Multiboot and Windows 2000

Introduction

Welcome to the latest chapter in the continuing saga of multibooting!

First there was Windows 95. You needed to cope with moving the multiple copies of system files, and moving the Program Files directory, among other problems. But you mastered that, maybe with the help of Setting up Windows 95 for Multiple Languages.

Then there was Windows NT 4.0, perhaps multibooted with Windows 95. This was easier if you had only one version of Windows NT, and only one version of Windows 95. This is explained in Setting up Windows NT 4.0 for Multiple Languages.

And what about Windows 98? Take a look at Installing Japanese Windows 98 for some ideas about multibooting windows 98 in general. As the name implies, it also deals with setting up Japanese Windows 98 for folks who don't read Japanese.

If you needed to use more than one version of Windows 9X, you need some extra help from third party programs like System Commander.

Now, along comes Windows 2000. If you are involved with multiple languages in your computing, or if you need to test your product on multiple languages, you will love Windows 2000. For some reasons why you'll like it, check out International Features of Windows 2000 (NT5).

Multibooting possiblities with Windows 2000

You can multiboot Windows 2000 with:

• MS-DOS
• One version of Windows 95 or Windows 98
• Several versions of Windows NT 4.0

Note: You won't need to multiboot Windows 2000 with Windows 2000, because it's a single binary for all languages.

General Rules of Multibooting

There are lots of details to be considered, but there are some general rules that apply:

1. Things go much better if you install operating systems in the following order:

• MS-DOS first
• Then Windows 95 or Windows 98
• Then Windows NT 4.0
• Finally Windows 2000
  
  The reason is that each succeeding operating system in this list is more invasive than the earlier ones. In other words, they stomp around your boot drive and clobber previously existing versions.
  
  There is an exception, however. Windows 98 Second Edition is actually more sensitive to the feelings of other operating systems than Windows NT. I have found this to be true in a number of situations.

Tip: keep a Windows 98 startup diskette handy in case of boot problems.

1. Choice of file system

   It is safest to install each system on a separate volume so that each installation can retain its own files and configuration information.

   In addition, you must ensure that the boot volume (active partition) is formatted with the correct file system. If you want to install Windows 4.0 or Windows 2000 with Windows 95 or Windows 98, the boot volume must be formatted as FAT, not NTFS. Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, and Windows 2000 will support FAT32 volumes.

   Windows 95 and Windows 98 cannot recognize an NTFS partition and will identify it as unknown. Therefore, if you format a Windows 98 partition as FAT, and a Windows 2000 partition as NTFS, any files on the NTFS partition will be unavailable if you try to access them while running Windows 98.

2. Default operating system

   You can set the operating system you want to use as the default when you start your computer. In Windows NT 4.0, use Start->Settings->Control Panel->System, select the Startup/Shutdown tab, and select the entry in Startup that should be the default. In Windows 2000, there is a similar setting in the control panel.

   Boot.ini in the boot directory contains the settings for multi-boot options. The only way to edit the settings it to edit the boot.ini file itself. Since the files is a Read-Only System file (attributes RSH), you must change attributes to SH using the properties dialog box, or using the attrib -r command. The boot.ini file looks like the following:

   [boot loader]
   timeout=10
   default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
   [operating systems]
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00" 
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
   scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WIN2000="Windows NT Professional 2000" /faststart 
   c:\Microsoft Windows
   

   You can edit this file, and even add new entries. Use Notepad, because other editors will very likely create a new file and rename or delete the existing file. That way you lose the System attribute, and you can't add it back. Notepad saves it with System attribute intact.

3. Too many versions in boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\ WIN2000
[operating systems]
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WIN2000="Windows NT Professional 2000" /faststart
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="English Windows NT Workstation 4.00 (FAT)"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="English Windows NT Workstation 4.00 (FAT) [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Traditional Chinese Windows NT WS 4.00 (NTFS)"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Traditional Chinese Windows NT WS 4.00 (NTFS) [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Arabic Windows NT WS 4.00 (NTFS)"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Arabic Windows NT WS 4.00 (NTFS) [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Japanese Windows NT WS 4.00 (NTFS)" 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Japanese Windows NT WS 4.00 (NTFS) [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
C:\Microsoft Windows 98

Special Rules for Windows 2000

Before installing Windows 2000, make sure that all versions of Windows NT 4.0 have Service Pack 4 installed. This is very important, and neglecting this will cause great pain.

Why? During the install, Windows 2000 converts all NTFS drives to NT5. Windows NT 4.0 SP3 and below will not recognize any NT5 drives!

Here are two practical examples from personal experience:

• My Chinese Windows NT 4.0 was at Service Pack 3, and it was in an NTFS volume. Therefore I have lost it forever. All I can do now is delete the directory (when I'm in Windows 2000) and recover the disk space.
• My old English Windows NT 4.0 was (alas!) also at Service Pack 3, but it was in a FAT volume. I can boot to this version, but it can't see any of the data and programs on the NTFS volume. After installing Service Pack 4 all was well.
• In the future, I will not be able to install any new versions of Windows NT 4.0 on that computer's NTFS partitions. Since installations are essentially Service Pack 0, they will not be able to see the NTFS partitions. Installing them on FAT will work.

Note that Microsoft does not recommend using a multi-boot system with both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 as a long-term solution. The NTFS update in Service Pack 4 for Windows NT 4.0 was provided "only to help you evaluate and upgrade to Windows 2000."

Case Study - Cautious "Toe in the water approach"

You may get the impression that I enjoy installing versions of Windows. Not at all, believe me! But when we localize programs, we need to run them in the target environment, so I have no choice but to install lots of different versions.

Six months ago when I tried out Beta 1 of Windows 2000, it was a disaster. I was forced to reformat my drive and reload from a backup tape. That was because Windows 2000 changed the NTFS partitions to NT5, as explained above.

This time, I wasn't taking any chances. I stopped by my friendly computer store and bought a nice big 13.6 GB drive, so I could install Windows 2000 on its own drive. In fact, I disconnected the existing 11 GB drive on my Dell Dimension R400, so the machine had only a new unformatted drive. See what I mean about playing it safe?

The BIOS on the R400 allows booting from CD-ROM, so I simply plugged the Windows 2000 Professional Release Candidate 2 (RC2) CD into the CD/DVD drive and rebooted. I was pleasantly surprised to see the setup start up. This was going to be easy!

Soon the setup program formatted the drive, and proceeded to set up Windows 2000. It found all the hardware, including the HP Deskjet 870Cse and internal Zip drive, and installed the appropriate drivers. After adding two users and changing the screen resolution, the system was fully operational.

Since we are a localization company, I added all the language options. When the system came up, I immediately looked at our Arabic web site. It came up with proper right-to-left (RTL) orientation, correctly ligated, and in beautiful Arabic. Then I tried viewing a Japanese text file. After adding the Japanese input locale (the Microsoft Input Method Editor, or MS-IME), I was able to add Japanese text too. It would have been impossible to work with both Arabic and Japanese on the same version of Windows NT 4.0. On Windows 2000 it is commonplace.

Given that the installation went so well, I decided to hook up the original hard disk. Then things got a bit complicated. When there was only one drive connected, the situation with was:

Note: using Windows 2000 disk manager, I assigned drive letters R and S to the Zip drive and CD-ROM respectively.

Here is the disk configuration after reconnecting the old drive:

The only real surprises after connecting the second drive were:

• Windows 2000 decided to boot to the old drive, partition 1. Why? Because it is the first FAT drive. When there was only one disk, there were no FAT drives at all.
• English Windows NT 4.0 was at SP3, so it couldn't see either of the NTFS drives. It should be possible to install SP4 and see them.

Keep in mind, though, that your drive letters can and will be reassigned according to the will of Microsoft.

Conclusion

Multibooting with Windows 2000 is not a walk in the park, but it does work. Buying a second hard drive is a very cost-effective way to try Windows 2000 without too much risk. In this process, I reinstalled Windows 2000 twice (to recover the boot files) and Windows 98 once (on the mistaken impression that it had disappeared). While I was at it I upgraded to Windows 98 Second Edition, so it was not a complete waste of time.

All in all, I am very pleased with the results, and I am looking forward to doing most of my multilingual testing on a single version of Windows 2000.

Some additional features of Windows 2000:

• Better driver support
• Unicode-savvy Notepad
• Multilanguage alternative to multibooting

Drivers

Windows 2000 is much more up-to-date than NT, so it accepts most Windows 98 Plug-and-Play devices.
You can even play DVD movies on Windows 2000, which you can't do on NT 4.0.

Notepad

This old standby has some very handy features for dealing with Unicode. If you try to save a file containing Chinese data, such as home_sch.html, Notepad will warn that you will lose data if you don't save it as Unicode.
Then it offers to save it in three kinds of Unicode:

• UCS2 "big-endian"
• UCS2 "little-endian"
• UTF-8

See International Features of Windows 2000 for details.

Multilanguage

Now that the Multilanguage pack is available, you can almost forget about multiboot for day-to-day testing.
You still need to do validation testing on the target platforms, but for just about everything else you can use one installation of Windows 2000.

The Mulitlanguage pack is not a separate installation, it is something you add on to your existing installation, allowing user interfaces in different languages.

Question: So why would you want to use the Multilanguage pack when regular Windows 2000 handles other languages so well?

Answer: Because the Mulitlanguage pack lets you set the user interface and the system default language to any of the available languages.

The June 2000 Microsoft Developers' Network (MSDN) holographic CD "Microsoft Windows 2000 MultiLanguage Version", which is also called Disk 11, contains ten languages.

See International Features of Windows 2000 for details.