Who, What, Where, and Why,
Ok like many out there I have decided to try to upgrade my old Pentium II class
machine to Windows 2000 Professional. Like many I have desired the more
stable and secure new version of the Windows Operating System, but also found
myself not wishing to give up my old mostly dependable version of Windows 98.
This is what I did in the hope of having the best of both worlds.
A PC that can be set up to dual boot Windows 98 or Windows 2000 or about any
other Operating system ( with a bit more work ). For this however I strongly
recommend a program like Partision Magic which has step by step set up
information for not only dual boot Windows versions, but also for other
Operating System options such as Linux or Unix. On a dual boot system, you have
the option of choosing what operating system you want to run. After you make
your selection, the computer then boots into the Operating System you choose,
or it will go to a default choice if no action is made to make a selection.
With a Dual Boot system you can only use one operating system at a time. ( you
cannot use say Windows 98 and Windows 2000 at the same time. ) You must reboot
to gain access to the operating system you wish to use. As far as problems,
well the road may sound smooth and easy but care must be taken to avoid even
the pitfalls of a Windows 2000 Professional install with Windows 95/98/98SE/ME
also and keep both Operating System choices useful.
First things first. BACK UP your critical data!!!. There will be a short
check list later on for you to work from, and generally there will not be any
data loss if things go correctly. However as with most things there is always
a chance that something goes wrong, either by human error, or by such things as
power outages or other accidents. It is far better to be prepared for such
events than not be if it is at all possible to be prepared that is.
Do not run yourself low on system memory or resources. If you are running 64mb
of memory and having no problems with Windows 98 it will not mean you will have
this type of results with Windows 2000. I know it says it will work on 64mb,
and suggests or recommends 128mb. I would however suggest you consider about
96mb a base amount and ideally about 256mb of memory. If your hardware does
not support at least 128mb of memory ( systems with clock speeds under 233mhz
often fall into this group ) I would not recommend installing Windows 2000.
Stick with Windows 95/98 or if you wish to go with a second operating system
look at Linux as it will often work on less processor and system resources.
The next thing I cannot stress enough. Always check for new operating system
drivers or updated versions of software before you attempt to install a copy of
your old software / programs on Windows 2000. The biggest hassles with
Windows 2000 are generally a result of installs of Win 3.x/9x drivers gone bad.
They may even require hand edits of Windows 2000 registry to correct which is
beyond the scope of most of us to attempt. So if possible before you go off
and attempt to boldy install your dual boot system do a bit of leg work and
check for updated drivers for Windows 2000 for the software /programs you hope
to also run on the Windows 2000 section of your computer. NEVER install a
Win3.x or 9x driver until you check for the updated version for Windows 2000.
You are very likely going to regret doing so if you do.
Before we begin, preparation is key to success.
For best results, do a fresh install when building a dual boot system.
If you already have Windows 98 installed and don't want to go through
re-installing it then you have two options.
Use a program such as Partition Magic to add a partition to your existing drive.
Add a second hard drive that will house Windows 2000.
Have your registration keys for each OS.
I would strongly suggest you have at least 2.5 gb for a Windows 2000
Professional partition. Of course you can have much more, but I would not
recommend having any smaller than this given the room required for updates and
the basic installed files, plus a few programs to operate there. I would
suggest that you also retain at least 25% free space on for your existing
operating system. In other words, if you have a 10gb of possible drive
storage, and you have 3gb of installed software and operating system under
Windows 98 for example I would keep at least 4gb of that storage for Windows
98.
Perform a Backup
The most important thing to do before you proceed: Back up your data. Double
and triple check that you have saved all the files you need. It's easy to
inadvertently lose data on when re-installing.
A guide to files you should back up:
E-Mail files such as your e-mails as well as your address book ( if your using
a mailer like Outlook Express. )
web browser bookmarks ( see favtool on the helps and links page for Internet
Explorer Favorites )
You My Documents folder ( critical items such as letters, spreadsheets, and
other information along those lines as well as any media, pictures, soundfiles
you with to retain )
Anything you have saved on the Desktop
Saved game info ( high scores and saved games etc )
Take your time and look around the computer for any files you want to keep. (
like that text file you have the log in and such for a webpage you have been
meaning to update now for sometime. Also any webpage contents you have been
working on.)
Create a Dual Boot System
Follow these steps
carefully
to create a dual boot system for Windows 98 and
Windows 2000.
You must have either an additional hard drive or an additional partition for
Windows 2000. ( Windows 2000 install CD will not make partitions or change
them for you. If you do not have partitions in place it will install Windows
2000 over your existing drive and data. )
Install Windows 98. If Windows 98 is already installed on your PC, that's fine.
Boot into Windows 98. Insert your Windows 2000 CD. When prompted if you would
like to upgrade, select "No". You will now see a menu with two options:
Upgrade to Windows 2000 (Recommended)
Install a New Copy of Windows 2000 (Clean Install)
Select the second option, thereby allowing you to maintain your working Windows
98 installation. ( read these choices carefully as wrong choices here will
mean data loss in most cases. )
Accept the license agreement and type in your Windows 2000 registry key.
Windows 2000 setup will now give you a select special options menu. Click on
"Advanced Options" and put a check mark next to "I want to choose the
installation partition during setup". This will allow you to have Windows 2000
installed on a separate partition for better ease of use with a second
operating system (If you have a large hard drive, it is also a good idea to
have Windows 2000 setup files copied onto it). Select OK and press Next.
Windows 2000 setup will begin copying files and manually restart to continue
the installation process.
Choose the available partition for Windows 2000 to install itself onto and
allow it to be formatted. You will have two formatting options:
NTFS
FAT32
If you want Windows 98 to be able to access files from the Windows 2000
partition, select FAT32. Your Windows 98 installation is on a FAT32 partition
and will not see any NTFS partitions.
The best performance for Windows 2000 will come from using a NTFS partition.
Windows 2000 has built-in security features that use the NTFS file system. It
is also possible to select NTFS and still allow both operating systems to
access the same files, but they will have to either remain on the Windows 98
partition or on an third FAT32 partition.
Once you've selected the formatting options, Windows 2000 setup will begin the
installation and manually restart again. It will restart into the "Windows 2000
Setup Wizard" and begin detection and installation of devices.
You will now be prompted on the keyboard and language settings. If you are
reading this article and speak primarily English, just go ahead and click Next.
Type in your owner information.
Select an administrator password. This is very important because the
Administrator is the master of the Windows 2000 installation. If you lose or
forget the password that gives you Administrator access over Windows 2000, you
can be powerless to even install programs. This password can be left blank (if
you don't have any security concerns),
but whatever you do, don't forget this
password.
Set the date and time and click Next.
Setup will now continue with the installation and "Performing Final Tasks" and
then ask you to remove any install disk and click finish.
The next thing you will be prompted with is the Network Identification Wizard.
Click Next.
In Windows 2000, you must always login. Here you have the option to tell the
operating system what user to have as default. You can always change this
later. Pick Administrator or your own name and click Next and then Finish.
You can now login to Windows 2000 for the first time. Don't forget your
Administrator password.
In order to change which operating system is the default:
Start up in Windows 2000
Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, Advanced, Start Up and Recovery
and choose the OS you want.
Restart the comptuer for changes to take effect. You're all set.
A few last things....
Windows will generally start up the first time in a rather low resolution mode
which you can reset. The Windows 2000 Professional CD I used had very little
extra software. It comes with Internet Explorer 5.0 and Outlook Express 5.0
plus of course Windows 2000 Professional. In most cases you will also need to
add several updates and service packs which you can download from the Windows
Update website or Windows 2000 Professional Site. ( for most new users the
Windows Update site is the better choice but you will need to have that in your
favorites as I do not believe it is in the version of Internet Explorer
included with Windows 2000. )
Once you have the basic operating system installed, and hopefully it has found
and installed the correct drivers for the hardware in your computer, you can
check the basic operation with a few things like connect to the internet. Then
after you manage to do that and get your printer working I would suggest you go
through the Control Panel and looking at the Add/Remove hardware section and
look for any hardware items with question marks. This usually means that there
is a missing or incorrect driver installed. This is where the biggest hassles
come in at. The older your hardware the more likely you will see these
problems. If your computer has been built after the release of Windows 2000,
chances are the problems will be far less than if it was build prior to that
date. Keep in mind however that basic install/restore CDs and hardware runs on
computer systems do not change overnight. If the system was built say even 2
or 3 months or more after the release of Windows 2000 it is still likely to
contain pre-release hardware and software so you could still see a few issues
with incompatable drivers.
Other suggested reading!
http://www.hardwarehell.com/fdisk.htm
for instructions on how to do a full format with FDISK. ( recommended if it has
been over a year since a format )
|