Multibooting Windows 2000 Systems

You're probably just taking the shrink-wrap off your new copy of Windows 2000 (Win2K) and wondering how Win2K will integrate into your existing system configuration. If you've configured multiboot systems with Windows NT 4.0 in the past, you might want to know how Win2K differs from NT in terms of installation requirements, options, and potential pitfalls, and whether Win2K can be a well-behaved member of a multi-OS system.

In "Mastering Multibooting Madness," July 1999, I shared tips and techniques for managing multi-OS multiboot environments on NT 4.0-centric systems. However, multiboot configurations that involve Win2K and NT or Windows 98 (both first and second editions) present new challenges and obstacles, which you can avoid by preparing your system and knowing what to expect.

Research Your Readiness
Creating and maintaining a multi-OS system that includes Win2K isn't difficult; however, a successful configuration requires some planning. An important part of this planning process is learning the constraints and interoperability concerns of each OS that will be part of your multi-OS system.

Win2K presents several factors that you must be aware of before proceeding with your installation.

An obvious but important starting point is to ensure that your system has sufficient hardware resources to meet Win2K's substantial installation demands. Table 1, page 84, lists Microsoft's official Win2K system requirements. This table also shows the minimum hardware requirements that I recommend based on my Win2K experience. Microsoft's figures represent the minimum hardware configuration necessary to install the OS, my figures represent the minimum figures necessary for decent Win2K performance. For example, although you can install Windows 2000 Professional (Win2K Pro) on a 133MHz Pentium processor system that has 64MB of RAM, you probably won't be thrilled with Win2K Pro's performance on such a system.

Equally important is making sure that Win2K supports your system hardware and peripherals. Assuming that Win2K supports any hardware is dangerous even if you have a new computer and peripherals that you consider mainstream. Fortunately, Microsoft provides several useful resources to help you determine your system's Win2K readiness. For a list of these resources and a checklist of system-preparation steps, see the sidebar "7 Steps to Prepare Your System for Windows 2000."

After you have sufficient resources to install Win2K, the next step is to spend some time planning your system configuration, which will be largely determined by the particular OSs the system will support. The most important factor of a multi-OS system configuration is the file-system format of each disk partition. You need to be sure that each OS installed on the system supports the file-system format that you want to use for the system partition (i.e., in NT parlance, the partition from which the system boots).

In addition, if you're using a boot-management utility such as PowerQuest's BootMagic or V Communications' System Commander 2000 or System Commander Deluxe, you must read the product's manual to learn how to configure the system partition and other partitions to support your intended configuration. For example, most boot managers require that you create a small FAT partition as the first partition on the disk (or at least a partition that falls within the first logical 2GB of the first disk). If you're running a Win98 or Win95 OEM Service Release (OSR) 2.x system that has a FAT32 system partition, don't convert the partition to NTFS because these OSs don't recognize NTFS-formatted system partitions. Likewise, if you're running an NT 4.0 system that has a FAT16 system partition or boot partition, don't convert it to FAT32 because NT 4.0 doesn't support FAT32 on these partitions. Table 2 outlines which OSs support various file-system formats. For information about how to extend an OS's file-system support, see the sidebar "Useful Dual-Boot Tools," page 86.

FAT32 Foibles
If you're creating a new FAT32 system partition as part of your multiboot configuration, use Win9x to create and format this partition rather than format the partition during the Win2K setup process. Win2K installations usually fail when you try to use Win2K's Setup disk-management tool to create and format a large FAT32 system partition—particularly when the volumes you're creating are larger than 2GB. (Win2K Setup reports a disk-configuration error during the reboot after Win2K completes the text-mode portion of setup.) However, when you use the Fdisk utility from Win98 or Win95 OSR 2.x to create the same size system partition, Win2K installs to the Win9x-created partition without a hitch. Although this problem might be controller- or system-specific, it has happened to me on several systems that contain fairly ordinary system configurations. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you conduct any FAT32 system partition creation or management activities before you run Win2K Setup.

Another limitation is that Win2K artificially limits the size of FAT32 volumes that you create with Win2K. Although Win98 and Win9x OSR 2.x can create FAT32 volumes as large as the theoretical maximum of 2TB (the practical maximum is 127.53GB), Win2K limits FAT32 volumes to 32GB or smaller. Although this limit isn't likely to affect the average user, hard disk capacities are increasing so quickly that this limitation could affect future users. (The average hard disk size on new workstations is 13GB to 20GB, so a 32GB volume isn't unrealistic.) This artificial limit is Microsoft's method to steer users away from FAT32 and toward NTFS for large Win2K volumes.

However, if you have an existing FAT32 volume that is larger than 32GB or you want to create a new FAT32 volume of this size, you don't need to worry about Win2K's 32GB FAT32 boundary. This limitation applies only to new partitions that you use Win2K to create. Fortunately, Win2K can easily use all existing partitions (even those that are larger than 32GB) that you created under other OSs and disk-management utilities.

Although NTFS is superior to FAT32 in many respects and supports more Win2K features than FAT32 supports, FAT32 is a more suitable file-system format for a Win2K and Win95 dual-boot system partition because both systems can read, write, and boot to and from FAT32 volumes. For more information about NTFS and FAT32, see "Multibooting Resources," page 86.

Finally, if you're using Win98 or Win95 OSR 2.x on a system that has a FAT system partition and you want to convert the partition to FAT32 during a Win2K upgrade, you need to use Win9x's disk-conversion utility or a third-party tool such as PowerQuest's PartitionMagic 5.0 or V Communications' Partition Commander to convert the system partition. Although this step isn't required because Win2K supports FAT and FAT32, it's a good idea because FAT32 is much more robust and space-efficient than FAT is.

Installation-Order Insights
If you have sufficient resources to install Win2K, the next step is to decide what installation order to use when creating your dual-boot or multiboot system configuration. The following is the preferred order for installing Microsoft OSs on dual-boot or multiboot systems: MS-DOS (including Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups—WFW), Win9x, NT, then Win2K.

This installation order works best for several reasons. First, the installer for each successive Windows-family product (Win9x, NT, Win2K) has been, for the most part, progressively better at recognizing the presence of its predecessors and accommodating a multi-OS configuration with them. With a few minor exceptions (e.g., Win95 OSR 2.x eliminates the ability to boot MS-DOS 6.x), each Windows version is better than its predecessors at preserving existing OS installations on a multi-OS system.

In addition, if you follow the suggested installation order, things are less likely to go awry during the multiboot-configuration process. The most common problem that users experience when they install OSs out of order (e.g., Win9x after NT or Win2K) is that the new OS overwrites the previous OS's boot sector. However, you can usually remedy this situation by running the Win2K Repair tool, which is available during Win2K setup. Under NT, this boot sector blowout problem is usually the result of a Win95 installation and is less likely to happen with Win98. However, in my experience with out-of-order installations on Win2K systems, I've found that even Win98 is prone to exhibit this boot sector-overwriting behavior.

When Win9x overwrites the original boot sector and renders the Win2K installation inaccessible, the system boots only into Win9x and doesn't provide a Boot Loader menu. To resolve this problem, you must run Win2K Setup's Repair tool to restore the Win2K boot sector and Boot Loader. (You can choose either Win2K Setup Repair's manual mode and select the Inspect Boot Sector option or choose the Fast mode. For more information about repairing an overwritten boot sector, see "Multibooting Resources.") In several situations, I've discovered that the damage was bad enough that the Repair tool couldn't find the Win2K installation folder without the help of an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). Thus, if you're planning to install Win9x after Win2K on a multiboot system, perform a full system backup and have an updated ERD handy.

If you launch Win2K Setup from within another Windows version, you must tell Win2K Setup to let you choose the partition to which Win2K will install. To do this, click Advanced Options on the Windows 2000 Setup dialog box and select the I want to choose the installation partition during Setup check box, as Screen 1 shows.

Although installing Win2K as the last OS on your system is the preferred method for setting up a multi-OS configuration, this order isn't always convenient. For example, you might purchase a system preloaded with Win2K and you might want to also run Win98 (e.g., to run or test applications that don't run on Win2K). In this case, you can remove Win2K and install Win98 from scratch, or you can attempt to install Win98 on your existing Win2K system. In my experience, as long as the system partition is FAT or FAT32, you won't have any trouble installing Win98 on a Win2K system. However, you might need to use Win2K Setup's Repair tool if Win98 overwrites Win2K's boot sector.