Installing two or more operations systems on one PC

Installing two or more operations systems on one PC:
This article will explains How to install two or more operating systems in single computer?
In many cases we need to install two operating systems. For example Windows 2000 supports many programming applications where as Windows XP cannot support. Similarly Windows XP support many games where as Windows 2000 cannot support. For this purpose you need to install two or more operating systems on your computer and then choose the one that you want to use each time you restart. This process is known as Multibooting. You can configure your computer to start Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and either Windows 98 or Windows 95.

First check your disk space:
Before using multibooting feature you have to check your disk space. Each operating system uses valuable disk space, and file system compatibility can be complex if you want to run Windows XP on one partition and an earlier OS on another partition. Few years back many users installed multiple operating system as a safeguard against with the operating system of the computer.If windows 2000 fails to open then we need to reinstall whole operating system.This is the drawback of using windows 2000. This drawback can be rectified in windows XP. Windows XP is having the best feature that is system recovery. If operating system fails to open then we may loose data which is installed in the same drive. In which operating system has installed.System revocery is the feature in which we can get our lost data. So it is always prefer to install two or multibooting feature in a single system. For example, if you have a problem with a newly-installed device driver, you can use safe mode, in which the operating system restarts with default settings and the minimum number of drivers.

Basic disk:
This is the common name for hard disk.Convert your basic disk to dynamic disk.MS-DOS and all Windows-based operating systems can access basic disks. Basic disk is divided in to four partitions. A partition is nothing but a small section in a basic disk. each partition is having different file format. Different partitions as A: B: C: D: . Each operating system should be installed in different partitions.

Single dynamic disk:
If you haven’t divided in to partitions then you can install only one operating system. You cannot multiboot your hard disk. To know whether your hard disk is dynamic then click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools. Double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management. Your disk will be labeled as a basic or dynamic type.

Multiple dynamic disks:
If your system consists of two or more hard disks installed, each dynamic disk can contain one installation of windows XP or Windows 2000. No other operating systems can start from a dynamic disk. XP home edition does not support dynamic disks..

One OS Per Partition:
You must prepare your hard disk with different partitions before installing Windows XP and an earlier version on the same computer.When you install Windows XP on hard disk then the setup program does not make partition your hard disk automatically.To create multiple partitions, choose Advanced Options during Setup and follow the instructions to create and name multiple partitions. Through Fdisk we can create partition. If Windows XP already present in your system and you are left with one partition, then you must reformat and partition your hard drive before you can multiboot. You can divide your hard disk in tho multiple partitions. In each partition you can install one operating system. Each partition have a seperate logical drive. For example, logical drives C: and D: can both exist on the same hard disk, but function as separate disks. Placing each operating system in a separate partitions assures you that it will not overwrite files used by the other OS.
A basic disk can contain up to four partitions. Each partition can be formatted for use by a file system, such as FAT32 or NTFS.

Brief summary:

• Install each Operating system that is windows XP ,windows 2000 in seperate drives.
• Always install earlier versions first. That is install windows 2000 first then Windows XP.
• After installing Windows 2000 choose another partition for windows XP. Do not install both operating systems in one partition.
• Do not install Windows XP on a compressed drive unless the drive was compressed with the NTFS file system compression feature. If your drive system is in FAT or FAT 32 convert file system to NTFS .