Operating system merge-complex functional system

Operating system merge-complex functional system

Making your computer to boot from multiple operating systems is not that complex that is if you are planning to install Windows operating systems. But if you are planning to combine a different operating system like Linux for example, with Windows, that is more complex and I’m not familiar with Linux systems. Of course, you need to meet first every operating system’s system requirements to be able to run them smoothly.

Here is an example. Let’s make a system that boots on 2 platforms, Windows Millennium and Windows XP, on a 40 GB hard drive. Try to adapt these procedures on your computer. Partition the hard drive the way you want it, depending on your needs. Here, let’s partition the hard drive into 2 equally separate drives.

We will then have drive C, 20 GB and drive D, 20 GB. You can do the partitioning on the Windows XP installation because somewhere in the installation it will ask you to delete, create, or install on the current partition. Or better yet, you can use a disk partitioning software to better manage the partition on your hard drive. After creating both partitions, drive C must be set Active and is automatically set visible while drive D is automatically set to hidden.

You need to change this after installing the first operating system. Install first Windows XP on drive C. Windows XP is a Windows NT-based platform, and it is required to be the foundation or the base operating system on a multiple operating system environment.

After installing Windows XP, right-click on My Computer then select Manage. Under Storage, click on Disk Management. Right-click on drive D then select Format. Format drive D using FAT32 file system because this is the default file system for Windows Millennium. After the format, insert the Windows Millennium bootable installer disk on the CD/DVD drive and then restart the computer.

Proceed on installing Windows Millennium. When asked where to install Windows Millennium, select drive D and not drive C or else it will overwrite the previous installation and your dual-boot system will be ruined and will not work.

And that’s it, just finish the installation for Windows Millennium and you’re all set. You have now a computer that boots on either Windows Millennium or Windows XP.

But here is a reminder, if you’ll be doing a defragmentation of your hard drive on this kind of setup, defragment your current operating system and not the other drive with a different operating system installed. Like here, if you booted your computer on Windows XP defragment only drive C. Don’t try defragment drive D because Windows Millennium is installed there.