Dual Booting Me and 2000

I am helping a friend who is trying to set up a dual boot with windows me and 2000. He currently has me installed and needs 2000, because a program he wants to install requires Windows 2000 with service pack 4 or higher. His specs are as follows:
800 megahertz Intel Pentium III
256 Megabytes Installed Memory
c: 30.58 GB 3.38 GB free
d: 80.00 GB 72.04 GB free
Because his processor, I recommended 2000 instead of xp, and so I was wondering how to set up a dual boot with the 2 os's. I have seen some instructions for installing the second os to the second hd, but I have also heard that you should not install an OS on a second hard drive, and was wondering about this too. Also, would you guys recommend instead of a dual boot, just upgrading to 2000? Anyway, any help on this is appretiated, thanks!

 

Windows 2000 would be a much welcome upgrade. Windows ME was a mess to run on my PC. It crashed ALL the time. 2000 is much more stable.

 

In the specific case of WinME, I would recommend a format and clean install of 2K.

If you prefer to dual boot (and that would be better than upgrading over ME to anything) then just installing 2K to a different partition/drive should take care of things automatically for you.

Installing multiple OS versions on the same drive/partition is a bad idea.

 

Ok, I told him to install it to his second drive, but any tips on doing this? Another thing, if he decides to do the format and then install, will have to reinstall all of his drivers for sound, video, etc? Again, thanks for the help!

 

Boot up to Win ME normally, not safe mode. Once you're at the desktop, insert the W2K CD. Then follow my directions here.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=34454

Absolutely. XP has an excellent driver database so it might detect of some his hardware. However, any pci sound card, video card, modem etc., he will definitely have to install those. Have him D/L those drivers and save them on a floppy or CD before he starts on this project. It will make the process go much smoother.

 

Hi...I just bought System Commander , and am getting ready to buy a copy of Win2K so I can dual boot and keep my Win 98se, too.

Why is this a bad idea? Thanks

 

It is definitely not a good idea to put both OSes on the same partition. Even the System Commander will load the OSes on separation partitions during the setup.

Besides keeping things organized, it's done primarily to prevent file/data corruption. If one OS was get hosed for some reason, then there's LESS of a chance the other OS will be affected in such a case.

 

Sorry...my bad. Misunderstood the post. Thanks