How to install WINDOWS 2000 besides LINUX and WINDOWS 98

How to install WINDOWS 2000 besides LINUX and WINDOWS 98
Notice: When I say 'beside Linux and Windows 98', I mean of Linux and Windows 98 that already work together, so they were installed earlier, before we made a decision to add Windows 2000. One of the machines I use at work, has both Linux and Win98. They both load from under LILO menu.


Actually, it is not a very big problem to install Windows 2000 on a computer where another Windows is running. In my case, it is Windows 98 so I just put 2000's CD into the drive. After it recognized that an 'older' version of Windows was running on my machine, it offered me either to upgrade it to 2000 or to install W2k as the 'clean' installation. At first, I tried to upgrade my Windows 98 to W2k, in order to get a very similar combination that I have at home (described in previous chapter). But, some hardware and software compatibility issues were reported (I mean, some of my components wouldn't stay fully operational if I just did an upgrade).


When saw that, I considered to try the 'fresh' installation of W2k, beside Win98 and Linux. Happily, I recently installed another HD into the box, so I did not need to handle the first disk, where Win98 and Linux were living. Actually, the main reason to add the second disk was that the first one got almost full. If I wanted to install the third operating system on the first disk, I'd have to clean it well. So, when W2k's Setup asked for the location to be installed, I told it to use the second disk, repartition it and format it as the NTFS file system (just to mention that my Win98 was FAT32 and Linux was ext2).


After an hour or so, W2k's installation was finished. During the setup procedure, it re-started the system a couple of times. When it was about to do that for the first time, I was curious if it would re-write the MBR, where LILO resides (actually, in the previous chapter, I have mentioned that W2k's installation was likely to re-write the MBR). Interestingly, it did not do that this time, so I continued to see 'LILO boot:' on the screen. But, a *new* thing has appeared after LILO: the Windows 2000 boot loader, that in turn offered not only to load W2k but a 'Windows' (ie. my old Win98) too.


Well, depending on which operating system I like to start, the procedure might slightly differ, but it is easy. No problem at all. For example:



If I like to load my Linux, then LILO boot is the "cross-road". At this point, the 'linux' entry should either be chosen or set as default in /etc/lilo.conf;
If I like to load Windows, then the other entry under LILO boot should either be chosen or set to be default. After it is done, Windows 2000 boot loader should appear on the screen. On that point, I have two choices: W2k and W98. The rest is easy, both Windozes start from there happily.