Install ME dual boot with XP????

Based on what I read on Partition Magic 8's instructions for installing another operating system, it seemed pretty straight forward.

1.Partition Magic creates a partition on disk 0 for new OS, make it the active partion as "C" & hide XP.
2. shut down, restart with CD Rom or start up diskette for ME
3. If started with diskette, insert ME CDROM and install.

Only one problem. Neither the ME startup diskette (from the prior install on the same machine) nor the CDROM will boot the machine.

Had to go back in with PM8's diskettes and unhide XP partition.

Now, I know somebody will ask why in the world I would try to do this, the answer is simple. Some of my 9 year old daughter's older games that ran fine on ME will not even install on XP and she is devistated. And, since I am her hero who can fix anything, well...........

Yes, I have gone to the game's websites, & they flat out tell you the games will not run on XP, no updates or fixes.

Is there some other way to set up a dual boot with ME and XP?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Martin

 

Hi Martin

Since the floppy drive will read the PM diskettes, my guess
is the ME boot diskette has gone bad.
You can go here and download a file that will create a
new ME diskette.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

 

Thanks Picard, could be a bad diskette, didn't think of that, downloaded from the link, will make new diskette, try that, will post back results.

Thanks again

Martin

 

Martin,
Did you try the backward compatibility in XP to make the games work? I didn't have any trouble with any of the kids' games when I upgraded their comp from 98 to XP.

Curious to know if your new disk does the trick.
Johanna

*sent you a PM reply earlier!

 

Picard: you were right on track, a newly made boot disk did the trick. Most difficult part was finding drive letter for CDROM which turned out to be "R "

As usual, beset with more problems, no sound and max 16 colors no drivers for either, no drivers for network adapter. Not that I expected it to go 100% smooth.

Now I have to try to remember the sound card, video card and network card mfg. & see if I can get ME drivers installed.

Using Boot Magic from Powerquest, gives OS options on start. XP survived the trauma and is perking along OK. So, all in all, things went well, even if I did spend the better part of today banging on it. I was sure I'd bolox up XP, I'm relieved that it is OK.

Johana: The games won't even install, get error message, not compatible. Unless there is someway to get them installed, I can't use compatibilty mode. And they ran fine on ME previously.

Thanks so much for all the help I have gotten on this board, Just renewed my subscription, best $20. I have ever spent on computing.

Martin

 

Glad that did it.
Yeah the CD-ROM drive letter usually moves up a letter.

Thanks for posting back.

 

Picard: If the CD drive had moved up a letter, it would have been easy. It went from "E" to "R" which at my count is at least 13 spaces. Made it kind of hard to find.

But I am happy to report that for the moment, all problems solved even though it took another day, ME crashed, wouldn't load, Had to do some fancy dancing with partitions as I couldn't get it to re-install on the same one it had been running on. Been so long I had forgotten about scanreg/restore, and didn't even try System Restore from safe mode, forgot that ME had it, DUH. Well, I'm sure there will be a next time, I guess I should make notes.

Finally got the sound, video and network card drivers installed, then 60+ updates to ME from MSFT.

Installed three of the programs, Dogz 3, Catz 4, Babyz, all ok, I'm still a hero.

Martin

 

Drive letter changes...

martinr121,
Just a little tip that may help in the future... I have a couple of systems that I 'multi' boot. To solve the problem of floating optical drive letters I set my CD burner to 'x:' my CD rom to 'y:' and a usb zip drive to 'z:'. Then no matter how much the partitions get moved around I always know where my optical drives are. Even when I switch or add a HD I avoid the problem. HTH

B

 

Hey B, thanks, great idea, gonna do it!

Martin