I just managed to get my Intel PC to dual boot Solaris 8 with Windows XP. Here's how:

1. I used partition magic to resize the partition that Windows XP resides. This makes space for a new primary partition I named it as Unix so that I don't destroy the wrong partition.

2. Install my trusty boot manager - OSL2000. Reboot and test that it works correctly.

3. Having resized my Windows XP Partition, I now have a lot of free harddisk space that is not used. Boot up to DOS - I use my trusty Win 98 boot up disk. Run fdisk to delete that "Unix" partition that I created.

4. Put in my bootable solaris installation CD. The installation will use this un-partitioned space as a Solaris partition.

5. The rest of the installation should proceed normally.

Happy dual booting

i want to my stand alone system to dual booting with solaris 8 and win 2000 advanced server.
machine conf.
PIII intel 550 mhz
256 mb ram
4o gb hdd

It should be possible to do so.

Just install your win 2000 first, without using all of your 40 gb hdd. Partition Magic works best here. Just install Win2k normally, use partition magic to resize your W2k partition (Let's say to 20gb).

After you are happy with it, then you install your Solaris 8 normally. Solaris 8 will detect the partition that is not used, and installs into it; simply because it cannot touch the ntfs partition.

Further to my previous thread, actually you do not need a boot commander or something. SOlaris comes with this little Primary Boot Menu, not pretty, but gets the job done.

So if you are installing on a system withn an existing OS, the PBoot thingy will pick all these up into a little menu, allowing you to choose between OS. It's not the prettiest thing, but works ok.

hi randus,

excellent post, I have been looking for this kind of information for ages. I too will be adding Solaris 8 Intel to my XP box as Dual Boot after you send me Solaris :D hehehe

Get in touch please mate

See you

winsoc