Paul said:
When installing OSes, you install the oldest OS first. That would be Win2K.
Then you install the next newest OS. The reason for that, is the newer OS
knows how to deal with an older OS. But the older OS doesn't have a clue
about how the newer OS works. Windows 7 no longer uses boot.ini, and the
boot stuff is *completely* different. It would be pretty hard for Win2K
to go looking for a boot.ini, not find any, and still manage to add
a Windows 7 entry to the boot manager screen.
If you seek to reverse the order of installation, simply get out your
search engine, and search for a recipe. For example, a "Win2K after Vista"
procedure should be pretty close to a "Win2K after Windows 7".
"Guide for installing XP / Win2k after Vista is installed"
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/583697-guide-installing-xp-win2k-after.html
(Another example, different tool)
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/558994-how-install-xp-after-vista.html#post4844148
To help you, there are also pieces of freeware, like EasyBCD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EasyBCD
So if you installed from oldest to newest, it would likely be close to
painless. If you install newest to oldest, look for a recipe. And
make *sure* you have the necessary backups. I do sector by sector
backups, as that way you can't lose anything. For example, Linux
grub uses sectors 1-62 area, for part of its boot loader. That isn't
a regular partition. The MBR is at sector 0, and it's a good idea
to back that up too. You never know later, what you're going to need,
to fix the mess you get yourself into. A file by file backup may miss
stuff like that, and then later you'd need various "repair" procedures
to put some of that info back.
This is why I use a separate disk for each OS on my desktop computer -
I unplug all disks except the target, then do the install. It's the only
completely safe recipe I trust. I've had too many "accidents" to do
otherwise.
You've been warned... and good luck
Paul
Actually, if you want some fun, try this.
1) On your laptop, Microsoft has built in an option to burn a Windows 7 recovery DVD.
It's a boot DVD, but not an OS installer. It is capable of giving
a command prompt, or carrying out various kinds of simple repairs.
When you boot that DVD, these are the options. (This can even be used
to fix things on WinXP or Win2K systems, but you have to know which
new tools and command line options to use. Bootsect, bootrec etc.)
System Recovery Options
Startup Repair
System Restore
Windows Complete PC Restore
Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool
Command Prompt
That DVD is provided by Microsoft, and is a separate item from the usual
3 DVDs that your laptop manufacturer wants you to burn. The laptop manufacturer
puts an image of the OS, on your 3 DVDs. The Microsoft offer to burn a DVD
for you, from a Windows menu, is for the preparation of a Recovery DVD.
The DVD will have a couple hundred megabytes of files, and is too small to
have a copy of every installer file. It's not an installer disc.
It's like these, only there is nothing to download, because Microsoft will
make this for you on the new computer. My laptop burned the 64 bit version
of this for me.
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/
2) Do a complete backup of your disk. This is so, if the experiment is a flop,
you can revert. You want a backup method known to be "bare metal capable".
For example, I use "dd", and copy the entire disk to a second disk in a USB
enclosure. I do that while booted with a Linux LiveCD (Ubuntu or Knoppix).
It allows me to backup the laptop, before doing anything dangerous. I shrunk
my C: partition on purpose, to make such a backup more practical (30GB captures
it all). I use "dd" to do a sequential write of 30GB worth of stuff. Since the end
of my disk is unused, it doesn't matter what's out there. (Only the root kits
and dynamic disk structures hide out there
)
3) Do your Win2K install. At least, see if you can define a partition in advance
of installing Win2K, and then install to it. (You could try setting up a partition
in Disk Management.) One tricky aspect of that, is figuring out which partition
is the correct one to install in. To entice Win2K, you might even move the boot
flag with this. Only one partition should have the boot flag set. I use this
for occasional, really dangerous changes. Win2K will probably move the boot
flag, as it's trashing your Windows 7 setup anyway.
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
4) If you can manage to install Win2K, without
a) Having it crap into the C: partition of Windows 7
b) Erasing or overwriting C:
so that you have separate partitions for everything, now you can boot
your Recovery DVD for Windows 7, and do a Startup Repair. Perhaps
that would be sufficient to rebuild the BCD etc. The Startup Repair
should at least be able to undo the damage the Win2K installer did.
Like fix the MBR for example. Then, boot into Windows 7, once the
startup repair is finished, and complete the setup of Win2K by using
EasyBCD to add Win2K to the boot menu.
It's pretty crude, but might be a nice way to waste a morning
HTH,
Paul
