Best way to dual boot NT4 and Win2K?

[Fun Guy]

I am tired of trying to get Win2K Server up and running properly on my CUSL2-M, so I have decided to load up NT4 first so at least I can get this &$%* machine running ... :|

What is the best way to load up both NT4 and Win2K? My inclination is to partition the drive with separate system partitions for the OS's and respective applications, then have a common area for data. I have a 45GB drive so I was thinking 5GB for each OS/application partition and the remaining 35GB for data.

I would install NT4, and then attempt to install Win2K again. Does this sound like a good strategy?

 

[zuffy]

Install Windows NT 4.0 first. During the setup, create 2 partitions... one for NT 4.0 and W2K. Install NT 4.0 to the C drive. Once NT 4.0 setup is complete, you can install W2K. During the setup, do not select the upgrade option and choose the D drive for W2k to be install to.

BTW, NT 4.0 can't see W2K's NTFS 5.0 but W2K is backward compatible.

 

[zuffy]

I recommend installing applications in their respective OS partition instead of a share partition between the 2 OSs.

 

[Motorheader]

Unless you use a tool like PartitionMagic for NT4 Workstation or ServerMagic for NT4 Server you can't go beyond a 4 gb partition for the C:\ drive and WINNT 4.0.

I would do the following:

C:\ 4 gb NTFS
D:\ 6 gb W2K
E:\ 35 gb common data

There are certain rules that apply for the boot drive and Winnt 4.0 - that is the only limitation that is of any concern.

 

[jaywallen]

Just wanted to mention two things, in case you're not aware of them:

1. When W2K is installed on a system, all detected NTFS partitions are converted to NTFS5. It's possible that some types of utilities you've used in NT4 (like Norton Systemworks NT, for instance) will not continue to work under NT4 because of the file system conversion.

2. It's also extremely important that the NT4 partition be at least at SP4. SP3 and below cannot read from or write to NTFS5 partitions.

You might want to go to the Microsoft site and do a search on the terms Windows, 2000, NT4, and Dual Boot. A sloppy search like this actually works better from http://www.microsoft.com/ than it does from the front page of Technet. Looking around and doing some homework there might save you some real grief.

Regards,
Jim