Presently I have dual boot on my laptop with XP Pro and 2000 Pro OSs.
I have a 40 gb hard drive and have
1)xp pro on the parition with 15 gb and
2)2k pro on the partition with a hard drive(C:) space of 25 GB.

I woud like to install 2k server on the partition with 2k pro (basically get rid of 2k pro and have 2k server instead).

Is it just a straightforward installation of booting to 2k pro and run setup or is there some caveats that I need to be aware of.

Appreciate your response.

I think it is save to upgrade from 2000 pro to 2000 server ... as u said boot to 2000 pro and run ur setup of 2000 server ... u can also make a new win2000 server installation by formating ur c drive and installing win2000 server .... for security backup ur c drive before starting ur upgrade.
Good Luck

What is not clear in your initial post is where each OS is currently located - i.e. what drive config/partitioning is, and which OS is where? It sounds as though you have a single partition?

Either way (single or more partitions), can't see any problems - especially as you are intending to lose/remove W2K-Pro?

I'd be inclined to boot to XP, delete W2K-Pro (winnt) folder first (via XP Explorer), and also its pagefile.sys (unless sharing a common one with XP); also edit out references to W2K-Pro in the boot.ini (and save changes). Then reboot with Server CD (or the floppies) and run normal setup/install (i.e. not from within XP) - and point it to wherever you want it to go.

When W2K-Svr goes in it will disable access to XP. (W2K - both Pro/Svr - arrived before XP so neither knows about its near cousin, and thus won't recognise it.) To recover access to XP and complete the dual-boot, run XP repair routine.

There might be some benefit too in running XP defrag after removing W2K-Pro - and before installing Svr? Keeps the drive tidier and more organised?

XP repair routine 'how to':

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

and also:

http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

(from Jo Helmig's networking site: http://www.wown.com - aka http://www.helmig.com)

If you wanted to preserve Pro and also have XP and Svr around then it shouldn't present an issue? Just run normal Svr setup (CD or floppies boot - not from within any installed OS) and point it to wherever; afterwards XP repair routine.

Hi trvlr, tareq
Thanks for your replies.
Trvlr,
I need some clarifications on your post.

Presently I have 2k pro on my C: drive and I do have a c:/WINNT folder.

I believe I have XP Pro on my D: drive with a D:/windows folder.

It's a single hard drive with two partitions I guess.

When you say boot to XP and delete W2K-Pro (winnt) folder first and then its (2k pro's)pagefile.sys how do I find out whether there is a common pagefile.sys for XP Pro and 2k pro. What kind of references do I need to delete from boot.ini.

After doing all these from where do I need to run the setup for win 2k. Do I need to shutdown XP do a restart or how to go about this. To which OS do I need to boot to before running the setup for win 2k server. Or do I need to run the boot disks for win 2k server. If so, how to go about it.

Are you saying that if I install 2k my present XP installation (in my D:) will be totally lost .

Also I do not have any data in my laptop that needs to be backed.

Please provide your feedback.

You have each OS in its own partition/drive. Logically - unless you 'deliberately' arranged/chose to share a common pagefile.sys - there will be one on each partition for the OS resident there. (I doubt you chose to share a common pagefile.sys - few folks do - so I wouldn't worry about it in your situation occasion.

It isn't critical to lose the W2K pagefile.sys; it can be left and will more than likely be replaced by W2K server 'version' during setup. It's your choice - if not sure/comfortable, then leave it be and just delete the c:\winnt folder...

What to delete in the boot.ini?

Typically in your boot.ini you will have a couple of lines similar to the following:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(7)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(9)\WINXPPRO="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

These two lines are from a multi-boot system that includes W2K-Pro and XP-Pro amongst other OS.

If deleting the W2K entry from this boot.ini then it would be that first line (which refers to windows 2000). You would not delete anything that refers to XP (and in your case it would probably include " windows " (with/without "" ) in the line. (My XP-Pro entry is flagged/labelled as WINXPPRO - I like to make things clear for my grey cells...)

If you have the W2K recovery console installed there will be a line for that too (it can also be deleted). It's not essential to delete the XP entry; although it will be restored/replaced during XP repair routine even if you do delete it. Once W2K-Server starts its installation, the XP entries are redundant anyway - until XP repair is completed... and then they are overwritten or replaced as need-be.

When W2K Pro or Server go in (and similarly '9x) access to XP 'will' be lost - albeit temporarily. (The installation is still there - just not accessible, until an XP repair routine is completed.) This is because the older OS don't recognise a newer OS; and XP is the new boy/girl on the block - and is in effect invisible to the oldies... The XP mbr is overwritten/replaced by the earlier OS version (in this case W2K). The Repair routine restores the XP version of the mbr, its version of boot-files, and thus access to XP - setting it up as the controlling boot-loader.

You run W2K-Svr setup from either a CD boot (and the bios almost certainly will allow that judging by your laptop specs.), or use the 4 W2K boot-floppies/disks. If you don't have the floppies - you can make a set of W2K boot-floppies from the makeboot util (on the W2K CD) amd use those to boot/run setup.

Before you delete W2K-Pro visit the W2K-Pro 'help files' and look for the 'how to make to boot-floppies/disks' item (it's complete and very simple to follow). Or you can go to bootdisk.com, download a set of images and (self-)expand each to a floppy and use those.

Personally I'd make my own; it's useful exercise to be familiar with - in case of need...

Do not run Server setup from inside any installed OS (in this case XP - as you will have already deleted Pro).

Hope this clarifies it all for you?

Post back if need more input.

I'm going to be away/off-line from late morning tomorrow (GMT time-reference/zone) until next Thursday late pm., but I will check in here again later this evening and possible tomorrow am before leaving... in case..., although there are others here too who will help you out if need-be (I'm thinking of Wanderer in particular, or Michael #1 - if he's still around, and the Count...).

Just noted your post in the XP forum; the above suggestions/routines will work regardless of file formats (fat32/ntfs)

Trvlr,
Thanks again for your detailed response. Yet another question about the repair routine for XP. Assuming everything goes fine after the install of 2k server do we need to log on to XP os and then copy some files like NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from the XP bootable disks to finish the Repair routine or how to go about this. Is is just a matter of copying some files from XP bootable disks onto the partition in which we have XP installed which in this case is going to be d:
I think the repair routine has to do something with the following files NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM . Can you elaborate on this like do we need to backup this files before going over this whole install process.

Thanks again for your interactive responses.

Once W2K goes in and has disabled access to XP, the standard XP repair routine should resolve/restore acess to XP (and complete the dual-boot arrangements). It does restore/replace/overwrite any similar files (W2K versions in this case) with its own (W2K versions will apparently work with/for XP); also XP repair routine will reset mbr (which will now be W2K version) to XP version.

XP repair is done via a standard XP boot-up CD boot or XP set-up floppies) - not from within an installed OS; does 'not' involve/use the recovery console option.

Again suggest you check out the two links I posted earlier re XP repair routines.

Simply copying requisite files from the CD to c: (active Primary) will not be enough; you also need to rewrite/reset the mbr to XP version - which is why XP repair routine as sugested above.