multiple booting question

[desidud]

hi,

i tried to had Win98,2000,xp,2003 as my multiple boot. started with win98 but when it came to "installing hardware compnents' part with some 8 mins remaining it showed this 'your multi-funtional device (Standard Dual PC IDE controller) has some child device using 32-bit drivers and other using compatibility mode drivers. This configuration is not supported, so your computer has been halted to prevent corruption"

i m having 160GB SATA HD,AMD athlon dual core

then i had win2000, XP & server 2003 running successfully as my multiple boot option installed on different drive. with drive C as my active partition having win2000 in it.

i tried to install vista with DVD ROM as 1st boot device but it kept showing error some file/driver missing windows\system32\drivers\fltmgr.sys

i tried to install vista after booting with XP. installation started but after copying files PC restarted n then nothing happened...blank screen, not even the multiple boot options anymore.

i reformatted my HD, installed XP & then successfully installed Vista but then i installed win2000 & woof! Vista was gone from boot option though the files were there in the drive but now i had XP & 2000 as boot option.

is it possible to have all 4 as multiple boot option? if yes then whats the proper order of installation? if no then which all Windows OS can co-exist with Vista as part of multiple boot.

have few more queries regarding multiple booting with linux but later in linux section

looking forward to answers,

regards.

[ijwcomp]

Hi desidud!

The general rule here is to install the oldest and working all the way to the newest.

Don't know why you want five OS's on your computer with only 160GB... But anyway...

Don't install 98, it's way too old. You can always install Windows 98 on the free Virtual PC (Microsoft)

Make four partitions, your choice in size, format them using FAT or NTFS your choice again, and then install Win2K on C: (the first partition), WinXP on D: (the second partition), Win03 on E: (the third partition) and Vista on F: (the fourth partition).

Tip: Boot using the CD, not from the OS itself as I find it more stable if I do it that way

I only have two-three OS's in my system (work, games, virtualpc/editing videos), although most people only have one.

Just install two/three max and then just set a virtual machine is my suggestion, but you make the decision, one, two, three or four OSes.

BTW, always install Linux after Windows, but I am not sure about that fact as I never installed Linux in my actual computer.