See below.

<timber1299@dodgeit.com> wrote in message
news:1132694861.574233.12030@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> I want to put 2 operating systems (OS's) on one hard drive, sometimes
> booting to 1 OS, sometimes booting to the other. I know you can do
> this by partitioning the hard drive, but partitioning is something I
> did not understand a week ago. I have obtained Partition Magic 8.0 &
> have been combing through the User's Manual, the Help files, & googling
> the subject in newsgroups. I have learned a lot, but have a lot of
> blanks I need to fill in to make sure I do this correctly, so I would
> appreciate any & all help you can provide!
>
> I currently have Windows 2000 Pro on my hard drive. I have yet to
> obtain the restore disk for 2000, so I need this partitioning to be
> done & not wipe out 2000. I also want to install XP. Following are
> the things I have learned & related questions.
>
> In Partition Magic (PM), they use a bar-graph type of graphic to
> illustrate the partitions on the drive. On my drive, the far left area
> of the bar is the 2000 OS. The OS is in the only partition currently
> on the drive. Of that partition, about 4.5GB are used out of the 19GB
> on that partition. This partition is using a FAT32 file system. At
> the far right end of the bar is 7.8 MB of unallocated space.
>
> I think what I want to do is reduce the existing partition (with 2000
> on it) to about 7.5 GB, right? I believe that partition will sit at
> the far left of the bar graph. Then do I make a second primary
> partition that starts at the 7.5GB where the Win2K partition stops and
> take that second partition up to 15 GB (7.5GB for the second partition)
> that will hold XP?
>
> While searching through newsgroup posts on this subject, someone said
> to create 2 more partitions (in addition to the 2 primary partitions
> for the OS's), one for files created in Win2K & one for files created
> in WinXP. This sounds good, but I have some questions.

You've summed it up pretty well. However, you don't need two extra
partitions. One shared partition will do nicely, e.g.
- Partition 1: Win2000
- Partition 2: WinXP
- Partition 3: Shared

> 1) The Win2K file system will be FAT32. I'd like to be able to read
> all files from either OS. That means I would have to use FAT32 for all
> partitions. Is there any drawback to NOT using the NTFS file system
> for the XP files? And is it OK to use FAT32 for the primary partition
> that XP will be installed on?

Both Win2000 and WinXP use NTFS as their native file system.
They can also read FAT32 but NTFS would be preferable.

> 2) I have also read that I should install my applications under each
> OS. In other words, if I want to use MS Office from either OS, I need
> to install it under Win2K & XP. If I do this, and set things up like
> I've described up to this point, will an update of, say, an Excel file
> update all versions of that file? I'm rather confused about this, but
> the bottom line is that, if possible, I want to be able to work on a
> file from either OS & not have a newer & older version of the same
> files at different places on the hard drive.

This is correct. Each OS should be independent from each other
OS, with all its own applications.

> 3) Regarding making partitions for files (one partition for each OS's
> created files): should I make one extended partition & then divide
> that up into logical partitions or should I do make 2 extended
> partitions, and then use logical partitions inside those extended
> partitions? Or are there other options?

Make a single logical drive in the extended partition, to be shared
by both OSs.

> I have more questions, but I'm going to stop here for now, since
> information I glean from these questions would likely change or answer
> my additional questions.
>
> I know I'm asking a lot here, so I want to thank in advance anyone who
> can contribute help. If there are any questions or clarifications I
> need to make, please post them & I will respond quickly. Thank you!
>