basically this is my situation. i have a decent and powerful, yet family pc. we all paid for it, but i paid extra for some top quality hardware. i am pretty good with pc's and know how to get them working properly, however my brother, has no clue, but thinks he does, and the rest of the family thinks he does. when i do a format, i download all the service packs, install latest audio and video drivers, raid, scsi, intel application accelerator, everything. when he does it, he installs windows ontop of a fucked windows because he cba to format, then says "look, it works fine and i did it in 10th of the time you did". now to all the family, who only use word and explorer, the pc works. for me who uses it alot more and wants to run high end games, trying to run them on a pc which has windows installed over the top of a crashed windows with no raid drivers, no real driver of any sort, just doesnt happen. then i get abuse for wanting to format, "because the pc works fine"...

my first thought was about setting up user accounts and having them so he cant install or uninstall. but im not allowed to do that because he paid for this pc aswel as me, and as far as mum is concerned, im clueless with comps and he knows it all. my last attempt, was to make the pc wicked after a format and run norton ghost; only after making the ghost image, nothing would load. took me a weekend, and nothing worked. he installed windows over the top of all my hard work and said "woo, look what ive done"!

so i cant have him having the ability to do what he likes, yet im not allowed to stop him. and we have no room for a second pc. this leaves me with the only option of a duel boot setup. split the hdd into 2, i have half, and they have half.

only im not 100% on how to do it. i had a chat with the guy i nornally ask but he got too frustrated and i have a free weekend this weekend so i wana do it this weekend if i can.

whats the best way of doing this? do i fdisc the comp into a c:\ and a d:\, and then go thro the routine of installing windows seperately onto both partitions? or do i install it all onto one, and then make another in windows after? i thought i had fdisc on my windows 98 boot disc, but after trying to boot the pc with it in, it wouldnt load any form of dos promt.

im running windows 2000 pro and intend on using that OS on both partitions once made. i intend on installing windows, updates, and some virus protection (we have a linksys router with SPI (i had to argue a week explaining why we need that aswel)) and then leaving it. whatever he wants to do he can do. why he says it always works is coz he never uses more than IE.

anyone fancy helping?

Dual booting is easy.

First, you can download a program - such as partition magic, to make the job easier of seperating the drive, and not worrying about loosing data.

You can download it here: http://davenco.2y.net/~dan/tools/pm8.exe

If this a 2k machine, and you want to dual boot another 2k, then what you would need to do is reinstall windows, but specify it to go on the other drive letter. (make sure it's formated for NTFS) - then edit C:\BOOT.INI

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


Should look something like that, if you were say - doing XP and 2k


Hopefully this info helps you out.
Good luck.

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

^^^ what is this? and what does it do?

im not worried about losing any files because this pc is messed up and needs formatting. i find myself formatting monthly and getting sick of it. so do i format the pc and set it up normally, then run partition magic and make another drive (say D:\). then go thro the motions of installing windows again but making sure it installs onto the d:\? once done, it asks me to choose which drive i want to boot from when i turn on the pc correct? will making an extra drive shunt my cdrom and cdrw over a letter?

Are you using XP or 2k?
Yeah, that listed above is your BOOT.INI file and what it should look like it specifies what to boot, and will ask you when you start up the computer.


- neoh

im going to be running windows 2000 pro on both partitions. i take it the boot ini file is created once there is more than the standard one partition?

this will also move my cd drives along a letter once i make the new drive?

boot.ini is a file that is located in the root of C:\, to view it - open up explorer and goto folder options, view, and uncheck 'Hide operating system files' and check 'Show hidden files and folders' - then you can edit boot.ini and add those two lines.

your cdrom will automaticaly reassign itself to a new drive letter.

got u! that all seems pretty straight forward. thanks for the advice. ive just been given the day off work so ill crack on with it today and ill let u know how it panned out.

big thanks.

last thing: could u give me a quick guide on how to use partition magic? i downloaded it to have a look at it, and none of the programs run, they all wana run in dos. i cant get this machine into dos. if i hit f8 at startup and select safe mod with command prompt, nothing happens. plus its been so many years since ive used dos, ive forgotten most the commands on how to navigate around! lol!

Win2k doesent have DOS.
So you need to boot to a DOS disk.


You can download one from www.bootdisk.com
http://files.frashii.com/~bootdisk/boot98c.exe

that one is a good one.
Just download it, run the exe, put a floppy in, specify your BIOS to boot from the floppy, and start it up.

Then run partition magic.


enjoy.

havent had time to do this yet, had to work all weekend, ill let u know if it worked or not.

YOu should put the timeout on like 2 and just hit the down key real fast when the boot is up so no one knows what you have doneHEHEH

Ya butlisten to the other guy it all looks good I installed Linuz on my other partion ansd it automaticly partions the drive for you.

___________________
~Down The Hole I fell~

quote:

Originally posted by apathyangel YOu should put the timeout on like 2 and just hit the down key real fast when the boot is up so no one knows what you have doneHEHEH Ya butlisten to the other guy it all looks good I installed Linuz on my other partion ansd it automaticly partions the drive for you.

Linuz? heh