Partition & New OS?

[ChrisK2972]

I have two 40G HDD's and am running WinXP Home. I want to create another partition and add Win2KPro. Eventually, I would like to completely phase out WinXP Home. I can create the partition with Partition Magic 7.0 However, whenever I go to do this, I get a dialog box that ask me whether or not I want to create a primary or logical partition. Also, it says that the fist disk (I guess the C drive before the partition) will hold the setup files for the new OS.

Now, I have two questions. First, should I make the new partition a primary or logical partition? Second, if the setup files are on the original partition, does that mean that I will never be able to delete that partition without losing everything?

Thanks for the help!

ChrisK

[vass0922]

OK.. are you putting C:\ on drive 1 and D:\ on drive 2?
Then after that going to whack drive 1 with XP on it,and move drive 2 as the primary drive later down the road?

[ChrisK2972]

Yes, that is what I would like to do. I mean, once I get W2K set like I want it, I want to totally axe XP and then use that drive as extra storage.

[Tazman]

As far as I know, to dual boot those drives, you have to install the oldest OS first and then the newest.

To make things easier on you, you may want to just disconnect the c drive that has XP installed on it and connect the d drive as the primary drive, install Win 2K to it and then set the "old" c drive with XP on it as the slave d drive. I personally haven't tried it that way (can't remember at the moment).

The boot loader should see the new OS (XP) and add it to it, if not you may have to edit the boot loader.

I suggest doing it that way only to protect your data on the XP drive. Also, when you go to install 2K and the drive isn't formatted as FAT32 or NTFS, you'll be prompted at the installation (I would choose NTFS).

All that without using PM7 .

Mike

[excuzzzeme]

Make sure new drive is seen in bios
Simply partition new drive using FDISK
boot from W2k cd
during setup, 2k will find both drives and ask where you want it to go.
point it to new drive and filesystem type (NTFS) You can always use Fat32 and later convert though not recommended
w2k will setup for dual boot
you can then migrate at leisure

[ChrisK2972]

Thanks! I think I got enough information to make an informed decision. Seems like there is more than one way to skin this cat. But, I do want to use the method that is going to allow me to make the transition over time as well as not losing anything. It is a pain to have set up a all over again!

ChrisK