Full Guide to OS Dual Booting

Dual-booting Microsoft Operating Systems is a fairly standard practice for many users nowadays. Using this system you can gain the reliability & security of Windows 2000, or whenever you feel like gaming, switch back to the speed (Although Windows 2000 is faster in some cases) & compatibility offered by Windows 98/Me.

This guide is more concerned with dual-booting Windows 98/Millennium Edition & Windows 2000 than the older Microsoft Operating Systems. This is basically because A. Windows 95 is too old now for most to still be using it, B. NT4 while also old has other limitations, e.g. inability to recognize FAT32, limited DirectX support, etc. While a lot of the procedure here may well apply to those earlier Operating Systems I’ll not be going into extra detail to mention those extra…... issues.

Requirements

While these are probably stating the obvious (well, partially), there are a few requirements you should meet before you even attempt dual-booting.

1. Windows 98/Me & Windows 2000 CD’s. Obviously you need to have some combination of these. Installing with OEM versions (Particularly of Windows 2000) may be a pain for many however so the retail versions are recommended.

2. Large hard drive(s). Installing 2 Operating Systems can take up a lot of hard drive space. I’d recommend having at least a 4 Gig hard drive, preferably a fast one at that. Although preferably you’d have 2 separate UDMA capable hard drives.

3. 128MB RAM or more. While it’s probably not technically a requirement – Windows 2000 is very RAM intensive. No serious users should have less than this amount of RAM.

Backup

Before you do anything else you should backup any important data you have, & whatever else needs to be saved. Once you’re happy that everything’s saved proceed to the next section.

NOTE – Please remember the process of re-partitioning/re-formatting will permanently remove all data on a hard drive.

Startup disks

Obviously it’s a good idea to make a Startup disk for each OS in case you run into any problems with either OS & you’ll need such a disk for the next procedure. If you didn’t get one with your current OS then (In Windows 98/Me); Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel. Open Add/Remove Programs & select the Startup Disk tab. Select the Create Disk button (Insert a blank floppy disk when required) to make your Startup Disk.

If you wish to make a Windows 2000 Startup Disk you will require 4 floppy disks. To make the Startup Disk(s) for Windows 2000, insert the Windows 2000 CD. Open Windows Explorer & navigate to the CD\DVD drive where the Windows 2000 CD is located. On the CD enter the BOOTDISK folder. Run (Double click it) the MAKEBOOT.EXE file & follow the prompts as instructed. Be sure to label the Windows 2000 disks 1-4 to make it easier to boot from the floppy disks (They need to be inserted in order).

If your BIOS supports Bootable CD’s you may use your Windows 2000 CD, rather than the 4 floppy disks instead.

Setup - Partitioning

Before you install Windows 98/Me you will want to re-partition your hard drive. Insert the Startup/Boot disk & reboot your Computer – setting your BIOS to boot from the floppy drive first. Once this disk has been booted from (To a Command prompt) type in fdisk & hit Enter.

You’ll be greeted with a screen as shown below (After selecting Yes to enable Large disk support).
[ click here to download full tutorial ]