Setting up a dual boot system--Help!

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john_olsen@csumb.edu - 25 Jun 2004 22:28 GMT

My roommate has a non-linear editing workstation with NT
4.0 installed. In order to run the latest software and an
external firewire drive he needs to upgrade to Windows
XP. But he also has a lot of specialized apps for Win NT
that he can't replace. He wants to set up his machine in
a dual boot configuration, adding a new hard drive to hold
XP.

What do we need to do to set up his machine for dual boot
capability? Is third-party software necessary, or can WIN
NT 4.0 be configured that way. Are there any sources out
there that explain how to do this. (I've installed basic
OS before, but never anything this complicated.) ANY help
would be greatly appreciated.

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xe77 - 26 Jun 2004 02:51 GMT

You might think I'm nuts but... it's not so hard.
Since NT is already on the system XP will set everything up
for you.
Steps:
1) MAKE SURE WINDOWS NT SERVICE PACK 6a is installed! This
is critical to make sure Windows XP will play nice with
Windows NT
2) Install the hard drive. You don't have to set it to be
master or primary or anything. Just plop it in.
3) Start Windows XP setup FROM THE CD ROM: boot from it,
don't start setup from within Windows NT!
4) Specify that Windows XP be installed on the new drive.
Setup will take it from there and create a new boot menu
for Windows NT.
Here's some reading material:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559#7
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305873
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315233
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292580
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283378
It outlines some installation issues you may experience.

>-----Original Message-----
>My roommate has a non-linear editing workstation with NT
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
>.

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Calvin - 26 Jun 2004 03:03 GMT

Hi John,

Dual Boot Win NT4 / XP should not require any thrid party software. I presume
from what was said that XP will be on a different physical HDD ?

How is the current NT4 installed - multiple partitions on the HDD, or just one
big drive C: ?

Be warned, the first time XP is run after installation, it will 'upgrade' any
NTFS partitions existing previously on the machine to the new NTFS format (V3 I
believe introduced as part of Win 2k) which may cause some minor problems with
future maintenance of the partitions using NT4. NT4 can still access and use the
'upgraded' partitions provided it is at SP6a level (IIRC the change for support
of NTFS V3 was introduced at SP5, but I'm guessing here)

There are heaps of Microsoft knowledgebase articles dealing with setting up PC
for Dual boot / Multiboot arrangements.

Have a look at:

http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/kb.htm

and do a word search (your browser can do this, but most people don't realise it

:-) for the words 'dual' and 'multi' - you will get several matches for KB

articles to assist.

Alternately, ask these same search queries at http://support.microsoft.com
Again a whole heap of matches will be presented.

Calvin.

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