So far I've managed to set up 3 partitions on a 40Gb HD, the largest of which is for XP (20Gb), while 10Gb each for 98 and XP.

I first installed 98SE on a FAT32 partition, then initiating the 2000 install while in 98SE to the next partition.  The rest of the install requires a reboot and is done pre-boot.

The first time I tried to set up XP on the 3rd partition, I must have initiated the XP setup prior to either OS booting.  However, during the installation, some errors were received involving System32\hal.dll for XP, either corrupt or missing. :(
Eventually, it proved to be a disaster, refusing to install, and somehow corrupting the 98 partition in the process.

After starting all over again, the same processes for 98 and 2000 as before (which work fine), I initiated the XP setup while in 2000, selecting a fresh installation to a new partition.  Like 2000 setup, this reboots and performs the rest of the install as before.

However, this time it successfully installs XP, at the cost of removing 2000 from the boot options.  The 2000 partition is still there, but has been removed from the boot sequence.
I manually edited XP's boot.ini file to include 2000, but when re-booting, and having 2000 as an available option, upon selection, my old friend, System32\hal.dll (this time, 2000's hal.dll I presume) is missing or corrpt.  :'(

Has anyone managed to successfully install 2000 and XP together as a dual boot system?  Or set up a disk with more than 2 OS' to boot from?

I have heard that there is difficulty in getting 2000 and XP to be installed this way.

I don't know about XP and 2000 but a linux/w98/xp 3-boot works fine on my brother's pc, but it has a selection in 2 stages... first the lilo boot manager where you select linux or windows and second the xp boot manager where you select between w98 and xp, so I think you got a different issue but I belive it can be done.

(Maybe try installing in this order 98-XP-2K)

Worst case scenario: hiding partitions and rewriting the mbr every time you need another os

I have :
Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Longhorn (old beta, doesn't work anymore since I cannot activate it  ::)) and Slackware 10 (Linux)

I removed all te partitions. Installed Windows '98
After that I installed Windows 2000. I installed Windows XP and then Longhorn. At this point I had 4 systems running well. They all have their own partition. With the install of Slackware 10 I installed LILO. It's a bootloader.
This bootloader shows up and I can start either Linux of Windows. When I select Windows the Windows bootloader shows up and shows all the Windows versions.

Installing Windows '98, 2000 and XP on 1 system is no problem. All you need is the following :

A stable computer

Good media (CD's of Windows must be functional)

A computer which is able to run Windows XP ( :P )

Install the Operating Systems in a good order. That means --> Install Windows 98, then install Win2K and at last install Windows XP.

Maybe it's a good idea to clean the drive. Remove all the partitions and begin from a clean start  :)

wrote on 03.07.05 at 13:35:14:

Install Windows 98, then install Win2K and at last install Windows XP. Maybe it's a good idea to clean the drive. Remove all the partitions and begin from a clean start  :)

I've tried this many times, but still no joy.  >:(

@Thandor, please could you post the contents of your boot.ini file?

I may have misconfigured mine, as I had to manually edit it to include Win2k once again.

wrote on 03.07.05 at 14:40:10:

I've tried this many times, but still no joy.  >:( @Thandor, please could you post the contents of your boot.ini file? I may have misconfigured mine, as I had to manually edit it to include Win2k once again.

If everything is alright you don't have to modify the boot.ini manually since Windows will take care of this :).

Nevertheless, my boot.ini

Quote:

[boot loader] timeout=10 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows Longhorn" /FASTDETECT /DETECTHAL multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /FASTDETECT /NoExecute=OptIn multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /FASTDETECT c:\BOOTSECT.DOS="Microsoft Windows 98 SE"

The "Microsoft Windows 98 SE" originally was "Previous Operating System" . I deleted the "Microsoft Windows" entry since it's useless to have 2 options to choose for the same operating system  ::) :P

wrote on 03.07.05 at 13:35:14:

I removed all te partitions. Installed Windows '98 After that I installed Windows 2000. I installed Windows XP and then Longhorn. At this point I had 4 systems running well. They all have their own partition.

@Thandor -

Windows 98 Setup
For Windows 98, I am assuming you installed this from a boot disk, as normal?


Windows 2000 Setup
For Windows 2000, did you install it by either:

a) Booting from the 2000 setup CD without going into Windows 98 first?

b) Booting Windows 98 first, insert the 2000 CD, choose 'New Installation' to a new partition? (see below)

http://www.jstorey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2000setup98.png


Windows XP Setup
For Windows XP, did you install it by either:

a) Booting from the XP setup CD without going into Windows 98 or 2000 first?

b) Booting Windows 98 first, insert the XP CD, choose 'New Installation' to a new partition?

b) Booting Windows 2000 first, insert the XP CD, choose 'New Installation' to a new partition?


Sorry for the quiz  ;), but the way you may have installed XP will help me out a lot in solving my problems.

wrote on 29.07.05 at 19:34:48:

@Thandor - Windows 98 Setup For Windows 98, I am assuming you installed this from a boot disk, as normal?

I used a bootdisk to create a FAT32 partition. Copied the Win 98 cab files (install files) onto the 'new' drive and installed Windows '98 in a normal way.

Quote:

Windows 2000 Setup For Windows 2000, did you install it by either: a) Booting from the 2000 setup CD without going into Windows 98 first? b) Booting Windows 98 first, insert the 2000 CD, choose 'New Installation' to a new partition? (see below) http://www.jstorey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2000setup98.png

As far as I can remember I booted directly from the CD. Anyhow it shouldn't make sense since both ways should work.

Quote:

Windows XP Setup For Windows XP, did you install it by either: a) Booting from the XP setup CD without going into Windows 98 or 2000 first? b) Booting Windows 98 first, insert the XP CD, choose 'New Installation' to a new partition? b) Booting Windows 2000 first, insert the XP CD, choose 'New Installation' to a new partition? Sorry for the quiz  ;), but the way you may have installed XP will help me out a lot in solving my problems.

Again, as far as I remember I booted directly from the CD.

On a different computer (which didn't allow me to boot from the CD) I booted Windows 2000 and started the install. Option 'A' and 'B2' (:P) should work. Probably option 'B1' will work too but I didn't tested it.

If you install Windows '98 as described above and use the boot capability of the CD of Windows 2000 the dualboot between '98 and 2000 should work.
After that you should boot the Windows XP setup directly from the CD and install it normally.

Remember : Never try to install 2 versions of Windows on 1 partition. Each operating system must have it's own 'drive'.

If you want to use the bootloader of Microsoft you should install Windows '98 first. Then 2000 and at last Windows XP.  ;)

Yeah, sorry about the typo.  That should have been (c).  ;)

I always create a seperate partition for each Windows install.

I did it exactly the same way as you for 98.
For 2000, I went into 98 first then started the 2000 install.
For XP, I went into 2000 then started the XP install.

For some reason, the problem I always seem to get is:

I can run either Windows 98, 2000 and NOT XP.

OR

Run XP, 2000 and not 98 (if I rebuild the bootcfg using XP's recovery console

bootcfg /rebuild

Currently, the only way I can get all 3 OS' to boot is:

Have 98 or 2000 boot, if 98 partition is the active partition.

If I want XP, I have to go into 2000, and from Administrative Tools, set the XP partition to be the active partition.  This requires a reboot, which then takes me straight into XP.

If I want 98 again, use Administrative Tools in XP to set 98 as active partition.

I think I'm just going to start from scratch again.  ::)

Hmm, strange.

What if you do the following:

• Delete all partitions.
  
• Create one new FAT32 partition for Windows '98
  Make sure it's active and for compatibility you should use a partition of 32GB of smaller.
  
• Format C: /S
  This will make your partition bootable.
  
• Install a CD-ROM driver to copy the Windows '98 setup files onto the harddrive. (from D:\WIN98\*.* to C:\WIN98CAB)
  
• Goto C:\WIN98CAB and install Windows '98 in a normal way. Usually I use the parameters /ie /im /is /iv but they are not neccesary.
  
• After installing Windows '98 you should install Windows '98 completely (drivers and so on)
  
• When Windows '98 is up and running you should pop in the Windows 2000 CD. Reboot the computer and boot from CD and install Windows 2000 on a second partition. I used a 5GB NTFS partition.
  
• Make sure you install Windows 2000 correctly. After it's fully operational you have to pop in the Windows XP CD.
  
• Reboot the computer and install Windows XP directly from the CD. Install it in a normal way on a third partition. After a install it should work.

But, notice the following:
1:
After installing one operating system it's advisable to install the drivers (and so on) too. It would be a shame if you installed all the Windows version and screwed up Windows 2000 with a corrupt driver (or something). If you need a complete reinstall the Windows XP installation will be corrupted too. That means you've got to install Windows XP again too.
2:
Create partitions during installation procedure. Install Windows '98 on C:\ which is a FAT32 drive with a capacity of 32GB or less. Do not create the partitions for Windows 2000 and Windows XP yet.
Create the Windows 2000 partition during the Windows 2000 setup. For Windows XP you have to do the same.

I don't know if my way of installing is "the official" way to install but as far as I know it should work as long as you follow the rules. (Well, at least, it seems to work here  ::))

I'm currently in the middle of it.  ;)

So far, Windows 98 has been installed.

I am now proceeding to install 2000, but I wanted to wait until I had your reply.

Now I have it, I will boot 98, insert the 2000 CD, then reboot and initiate the 2000 setup when booting from the CD.

I will do the same for XP if 2000 is successful.  I'll let you know how I get on.  :)

OK ;D

If it won't work I'll pop in an old 20GB drive in my AMD Duron and test it out  ;)

Maybe with DOS, Windows '98, ME, 2K, XP, 2K3, MCE2005 and Linux on one drive (if possible  :P)

Success, my friend!  ;D

At last!  All I had to do was install them from boot.  :)

Previously as I said, to install 2000, I went into 98 to initialise 2000's setup, doing the same for XP by going into 2000 first.

By installing 98 as per usual, rebooting and initialising 2000's install before an OS start (using the discs as boot CD's to start the setups) and doing the same for XP, this worked fine.  :)

From now on, the boot loader has no problems accessing ALL 3 Windows OS'.  :D  Hurrah!

If I only had tried that first, I would have saved myself all the trouble.  ::)

What helped was knowing how you, Thandor, had set up your OS', also by booting from the setup CD.  That's what I intend to do from now on in the future.  Thanks again!  ;D