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How to install two operating systems in 1 computer

May 17, 2008 by Amit Bhawani 8 Comments

Sometimes, having just one system is not enough, you need more than that. So how do you do it in the simplest manner?

What are the things that you need to complete the installation?
Well, at least you must have some basic Knowledge of Installing an OS. Having knowledge is not enough, you need the tools as well to make it happened. Hence you need to make sure you have either setup disks for each OS or a custom bootable DVD ;bootable Windows 98 Floppy Disk; 15GB for Windows 98, 20 GB for Windows 2000, 20GB for Windows XP Prof).

Operating Systems Market

Is that all that you need?
Not quite as having two systems mean you need a larger space to accommodate both systems? Make sure you have at least 60GB of your space free and unpartitioned

Do I have to do anything about my documents and existing personal data in my PC? Definitely! Make sure you do a COMPLETE backup of all your personal files or else you might end up missing some important data.

MS Dos Operating SystemOk? Now that I have everything covered, how do I begin?
Well, firstly, you must prep your PC. Just like us, your hardrives need to be prep for the installation process.First you must omit all the partitions that you have in the PC. To omit or delete the partitions, you need to change some the BIOS/CMOS settings.
Why do we do this?
This is to ensure that your PC will boot to Floppy first.
What next?

CD-ROM SupportRemember the setup disks that you need. Now take the Windows 98 Bootdisk and insert it into your PC and reboot your PC your action will prompt you to Windows 98 Startup Menu screen.
There seems to be some options that I can choose from. What should I do next?
Select the first option to start your PC with CD-ROM support.
What happen after that?

The disk that you inserted earlier will load and eventually return to a A:\ . Once you are back to A:\,type: FDISK. Your action will help load the FDISK utility. The first screen might ask you “Do you wish to enable large disk support”, choose Y for Yes. Also, if your C: was formatted as a NTFS drive vs FAT32, it might also ask you if you want to treat non-FAT drives as unknown or something, again choose Y for Yes.

Where am I now?
Your actions so far should lead you to the FDISK menu.
What should I do now that I am at the FDISK menu?

First thing first, you need Display Partition Information. This is so that you can see what has you setup and what you need to delete.

Ok, I have managed to do the previous steps, what should I do next?

Once we see what we have setup, escape back to the Main FDISK menu and then go to [3] Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
Now it will bring up four options:

1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

When you delete partitions, here are some basic guidelines:
Here is the order to delete partitions (first to last):
-Non-DOS > Logical DOS Drive(s) > Extended DOS Partition(s) > Primary DOS Partition
-If you have any NTFS drives, if possible try to delete them in Windows before booting to Floppy. So, it makes life easier, especially if the parition is created in an Extended DOS Partition. When trying to delete them from FDISK, it might say “Cannot Delete Extended DOS partition while logcal drives exist” however when you try to delete the logical drive, it will say that none exist. If this is the case, what I do when this happens (I’ll explain how to avoid running into this problem in the creating partitions section) is I will go ahead and quick start installing XP and once the XP setup gets to the disk part, I delete the NTFS partition from there and then start my whole installation from scratch again (delete all partitions and create new ones)

Once you have deleted all of the partitions, go back to the main FDISK menu and to the next step.

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About

My name is Amit Bhawani and here I like to share my internet/tech experience with my online readers. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram at @AmitBhawani I am also the Editor-in-Chief of PhoneRadar & Master Gadgets

About Amit Bhawani

My name is Amit Bhawani and here I like to share my internet/tech experience with my online readers. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram at @AmitBhawani

Comments

  1. Make money says

    May 17, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    How to install xp on vista ?

    Reply
  2. Rockstar Sid says

    May 18, 2008 at 4:28 am

    @Make money – I think it is not possible

    Also i have two xp’s installed but use only one 🙂

    Reply
  3. nayan patel says

    December 24, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    i have problem with two operating system
    first one : xp & 98 but only 98 is corrupt and i want new insall only operating system 98 any guide u have

    Reply
  4. Shankar says

    October 1, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Your blog categories is well diveied and informative than our Tech Blogs.

    Secondly, it is said that Win98SE should be in C drive and it should be FAT32 only, not NTFS and moreover it should not be more than 8GB. Pl clarify.

    Reply
  5. Gauthamraj says

    November 22, 2009 at 3:51 am

    Hi all….I am looking forward to install both the ubunthu and fedora 10 in a single laptop…what should i do i hav only 40gb hard disk…

    Reply
  6. vikash says

    April 30, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    i have installed windiows xp now and i had windows 7 earlier when after complete installation of xp how could i again start mywindows 7 both are in other drives

    Reply
  7. pavan says

    December 23, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    iam having windows 7 but want to install 2 os that is windows 7 and windows xp how to do it can you please tell me the steaps

    Reply
    • Web Host says

      February 15, 2011 at 5:07 pm

      Installing Windows 7 on Existing Windows XP is quite easy with dual Boot. You need to have Windows 7 CD and then you need install it normally without any boot or so. Then it will ask for the location to store Windows 7 and you need to specify a new folder instead of C Drive that you have. This will become Dual Operating System PC.

      Reply

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