Alright, I noticed there has been plenty of similar questions from running a search, but not a particular query answered that I have confronting me. I have Windows XP Pro installed, a while back got a new HDD and decided to leave a 20GB available for a second OS, particularly an older Windows OS so I can revisit the good ol' days of C&C gaming and so forth. Finally deciding to do it, except I have read in several places that installing ME after this current XP installation will overwrite important Boot Sector information, not healthy! Recommendations to get around this safely (Excluding a fresh Format and Reinstall of XP)? For the record, I have performed extensive patching and Compatibility tests on the old C&C games, simply cannot function for more then Half an Hour without a Windows XP crash. Oh, and I also tried VMWare, but I failed to check what it supported, and what it lacks is 3D Engine Rendering support or whatever, and Red Alert is a lag fest. I did have doubts in the first place mind, as the program is hardly designed for such an application. (Although I saw a video of some, I think, DirectX Support underway in beta for it!)

Something I've done numerous times is taken 2 hard drives and loaded the a different OS on each drive from the same computer. WHen I want to use the XP side, I set it to boot in BIOS (IDE-0), When I want to boot from another OS I'm working with at the time, I go into BIOS and set that particular drive to boot from (IDE-1, for instance). Not a dual boot, however, no need to repair the boot record either. AMD Athlonxp 3200+ OC Asus A7N8x-deluxe-E ATI AIW 9600pro 2x WD SATA raptors/raid0 160gb Corsair XMS3200 16x Lite-on DVD 12x DVD-R wireless card used as p

There is another way, but it would only work if you have the Windows XP CD (since you have SP2 installed, you'd have to slipstream the CD if it's the original XP). Using the Recovery Console, you can restore the Master Boot Record using FIXMBR. This way, it would look for XP's NTLDR instead of Me's IO.SYS.

use a 3rd party boot manager like BootIt NG or BootStar to hide partitions from each other. Yet another solution would virtualization, VirtualBox and MS VPC are both free. Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

The key item for a dual-boot with '98/ME is that the active Primary on the boot-drive must be either fat16 (2Gig max) or fat32 (can be in exces of 2Gig); it cannot be ntfs... And for dos/'95a it can only be fat16 (2gig max). Also for any dos-based OS (dos, win2x/3x,'9x/ME) to boot via an XP (or NT/W2K) boot-loader there is a need for a bootsect.dos file. The NT family can create this for you during their setup - if they find one of those OS present ahead of their own installation; and also via a simple repair routine if the dos-based OS goes in after NT/W2K. However if that dos-based OS goes in after XP you have to create that file in one of two ways (and the simple repair routine is not one of them...); or use an add-in boot-manager util to get around this issue. Quite why M$ removed that repair option/facility from XP...? So in your situation there are a couple or more ways to go about this... In no particular order: Use an add-in boot-manager util - and carefully read the how to manual that comes with it. This will provide you a way to achieve what you want via an opening menu/choice screen - courtesy of the boot-util; and will probably avoid some of the more contentious issues around adding in an older OS after XP.... Acronis gets reasonable reports; likewise BootITng. Or you could: Copy the boot.in from the XP drive to the c: root on the "newer drive". Access (via notepad/wordpad) "that copy" of the boot.ini - on the intended ME drive; change the entry for rdisk(0) to read rdisk(1); there will be two line where you do this. Save changes and exit edit mode... Do NOT edit the original version on the XP drive! Then make that newer drive Master and the original (XP) drive slave, afterwhich install ME to the (newer drive set as) Master... You will now boot only to ME... Next start a new installation of XP to the c: (ME) drive (the new Master) as c:\temp\winnt (or windows - whichever it offers up as XP folder name). Do "not" accept any offers to repair a current installation, nor reformat etc.; opt for a clean/fresh installation. Cancel it at first reboot, and remove all disks. You will reboot to an XP boot-menu. It will list ME (as c:\windows) and the incomplete XP installation (set as default OS to boot); and also the original version (on its own drive). Provided you have correctly edited the boot.ini on the ME drive prior to installing XP as c:\temp etc. you will be able to select and boot to XP as before - on its now Slaved drive. Do so and then set it as default OS to boot (via MyComputer etc...). Then reboot to ME - not XP! Via notepad/wordpad open the boot.ini - on the ME drive. You will see assorted entries relating to an incomplete installation; and also to XP on the other drive. Delete any/all entries that refer to the incomplete installation (rdisk(0); they will likely have the $ symbol as a prefix... Save changes and exit. Reboot to XP - to confirm you can... It will still boot as c:\windows (or winnt) as before and all apps etc. will still run OK. And when you boot to ME it too will boot as c:\windows... Whichever drive/OS boots up - it will assign a drive letter (other than c: ) to the other (non-booted OS) when viewed via Explorer/MyComputer accordingly. This minor oddity should not cause any problems. The reason for the temp XP installation is enable/allow XP setup to create the bootsect.dos which is necessary to allow ME to boot via the XP boot-loader. This file can be manually created... but I suggest it's easier to let XP do it for you. Once you have confirmed both OS booting OK... locate (on the ME drive) the incomplete XP setup folder in c:\temp and delete it. Reboot - just to confirm both OS are still OK? Presuming so - empty recycle-bin on whichever OS you used to delete the c:\temp installation and defrag the drive afterwards. Switching drive as above allows the original XP drive to remain totally unaffected by anything you do when establishing the dual-boot. And it can always be restored as Master drive at any time and function as now - but no dual-boot option. OR... If the current/original XP drive = fat32 in c: partition then you can also install ME to the newer drive - slaved. Simply run ME setup as per norm; point it to the newer drive. Once complete you will boot only to ME.. Then again run an XP temp installation to "either" drive (your choice) as c:\temp\windows (or winnt) as above. And as above you will cancel it at first reboot, remove all disks and reboot to an XP boot-menu. As above it will list both XP as original, ME (c:\windows), and with the default OS to boot again being to the incomplete installation. Again as above, edit out (delete) the references to the incomplete installation on the XP drive. Also locate/delete the c:\temp installation folder too. Reboot to verify both OS boot OK; presuming so empty the recycle-bin on the appropriate OS and defrag the drive. Again the c:\temp installation will automatically create the necessary bootsect.dos - via which ME will boot... In this latter approach (XP drive Master to ME Slaved), XP will still boot as c: etc. - but ME will boot as whatever drive letter that 20Gig area is assigned under dos/ME rules. Key item; do not tweak/edit the boot.ini as on the XP drive. All editing etc. is done on the copy that you make to the ME drive. There is a routine at Doug Knox's site (and elsehwere too) that details how to manually create the required bootsect.dos - after you have installed ME. It's a matter of choice/preference which path you take? I prefer to let XP do the work for me... If you do not create that file correctly (manually) then it won't work; you won't be able to boot to ME via XP boot-loader. Which having sed... Doug Knox does give clear details etc. re' how to do it. Providing you understand what is required to allow ME etc. to boot via an NT style boot-loader, and are happy with allowing XP to do it all for you (as in create that file)... there is no real need for an add-in util. Which way round you prefer the drives is your call - if c: on the XP drive = fat32. But - again - if the c: partition on the XP drive is ntfs... then the ME drive must become the Master - to the slaved XP drive; or you use an add-in boot-manager (and in this latter case read the manual for the one you choose to use - very carefully). And perhaps steeer clear of Partition Magic - as there are more than a few who have regretted using it with XP; although many have found it quite OK...

If you want a true dual boot with WinME (or Win98SE) and WinXP with WinXP already installed, then you have to do few things. 1. Your WinME has to be in the first primary partition of the bootable hard drive (i.e. drive C). This would require you to rejumper your hard drives so that your XP is the slave to your master which will contain WinME. 2. Proceed and Install WinME to the first drives primary partition. You will now not be able to boot into XP. 3. Follow the procedure documented here on my website, to repair your dual boot. That procedure is defined for Win98SE but it will also work for WinME. NOTE! - In addition to fix boot and fix mbr you will also have to copy boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com from your xp drive to the newly installed C: drives root directory. 4. Edit your boot.ini to add your WinME as a bootable option into your boot.ini file. You will need to add the following entry to the end of your boot.ini file: C:\="Microsoft Windows ME" Finally note if your XP is installed as NTFS then you will need to copy the files I mentioned above beforehand to a FAT32 partition or a floppy or USB. This is because when you install WinME and boot into it you will not be able to access (or read) your NTFS partition. If however, XP is using FAT32 then you will be able to access it from WinME. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

trvlr, OOPs!! It looks like we were both working on this together and you just posted before me. mattie, One thing I forgot which trvlr has mentioned is that when you edit boot.ini on the newly installed WinME partition you will also need to change rdisk(0) to rdisk(1) for the XP entry (in two places) as the XP disk will now be a Slave drive instead of the Master. Also I believe the WinME install will also create a bootsect.dos. If it does not then the repair procedure in step 3 of my first post also shows how to manually create one. NOTE - On my website (Homepage link) there is a whole section on boot.ini files if you want to know more about it. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.