Simplyguides | How To Dual Boot Windows XP With Windows XP- One Hard Disk Drive, With 2 Or More Partitions

First accept the License Agreement to use Windows XP, so press F8 to Accept.

Now as we're going to be dual booting with one hard disk drive using two partitions, the first part is to create these two partitions.

You should at first see Unpartitioned space with the size of your hard drive [in Megabytes] also being displayed. This is to say that there are currently no partitions on the hard disk drive.

To create a partition simply press C.

You will now have to specify the partition size in Megabytes for the first partition. The size of the partition does not necessarily matter, but remember that you will need room for Windows XP, software and your own files.

Enter the partition size in Megabytes and press ENTER.

I entered a partition size of 25000 MB which is just under half of the hard disk drives capacity.

You should now see your newly created partition and to install Windows XP to this partition press ENTER.

For a guide on choosing the file system please take a look at NTFS vs FAT.

You may also like to take a look at the Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a "clean" installation of Windows XP. If you decide to choose the FAT file system you can actually convert to the NTFS file system later on. However if you choose the NTFS file system you cannot then convert this to the FAT file system.

Select the file system you want to use and press ENTER.

The partition where you're installing Windows XP will now have to be formatted and the time this takes will depend upon the type of formatting that you selected.

Now files should be copied to the Windows XP installation folders.

Your computer will now be restarted in 15 seconds.

However by pressing ENTER you can force a restart.

When your computer has restarted Windows XP will start to install. When it has finished installing you will then have to start another installation.

As you have just done, start another installation of Windows XP and we'll join the installation where we will have to create another partition.

A second partition will now have to be created for the second installation of Windows XP. You should see the first partition you created with the name of Partition1 [or if you changed the label name this will be shown].

It's important to not delete this partition as you will delete the first installation of Windows XP. So leave this partition as it is and concentrate on installing Windows XP to the other partition.

Select the Unpartitioned space and press ENTER to start the second Installation.

If you want to create another partition on the Unpartitioned space then you will need to press C.

Once again you will have to choose the file system and whether to quickly format the partition.

The partition where you're installing Windows XP will now have to be formatted and the time this takes will depend upon the type of formatting that you selected.

Now files should be copied to the Windows XP installation folders.

Your computer will now be restarted in 15 seconds.

However by pressing ENTER you can force a restart.

Your computer will once again restart and Windows XP will start to Install.

When it is installing, the first installation will be recognised and Windows XP will create a dual boot environment.

If you are wanting to dual boot with one hard disk drive, with two or more partitions then all you have to do is install Windows XP twice. That's all there is to do as Windows XP will take care of the rest. However it is possible to go and make some changes that will help distinguish the two installations as well as a few other settings that may allow for easier dual booting.

Please see the post installation page on how to go about this.

Post Installation