Can you have a windows 2000 and windows xp partition on the same disk?

[Infohawk]

Hi, I remember reading somewhere you can have win98 + win2k but not two win2ks or other nt style ms operating systems. Is this true? Or can I have xp and 2000 next to each other?

Are there any considerations I need to make about cylinder limits or anything? Thanks.

 

[Nothinman]

It might work but I would be that eventually one would step on the other, Windows is just too touchy-feely when it comes to disks and doing things without asking you. If you need to run both you should look at VMWare or VirtualPC, it's a much cleaner and safer solution.

 

[Infohawk]

I can't use one of those emulators because I need to use exam software and I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to get around the software.

 

[Nothinman]

Running Windows inside of VMWare is no different than running it on a seperate PC, well other than the simulated hardware. You can even give the client OS access to serial, parallel, USB, etc ports if you need some sort of dongle for licensing.

 

[Infohawk]

I assume under VMWare you can access the guest OS in a window, thus giving you access to the host OS too at the same time. If this is true, you are circumventing the exam software that tries to limit your access to the system.

 

[Nothinman]

You can restrict the access if you want, basically they look like 2 seperate machines and you have to use network sharing or "Shared Folders" which is just a pseudo-network sharing built into VMWare.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Hi, I remember reading somewhere you can have win98 + win2k but not two win2ks or other nt style ms operating systems. Is this true? Or can I have xp and 2000 next to each other?

Are there any considerations I need to make about cylinder limits or anything? Thanks.

Basically you are talking about a parallel installation. Yes you can mix and match NT, 2k, XP and 2003 on the same or different partitions / disks. The only rule is they can't be in the same folder obviously.

The boot files (ntldr, ntdetect) on your system drive should be from the newest version of the OS. In other words, don't load XP then turn around and load NT because you'll end up with older boot files. Newer boot files are backwards compatible. If you goof up you can always just manually swap the files - no biggie.

There is no cylinder limitation for 2k or XP. Under NT there is a 1024 cylinder or ~7.8GB limitation. The NT version of ntldr cannot locate ntoskrnl.exe if it's past that limit. Mind you an NT installation that has a w2k installation next to it won't necessarily have this problem since it's using a newer version of ntldr (MS does not officially support >1024cylinder boot drive however so don't go bitchin!)

Be sure to use the latest service pack for each particular OS.

You shouldn't have any trouble at all.

 

[NightCrawler]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Hi, I remember reading somewhere you can have win98 + win2k but not two win2ks or other nt style ms operating systems. Is this true? Or can I have xp and 2000 next to each other?

Are there any considerations I need to make about cylinder limits or anything? Thanks.

I have two XP installs:

C: Boot
D: Windows XP ( serious )
E: Windows XP ( beta testing for apps )
F: Longhorn XP ( beta testing )

S: Backups

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Hi, I remember reading somewhere you can have win98 + win2k but not two win2ks or other nt style ms operating systems. Is this true? Or can I have xp and 2000 next to each other?

Are there any considerations I need to make about cylinder limits or anything? Thanks.

Not really. As Smilin noted, earlier versions of NT had a limit on the size of the disk/partition you could use, due to the bootloader.

I have a multi-boot setup with Win98se, W2K SP2, XP SP1, and until just recently, also Windows Server 2003. Win98se is on a ~7.8GB primary partition, and then the rest of my HD is an extended partition, with ~8GB logical drives for each OS, and then the remainder as an additional data drive. I installed each NT-based OS in order of their release. Btw, all partitions are FAT32, to make accessing my files from each OS, and image backup and repair, easier to do.

I would definately NOT recommend installing two MS OSes into the SAME partition, even if you use different \WINDOWS directories. They will not get along very well.

 

[Smilin]

You should be fine using two OSs on the same partition. You may end up with some odd folder names in your documents and settings like Administrator and Administrator.000 but other than that there should be no problem.

 

[Nothinman]

You should be fine using two OSs on the same partition. You may end up with some odd folder names in your documents and settings like Administrator and Administrator.000 but other than that there should be no problem.

You don't think they'll step on each other's Program Files directory?

 

[Smilin]

You have to take a little care but it shouldn't really be a problem. You'll basically have two situations:

1.) A program that's in one OS but not the other - no problem.
2.) A program that's in both OSs. In this case you'll just need to install the program twice. You'll end up with one program files folder but two sets of registry entries. Most programs won't have any problem with this. If it appears cranky, just install to something other than the default folder and you'll be back in situation 1 again.

Edit:
If you can install to different partitions, do so. If you can't it's not going to be a show-stopper.

 

[Nothinman]

But what about all the things MS puts in there like DAO, DirectX, etc that can have different versions depending on what's installed? I don't think there's a way to avoid things getting put in that "Microsoft Shared" directory.

 

[Infohawk]

I'm curious whether people are addressing two installations on one partition or not. My original query was whether having two separate installations on two separate partitions would cause problems. I'm confused now whether some posters were addressing this or other question. :/ For the record, I don't plan on having xp and 2000 on the SAME partition. I plan on having them on seperate partitions (same physical disk) and, if possible, using bootmagic to hide the other partition from each other.

 

[Smilin]

Sorry, we've been discussing having both in the same partition.

If you are using them in different partitions there should be no problems whatsoever. I would highly advise NOT to use bootmagic or any third party utility in this process. Just let it work, it will.

 

[NightCrawler]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
I'm curious whether people are addressing two installations on one partition or not. My original query was whether having two separate installations on two separate partitions would cause problems. I'm confused now whether some posters were addressing this or other question. :/ For the record, I don't plan on having xp and 2000 on the SAME partition. I plan on having them on seperate partitions (same physical disk) and, if possible, using bootmagic to hide the other partition from each other.

MS does not recommend installing two OSes on one partition. Alot of files will get screwed up.

Don't do it !

Don't do it !

Don't do it !

Create a seperate partition and it will work without a hitch !!!!!!!!!