Advice needed on dual-booting

[packman 0]

Situation is that I have the following disk partitions, currently with just Win2K on the root. I now want to install WinXP on the E partition, and therefore to have an arrangement where I can select, between Win2K and WinXP, the operating system to boot to.

 

C: Primary, active (Win2K)

D: reserved, Logical

E: Primary (for WinXP)

F: reserved, Logical

 

Win2K is using NTFS and I intend WinXP to also use NTFS.

 

I'd appreciate some assistance in sorting out the following queries:

 

1. When installing the Setup for WinXP, will it be necessary to set up the BIOS to boot from CD-ROM (as is the case with Win2K), or is that no longer required when installing WinXP? The impression I've had is that you just put the WinXP CD into the drive and it will immediately come up with the message "Press any key to boot from CD".

 

2. To get these two operating systems to work as a dual-boot arrangement, will I need to install or uninstall any specific files, or will it all be taken care of automatically and in the background by boot.ini? I gather that, by configuring Startup & Recovery, in System Properties Advanced tab, I'll be allowed to choose between Win2K and WinXP at boot-up.

 

3. At present, the root partition (C partition) is the active partition. So, when the WinXP Setup eventually asks me how to set and format the selected partition for it (in this case, the E partition), will I be allowed to set E to Active, or will that be denied? My understanding is that you can't have two operating systems active at the same time (but maybe they're not considered active until one or the other is actually booted?).

 

 

[danleff 0]

Did you see this Microsoft article?

[packman 0]

Yes, I've seen that, thanks. It helps a bit.

 

Actually, when I view that webpage with Firefox 2.0, it won't display anything beyond the Supported File Systems paragraph. Only a few of the hyperlinks there seem to work, in other words. Using Internet Explorer, though, it's fine. Looks like there are some bugs to get ironed out in Firefox 2.0 yet.

 

Some of Microsoft's articles on installing and using XP, including dual-booting, can be subject to misinterpretation, I've found. For instance, the following article:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/install.mspx

 

seems to be saying that all you need do to start the WinXP Setup is simply to put the XP CD into the drive. I don't believe that for one minute. Surely, you have to go into the BIOS first and change to boot from the CD, especially so when you're trying to install a second operating system in tandem?