I am switching to Velocity futures and need to run windows 200pro. I already have windows XP on the computer. I tried loading 2000pro and the XP os automatically disables the instalation disc. anyone know a way arround this? thanks
Best would be to leave xp alone in that HD. Buy a 2nd HD (they're cheap) and install/run win2K on new drive. If/when things change later on, just set things back on the original drive.
you can install xp after w2k. w2k after xp is difficult. however, I doubt some client app works under w2k and NOT under xp. you should double-check that. it should run well with xp.
It can run of XP pro but not home (what I am running). They just don't have support for XP as I understand it. I think I will go get another hard drive. Are there compatability issues with different hard drives? Can I just walk into CompUSA and tell them I need a second harddrive for a Dell? thanks again for your help.
Yes, any HD will do. Check the retailers... I recall seeing one of them has an 80G WD for $49.99 after rebate this week.
I would not buy too big a drive. Something in the 40-60 GIG "IDE" is ok. You may want to shop around for cheapest price.
I don't understand why you cannot install W2000 on an XP machine unless the W2000 software you have is an upgrade version. If it is a full install version, simply put the CD in the drive and restart the machine. Ensure that the machine is set uo to be able tol boot from CD (check the BIOS) and the system will boot from the W2000 CD. This will totally bypass any XP startup and thus XP cannot stop the install. While I have never tried this myself, I have done enough W2000 installs to think that it should work. Give it a try.
Of course you can easily go from xp to win2k. But with 2nd cheap drive, he's not having to install/uninstall/reinstall OS's unnecessarily. Of course the best solution is to always have 1 pc with xp and another pc with win2k and when they come out with the next hot OS, do not upgrade! Buy a new pc with new OS and keep older pc's with current OS. It is cheaper and less trouble that way.
There are many ways to accomplish what you are asking (without buying a new drive) but first I must ask a question - are you trying to run a "dual-boot" system which prompts you at startup whether you want to run XP or W2K or are you interested in just replacing what you have with W2K? If the latter then its very trivial but even the former can be accomplished without resorting to buying a new drive - having a copy of PartitionMagic would help tremendously.
I don't care if I can reload XP again. I would prefer to be able to keep the files that are on the hard drive. I am trying what echo suggested but forgive my ignorance I can't figure out how to change the settings to boot from the cdrom.