our backup article - http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/backup1.html - for information on how and what to back up. W2K comes with a plethora of drivers for all kinds of hardware. But the list is not necessarily complete. If you have a really old and outdated piece of equipment, or something brand-spanking new that came on the market right around the same time or after W2K was released, W2K will not have drivers for it and you need to supply your own. Make a list of devices and hardware used in or with your PC, and visit the Microsoft Windows 2000 Compatibility web site - http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/upgrade/compat/default.asp - to check the hardware compatibility list - http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/deployment/readiness/default .asp - and/or download the W2K Readiness Analyzer Tool to scan your system for compatibility. After that, visit each manufacturer's web site - http://www.pcnineoneone.com/links.html#manufacturers - to make sure that W2K drivers are available. But don't expect everybody to have drivers ready right away. A lot of manufacturers didn't release drivers until a few weeks or even months after W2K became available. And you might not find a driver at all for some older legacy products because the manufacturer decided not to support the device in W2K. Tip: For some devices, Windows NT 4.0 drivers might work as a temporary solution. As long as you pay attention to a few basic but important rules, this will be very easy to set up. The C: partition on your hard drive can be either FAT16 or FAT32. W2K can recognize FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS. If you want to be able to share files between the two operating systems, you can use FAT16 or FAT32. If you convert a partition that contains data that you wish to access from both Windows 9x and W2K to NTFS, Windows 9x will not recognize it. Install Windows 9x first, W2K second. This is the easiest way because W2K will recognize the existing Windows 9x installation, and modify its built- in boot menu accordingly to give you the choice of booting either Windows 9x or W2K. Install each OS into its own partition. This will avoid confusion between the two and unexpected behavior, as well as help you stay organized and distinguish clearly between the two operating systems. Windows 9x before W2K Now that you know what to pay attention to, it's time to get started and install Windows 98 first. If you already have Windows installed you can skip this paragraph. However, if you would like to upgrade or start over fresh, with a clean installation of Windows 9x before installing W2K in a dual boot configuration, read on. For Windows 9x users the drill for a clean installation is to use the boot floppy disk provided with your Windows CD to format your C: partition, reboot, switch to your CD-ROM and run the Windows setup program. To upgrade all you need to do is drop the CD-ROM in the tray while in Windows and follow the prompts. If you are not completely confident in your ability to clean install Windows, refer to our Windows Clean Install article - http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html - for more information. Before you proceed to the next step, make sure that your installation of Windows 9x is stable and healthy; run Scandisk in Thorough mode followed by Defrag. Spend a little time looking around and running programs. Install any major updates whether security or reliability related. It's a good idea to use the OS for a few days to make sure everything has settled down after the initial installation. Setting up W2K for dual-boot step-by-step Once you have Windows 9x installed and running properly, it is time to install W2K. Boot into Windows 9x and insert the W2K CD. If the setup screen does not appear automatically, go to Start/Run and type X:\setup where X: is the letter of your CD-ROM drive. Click OK to start W2K setup. You now might see a window popping up, asking you if you want to upgrade your current version of Windows. Since you want to set up a dual-boot configuration and preserve your existing Windows 9x installation, it is important that you answer No. Now you'll see the actual setup screen. Click on Install Windows 2000 to begin. The first screen of the W2K setup wizard will ask you whether you want to upgrade to W2K (no, since you want to set up a dual-boot configuration) or install a new copy of W2K. Choose the second option and click Next. After accepting the license agreement, you'll see a screen with three buttons. The middle one, called Advanced Options, is the important one. Click it. In the resulting dialog box, be sure to check the box next to I want to choose the installation partition during Setup. This will allow you to put W2K into its own partition a bit later in the text based portion of setup. Click OK, then Next to proceed. W2K setup checks your computer, copies some files, then reboots your machine. If you watch the screen carefully during the reboot process, you might catch a glimpse of the startup menu you'll use in the future to dual-boot. The next part of the setup looks kinda ugly, but don't worry, it's not a blue screen of death, that's the way it's supposed to look. After hitting Enter to start the actual setup process, you'll be presented with a screen displaying the existing partitions on your hard drive. Here you need to select a partition OTHER than the one where Windows 9x is currently installed as the installation location for W2K. Highlight the appropriate partition and hit Enter. The next screen will ask you about the file system for your W2K partition. Remember that Windows 9x cannot read NTFS, therefore you should choose to keep it as FAT16 or FAT32 if there is any chance that you might need to access data on this partition from Windows 9x. After checking your drives, W2K setup will copy more files and then reboot your machine. The most important part of the setup that enables your dual- boot configuration is now behind you. W2K setup will now continue with the last portion of the process which is GUI based. In this portion your hardware will be detected and installed. Simply follow the prompts to complete the installation. Be patient as this part can take quite a while to complete. The W2K installation can take quite a bit longer than a Windows 9x installation. Dual-boot action After the installation is finished and you reboot, you'll notice that W2K has already set up the dual-boot menu automatically. Simply choose which OS to boot into with your arrow keys. You can modify the menu after booting W2K by right-clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, going to the Advanced tab and clicking the Startup and Recovery button. Here you can choose which OS will be booted by default as well as how long to display the boot menu. This information is being stored in a file called boot.ini located in the root directory of your C: drive. This file can be edited with any text editor, but unless you want to change the description of the menu items, or remove a menu option that is not supposed to be there, you should not edit this file as you can ruin your boot menu. So be careful. Running the same application in multiple Windows operating systems One significant advantage of dual-booting two versions of Windows is that in many cases you can install one instance of an application and use it in either OS. To do so, you simply install the program under one OS, then boot to the other OS and install the program again into the very same location (provided it is able to run under both versions of the OS of course). The reason for this is that each OS needs to have the proper registry settings in order to operate the program. The second installation, regardless of order, should harmlessly overwrite the files from the first installation. There is a caveat though. This approach will not work properly if the program you are installing uses its own INI files to govern its configuration. Summary Setting up a dual-boot system with Windows 9x and Windows NT/2000 is pretty simple if you follow these few basic rules. Once you're done you'll find that each operating system has its strengths and weaknesses. If you're a gamer you'll probably spend more time in Windows 9x. However, if you use your computer as a productivity tool, perhaps for work, you'll find Windows 2000 is a significantly more powerful environment. And of course, if you're the adventurous type you could add a third operating system into the mix, thus increasing the versatility of just one computer exponentially. Ah, the endless possibilities ... http://www.PCNineOneOne.com