Does anyone know why they recommend that your Windows NT be at SP6 before you install W2K on a multiboot machine? and If in the future you install a component from the NT CD if it undoes the service pack? If so, and you already had installed W2K, does this mean W2K has to be installed again? Do Windows 2000 boot files change if you have to add a component to NT and it undoes the service pack? In other words, does the re-application of SP6 under NT affect the W2K install in any way? I have Win98, WinNT, and W2K on a multiboot machine and I want to install dial-up networking on each one and I am already at the service pack levels I want to be. Will I have any problems doing this? Each OS is in it's own logical drive. Also, I don't understand why NT must be at SP6 before you install W2K. If W2K is on its own drive, why does it matter? Thanks to anyone who can clear this up!

Just wondering where you read that it's recommended that NT have SP6 before creating a multi-boot system. I'd recommend upgrading to 6a regardless of whether or not you intended to add another OS. :)

I believe one of the main reasons for the SP Update is for NTFS reasons. Windows 2000 comes with a newer version of NTFS that adds disk quotas, encrypted files, journaling, and a number of other features that Windows 2000 components rely on to function correctly. If you are running a multiboot system you need to update to the latest sp for NT so that it can read partion properly.

M$ advise have NT4 SP4 or later installed prior to installing W2K (in a dual/multi-boot that includes NT4). This is to allow NT4 to access any ntfs5 areas (W2K uses ntfs4, NT4 uses ntfs4).

If there are any ntfs4 areas on a given system then W2K will forcibly convert them to ntfs5 (you have no say in the matter); as a result they will not be accessible to NT4 without SP4 or later; again SP4 should be installed prior to installing W2K.

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8824&pg=2

discusses this in more detail; suggest check the whole article?

The above is from the Summer 2000 edition of the windows2000 magazine:

http://www.winnetmag.com/Issues/Index.cfm?IssueID=396

which covers W2K in several articles.

Also re-installing NT4 after adding in W2K may not be an easy option - depending on how the system-partition (where the boot/start-up files reside) is configured; this is also discussed a little in the above edition.

Also in dual/multi-boot that has NT4 around... the active Primary must be fat16; NT4 cannot see ntfs5 during boot-up. So if you have NT4 in a Primary and add in W2K, then the Primary automatically becomes ntfs5 (courtesy of W2K's missionary zeal...) - and NT4 won't boot... NT4 can only see ntfs5 after a successful boot (it then has access to SP4 or later).