Want to Duel boot my PC. Please tell me how?

Hi,
I want to have Duel O/S on my PC. At the moment, I'm running Win ME with a single partion on C: . I want to add Win XP PRO, and duel boot this HD.
Can you tell me how please?
Thanks

dual

Well, you need a 2nd partition, so download Norton Partition Magic 7... you should be able to find a 30 day trial.

Defrag. Then make a new partition.... probably at least 3 or 4 GB minimum. Install the other OS into the new partition. It'll have the options to multi-boot or upgrade. XP should handle the boot-loader part, so that you have a choice on boot-up as to which OS to use. If you want Win Me to be able to read the stuff you keep in XP's partition, don't use NTFS, use FAT32. If you want XP stuff to be secret and really secure, use NTFS for the new partition.

You can edit the boot.ini in order to change which OS will load by default, and the length of time you have to make the choice between the 2 before it boots. Not really necessary though.

Absolutely right, except that Partition Magic is made by PowerQuest, not Norton

Keep in mind that this repartitioning procedure is pretty dangerous, cause if you have a power failure, all the data will be lost! So make it quickly or, even better, use UPS...

im going to dual-boot w2k pro, portuguese and english versions, and id like to choose the portuguese version to be the default one. how do i do to edit the boot.ini? what do i need to edit?

1) Enable "show hidden and system files" option in your Explorer options.
2) Open C:\boot.ini with a Notepad. It should read like:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional ENG" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional POR" /fastdetect

Click to expand...

Of course, it will look like this after you install BOTH OSes.
3) Then modify the default= line so that it would point at portuguese version.
4) If necessary, modify timeout= line, so that you didn't have to wait for 30 seconds till it boots automatically.
5) Save the file.
6) Reboot.

RZA, there is kinda the same settings in "initialization and recovery" (or something like this in the english os version), is it possible to use them there instead of editing the file? if it is, what os should i choose to set that, anyone?
thanks for your help.

1) Yep, those are the same settings.

2) I think any of them goes, but I'd better choose the one that's installed on the same aprtition with your boot.ini (i.e. the first one).

Glad I could help.

BE CAREFULL!!! I had a Dual Boot and a 40gig drive partitioned in half. Two 20 gig partitions. I purchased a new 60gig drive. And decided to resize the 2 (20gig) partitions on the 40gig drive to equal 1 partition of 40gig's The OS and Program partition was NTFS and the DATA partition was FAT32. I Completely lost 20GIG's worth of Mp3's, DATA, Pictures and Video. At the time I had over 3,300 Mp3' files. All gone in the stroke of a key. Be sure to back your stuff up. Never assume that everything will go smoothly as planned or as you would like them to. Don't Screw up like I did. Take the time to back up.

Falseprophet

Well, don't take offense man, but there are two ways to do it: either make a backup or... not to screw things up

Being a sysadmin&techsupport, I've used PartitionMagic for about 50 times, and the single (SINGLE!) time it screwed up was due to power failure. That proggy is absolutely stable and reliable.