hey everyone, i am currently running windows xp pro and i have a p2p network for my home, but i recently got nt server and i want to dual boot both (i have two partitions) and i know they both make a dual boot configuration using boot.ini but i install nt after xp will xp still work with these older boot files? Thx in advance!!!

Before you start the XP NTFS5 file system is not supported by NT4 without Service Pack 5 minimum, FAT32 is not supported though FAT16 4GB max is supported by NT4,W2K and XP. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559 http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/management/mltiboot.asp

"...but i install nt after xp will xp still work with these older boot files?..." The answer is no - until you carry out a standard XP fixboot/fixmbr routine. This does presume that active Primary is format that NT4 can see at boot-time... And it would be very wise to pay attention to the issue of NT4 needing sp5 as indicated by "hiho"... (M$ will tell you it needs to be sp4 or later; I'd go as far as saying use sp6a if you're happy using it...) Also M$ generally refer to sp4-6a when considering NT4 accessing ntfs5 (the W2K version); XP is ntfs5.1 and I'm not sure NT4 can access it even with sp6a??? Note also that W2K and XP both forcibly convert any previous version of ntfs to their respective versions; the W2K version (ntfs5) can only be accessed by NT4 (on the same physical system( if sp4 or later is present in NT4. XP will convert the W2K version of ntfs5 (or ntfs4) to ntfs5.1 - a slightly later version of the same... Some folks then have problems in accessing that XP version of ntfs from W2K (on the same physical system). I think the "fix" (for W2K) is to have sp1 (or is it sp2) installed in W2K? How NT4 will fare with XP version of ntfs5.1 on the same physical system??? These access issues do NOT apply across the network. However you have to address the issue of boot-files location for NT4. That location has to be an active primary partition format the NT4 can access at boot time...? As you probably already know, XP can handle all M$ formats; NT can only handle fat16 to 4Gig max and ntfs4... What is the format of the XP system-partition where the XP boot-files (at least) reside? If it's fat32 or ntfs5.1... no way? You would need either to use an add-in boot-util, or create a new smallish (100-150Meg) fat16 Primary (at the start physically of the drive) and make it active. Then all installed M$ OS will need their respective boot-files there... The actual OS's can go where they are now are or where you wish them to be.

thx for the responses but dosn't win95 only support fat16 and ive installed it on a fat32 partition i have another question, though....I have 4hdd's in my comp now!!! and im kinda scared something is gonna blow wit a 300W psu, do i need a newpsu for my comp or can my atx 300W handle this aswell as onboard sound,video pci network adapter, p3 500Mhz and a cdrom and tape drive??? i don't wanna burn my comp out considering im astudent of 15 and i got like no money to buy a new comp and my comp is pretty old, if it hleps any i also have 256MB SDRAM running at 100Mhz Thx in advance!!!

You seem to be unaware of File System support W95 and W95A were Fat16, W95B and W95C include LFN and FAT32 support: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;255867 Your best bet if you have a BIOS which allows you to DISABLE drives is to use the BIOS to see one Drive at a time, therefore to the O/S each drive is C: and no messing around with Boot Loaders! and you can install may O/Ses: Drive1 NT4 Drive2 W98SE* Drive3 XP Drive4 Linux *You can use the MSDOS underneath W98SE to have legacy O/S

I've heard that Acronis OS Selector is able to reslove these problems. So you can multiboot.