Dual boot

[Brado]

I wish to install XPPro. My OS is now Win ME.
In order to create a new volume, will I have to format the
hard drive (now in 4 partitions) and reinstall everything,
or could I move all my partitions with PQ Magic 6 on to
say the first 40Gb and format the remaining 40gb to
install XP Pro?
Thanks for any help

[ByteBlighted]

It would be most advantageous for you to devote the fourth 10GB partition
to Windows XP. The O/S takes up 1.5 GB of space all by itself. That'll
leave you with 8.x GB of room for anything that you want to install under
XP, and for your personal files that you will probably want to keep in the
Windows XP My Documents folder, My Pictures folder, and My Music folder.

Windows XP will want room for a pagefile and a hiberfile, which you should
keep on the fourth partition too - until you decide that you just love and
adore and worship Windows XP.

If you have programs installed under Windows ME spread out on all four
partitions, you really should choose the fourth partition to clear off,
determine what (if any) programs were installed to that partition,
uninstall those programs and reinstall them to another partition (moving
them manually and editing the Registry accordingly would be a more
difficult [nearly impossible for the ordinary human] option).

If you don't give XP its own partition, you may end up back in the
newsgroups asking for help concerning some calamity or other that has been
caused by installing XP onto a partition that is actively in use by an
earlier version of Windows. But, you're free to do as you wish.

Since this is a trial installation (you are wanting to see whether you like
XP or not), putting it on the fourth partition and leaving it FAT32 makes
it ever so easy to eradicate XP if you should determine that you don't like
it (which I personally doubt will happen), as some folks don't. Also,
since this is a trial installation, I recommend doing all your XP
experimenting on the fourth partition because it keeps everything
consolidated (a thing that you will likely find to be very handy).


"Brado" > wrote in message
...
: I wish to install XPPro. My OS is now Win ME.
: In order to create a new volume, will I have to format the
: hard drive (now in 4 partitions) and reinstall everything,
: or could I move all my partitions with PQ Magic 6 on to
: say the first 40Gb and format the remaining 40gb to
: install XP Pro?
: Thanks for any help
:

Thank you for your helpful reply. I was not aware that XP
Pro could be installed on a newly formatted FAT32
partition.
It is no problem in my case, since I only use the E: drive
for data storage, which can be relocated. I use the F:
drive as a 1GB partition for Windows swap file.
I would propose to make the E: drive 15GB and format it,
leaving F: drive to continue as is for the ME swap file.
I hope it will work without problems.


>-----Original Message-----
>It would be most advantageous for you to devote the
fourth 10GB partition
>to Windows XP. The O/S takes up 1.5 GB of space all by
itself. That'll
>leave you with 8.x GB of room for anything that you want
to install under
>XP, and for your personal files that you will probably
want to keep in the
>Windows XP My Documents folder, My Pictures folder, and
My Music folder.
>
>Windows XP will want room for a pagefile and a hiberfile,
which you should
>keep on the fourth partition too - until you decide that
you just love and
>adore and worship Windows XP.
>
>If you have programs installed under Windows ME spread
out on all four
>partitions, you really should choose the fourth partition
to clear off,
>determine what (if any) programs were installed to that
partition,
>uninstall those programs and reinstall them to another
partition (moving
>them manually and editing the Registry accordingly would
be a more
>difficult [nearly impossible for the ordinary human]
option).
>
>If you don't give XP its own partition, you may end up
back in the
>newsgroups asking for help concerning some calamity or
other that has been
>caused by installing XP onto a partition that is actively
in use by an
>earlier version of Windows. But, you're free to do as
you wish.
>
>Since this is a trial installation (you are wanting to
see whether you like
>XP or not), putting it on the fourth partition and
leaving it FAT32 makes
>it ever so easy to eradicate XP if you should determine
that you don't like
>it (which I personally doubt will happen), as some folks
don't. Also,
>since this is a trial installation, I recommend doing all
your XP
>experimenting on the fourth partition because it keeps
everything
>consolidated (a thing that you will likely find to be
very handy).
>
>
>"Brado" > wrote in
message
...
>: I wish to install XPPro. My OS is now Win ME.
>: In order to create a new volume, will I have to format
the
>: hard drive (now in 4 partitions) and reinstall
everything,
>: or could I move all my partitions with PQ Magic 6 on to
>: say the first 40Gb and format the remaining 40gb to
>: install XP Pro?
>: Thanks for any help
>:
>
>
>.
>