Dual Booting

[Storm282]

Hello

My question is about installing two operating systems on one drive...
Should both OS's be installed on the active partition or should I place the second OS in a different partition ? If I split them up ... the computer will boot the OS that is in the active,(primary) partition , correct ?

[iisbob]

Hello Storm282 and welcome to the PCGuide! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

To answer your question, yes-the active partition will be the boot partition, however you can have up to 4 active partitions; not in 98-but Operating systems based on the NT kernel allow you to have up to 4.

You can install two version's of windows on the same partition; ie: Windows 98 and windows 2000 since they both put their system files into two different folders ( actually you could have two version's of 98 in the same partition as long as you had two seperate window's folders; like c:\windows & c:\windows2 ) the 95 version's go into the \windows folder ( so does XP even tho it's NT based-it's an exception ) and originally NT version's go into the \winnt folder.

However, it's best to give them thier own seperate partition's, this way you don't run the risk of corrupting any important system files. With the NT version's of window's it'll create a bootldr file that'll give you a choice of operating systems to choose from; if you use 95 and 98, you'll have to use a third parety program to dual boot them as 98 doesn't contain a native bootldr for multiple operating system's on a system.

Hope this answer's some of your question. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif



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iisbob

The man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something that will always be useful and which never will grow dim or doubtful. -- Mark Twain.

[Styx]

Please see the excellent tutorial on Multi-Booting at http://www.pcnineoneone.com

Originally posted by Storm282:
Hello

My question is about installing two operating systems on one drive...
Should both OS's be installed on the active partition or should I place the second OS in a different partition ? If I split them up ... the computer will boot the OS that is in the active,(primary) partition , correct ?



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"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. That is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain