dual boot?

ASK THE EXPERTS COMPUTER,TRANSPORT SOFTWARE AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM
1

I have a spare pc with 2 hard drives one has winme on and the other has winxp on it.

I need to be able to use both os,s but i am having trouble getting them to work together i can either have one plugged in or the opther but not both at the same time!!!.

I have the me hdd as the master and the xp one as the slave so when me boots up it doesnt recognise the other hdd if i put the one with xp on as master it recognises the other one but wont let me access it.

The xp one is formatted to nfts the me is formatted to fat32 do they both have to be fat32 in order for me to have a dual boot option■■?..

HELP ME!!! please…

2

The xp one is formatted to nfts the me is formatted to fat32 do they both have to be fat32 in order for me to have a dual boot option■■?..

Yes mate nfts and fats do not go together!

Dos will not read ntfs and winME is dos based where as winXP is not!

3

So i have to reinstall xp to fat32 and put it in as slave drive then everythin should work ok?

4

Installing XP with the FAT32 file system will allow you access to the ME files.

I’d consider looking at some sort of boot managing software as well. Have a look here.

osloader.com.
ranish.com/part/xosl.htm

This would give you the option of returning to two separate drives at a later date by just uninstalling it and without having to mess about with XP’s boot files.

Just out of interest why must you have ME? XP will run most Win9x programs and you could always try the Compatibility Mode option if it is having problems.

5

I have a tv captuure card that only runs on me, so i thought one hdd with xp which was already installed and the other with me but i think as you say i will install xp to the fat32 format its no big deal , but ii have some programmes that i can only use on me and some on xp.

So i will have xp on one hdd and me on the other but both will be fat32 .

Thanks for the help folks.

Its actually my sons computer but i want to use it for copying dvds etc etc so it needs to really be left on its own while its doing so.

6

hollywood:
try the Compatibility Mode option

…was going to be my suggestion also but hollywood beat me to it!!!

Having said that, compatability mode wouldn’t work for me the other day. :blush: :imp:

7

I am going to set up a dual boot system with Linux on the second setup. The two setups don’t have to be compatible, but you can only use 1 at a time. There are simple, free, dual boot controlers around, so you can switch from one to the other fairly easily.

8

I had 98 on fat 32 and winxp as ntfs and they both worked fine, put the me drive in, format the xp hdd, put the xp cd in, install it and when it asks you what drive you want to install it to, choose D (assuming thats the letter me has given your second hdd).
This will install xp and change the boot sector so that when the PC starts up it will give you the choice of which OS to boot from, whether you install it on FAT 32 or NTFS.