could someone explain the best way to set up a dual boot system, with xp pro and 2k....i'm currently running xp pro maxtor 40 gb 7200 rpm - C:, currently holding xp pro maxtor 80 gb 5400 rpm-split into 40, 20, 20 used for storage E: F: G: fujitsi 30 gb 5400 rpm- used for storage D: i want to leave xp on C: would like to put 2k on F: TIA

Sorry Man You can't do it. 2000 has to go on C: and XP on another drive. You can download DrvImagerXP and copy XP to another drive and then reinstall it where you want it. Get it here http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/13/2/13-2-39.shtml

Not true that W2K must be on c: - either OS can be on c: ... Nor do you need to image a drive (XP) in advance; nor use an add-in boot-util. All that is required is that both OS have their respective boot/start-up files resident in the active Primary (C: ) partition; each OS can go wherever you want it (within reason), and one can be in the c: partition. The active Primary has to be a file format that all installed (M$) OS can see at boot time; and since both XP/W2K can see fat16/fat32/ntfs5 it can be any of them (with a 4Gig limit for fat16) – as long as no ‘9x/NT4/dos around… Both OS included a boot-manger and (once the dual-boot is completed) the XP version will be the one in use. Simply run W2K set-up (CD boot or the 4 floppies) and point it to the drive/partition of choice. W2K will disable access to XP (temporarily) as W2K set-up will overwrite XP mbr with W2K version; will also replace/overwrite XP boot-files with W2K version(s). To recover XP access, and complete the dual-boot, run XP set-up\repair routine (CD boot etc.). This will do all that’s required to complete the process. http://www.computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/21665.html - response #5 details the how/why of a dual-boot for ’98 W2K. It discusses it from various angles (single/dual-drives - with an OS already installed. etc… It translates easily to XP/W2K… (replace ’98 with XP, and you have the basics); easily adapts to a triple-drive environment; and on this occasion you can even have c: = nfs5 – since both OS can see ntfs5 at boot-time (although likely you have c: = fat32 at present? and this will work too). Might be worth a browse – if only to understand a little more clearly the how/why of dual/multi-boots (without add-in utils etc.)? http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm and http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/wxppasr.htm (the latter two links from Helmig.com) detail XP repair routine(s.