Dual Boot Win2000 - Win2000

[BudB]

I know this might seem strange but as a software developer I am curious if anyone has tried to set up a dual boot of two Win 2000 partitions on different disks. I think it will work and I will try it but thought first I'd check to see if anyone else has tried it or has had problems doing it. I wish to do this so I always have a backup Win2000 system to read NTFS files in case any of my development softwares, or other vendor's software for that matter, crashes the primary system. Thanks.

 

[divide]

Yes you can, just name the second windows 2000 installtion by a different name. you can do this by editing the boot.ini file. that way you can tell wheach one your booting from.

 

[ctll]

i had win98 w2k prof and w2k server on the same hd b4

 

[bahree]

Hey you can install as many vers of Win2k or NT as you want on the same machine and even on the same partition!!!! In the latter case you will ofcourse need to different folders for intalling the OS in (instead of WINNT).

Also if you have software installed on one OS you will need to install it again on another "version" of the OS. One way to reduce space is all the common stuff you will be using across OS'es like say Office - can be installed in the same folder over and over. So say you install Office on Win2k-1 in c:\program files\office; on Win2k-2 you can install Office in the same folder (c:\program files\office) - this will overwrite the existing file(s) but that will not be a problem. Ofcourse you need to insall the same ver of Office then and also upgrade to the same sp's (if any).

At one point I had 4 installations on NT Server on the same box (2 partitions - 2 each).

 

[zzzz]

bahree,
shouldn't be one able to use the same program in different microsoft os'es(esp if they are the same) just by copying the relevant registry entries? I am asking if anybody has tried this

 

[BudB]

Thanks for your help guys. I figured I could but just thought I'd check first. ZZZZ you probably could do as you suggested but it seems re-installing the application is simpler and less error prone since some programs have many, many registry entries.

 

[TomBilliodeaux]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/periodic/period99/multiboot.htmhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/periodic/period99/multiboot.htm

Great articles concerning W2K and System Backup methods.
TomBilliodeaux@hotmail.com

 

[bahree]

zzz it is not simple as that - there are a whole bunch of registry settings - which one do you copy and which one you don't?? Also HOW do you know which are the registry entries?

Also both the installation of the OS'es need to be exactly the same. If this was the case then why have multiple os'es installed in the first place?

In MOST cases multiple os'es are installed to support different platforms @ the same time - e.g. ADO ver 2.0 and 2.6 or IE 4 and IE 5, etc.