Please HELP my good people... (Win 2K + ME together)

[FilthX 0]

My problem is that I am trying to make Win 2K and Win Me to work together. I have separated my HD in two partitions and installed on the second Win ME in FAT32. After that I installed Win 2K Pro on the first partition converting it to NTFS. The problem is that I can not open Win Me now. When I choose it at the menu, when the computer starts, the only think I can see is just the cursor blinking...

If anyone knows how to make my computer work with these two operating systems and like to help me please post the reply.

 

Thanks anyway.

George (FilthX)

[Down8 0]

I think you need to have your boot partition as a FAT partition to be able to dual boot.

 

From the Win2K help files:

-----

How to create a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows 2000

 

You will be less likely to encounter problems installing a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows 2000 if you install these operating systems in the following order: MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then Windows 2000.

 

You must reformat and repartition your hard drive if:

 

You have only one volume.

The boot volume is formatted as NTFS.

-----

 

[e]

Oh yeah: search 'partition' in Win2K help to get this entry.

[/e]

 

-bZj

 

[This message has been edited by Down8 (edited 18 February 2001).]

[FilthX 0]

Thank you very much for your help but as you can read on the original message, i DID install Win ME first and AFTER that i installed Win 2K.

The first partition ( C: ) has now win 2K and the second ( E: ) has Win ME. I thought I could do something using Recovery Console but...

Anyway, thank you again Down8.I wouldn't like to format my HD again (sick of it ) so if there is any tool that fixes the boot or something that I could do with my problem described in the original message, I would be very glad if you let me know.

 

George (FilthX)

[CUViper 0]

The point Down8 was making is that you converted the first partition to NTFS, which is a no-no. For any Win9x os to work, the first partition in the system needs to be a FAT partition. If you want to fix it without re-installing, you could use partition magic to convert it back to Fat32. It would be better if you just re-installed though.

[bug_666 0]

it's best to install WinME first and then install win2k.

[Down8 0]

"Win 2K Pro on the first partition converting it to NTFS"

 

The first partition has to be FAT, WinME going on 'first', while easier, isn't necessary, as long as the first 'partition' (not installation) is FAT.

 

Re-formatting you hdd is the only way to fix this without thrid-party programs (I think some programs can convert back from NTFS to FAT).

 

-bZj

[Mike Zamarocy 1]

One idea for thought that MIGHT work - in some computer BIOS, you can select which hard drive to boot from. It might be possible to use that to select which OS you want to boot - sort of make them completely seperate installations.

 

But I wonder also, remember System Commander???? I wonder if there is an NTFS version that might work???

[Brian Frank 0]

Doing a dual boot with Win2k and Win9x, I see. Have the whole hard drive as FAT32. Ive never run into any problems with a dual boot like this. As far as I know, there no utility that will let you convert NTFS to FAT32 without reformatting that partition.

Its best to install 9x first then 2k. That was really bad to have mixed filesystems.

Yes, you will have to reformat and repartition your hard drive. Life sux, FilthX.