I need all versions of windows to practice

Is it possible to install all windows me,95,98,nt,xp and 2000 all one one hard drive so that i can practice..

i would imagine that they would all have to be on a fat32 partition or something

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Gennosuke HIGAKI

For your information, you will do all if you buy a copy of commercial boot loader, say, Boot Commander or something. But I think it is not practical. Each bootup takes time so you will be irritated.

In its CPU architecutre, 95, 98, Me takes a heritage of the 16-bit compatibility whereas NT, 2000, XP has an independent 32-bit scheme. 98 and 2000 look a good contrast. I recommend 95 or 98 in a used old laptop. 486 works all right.

Regards

Webmaster

Possible, but not very convenient nor a realistic practice environment. I recommend looking into Microsoft Virtual PC, or VMware, which allow you to run an OS inside a window on a virtual computer. You can do this on any modern windows computer without messing up the windows installation (host system) itself. The host and guest OSs can also communicate with eachother through a virtual network. Another advantage is that you can run multiple OSs simultaneously, and still have access to the study material etc, on your own windows installation. Both Microsoft Virtual PC and VMware are available as a free trial version.

nama

Does Microsoft Virtual PC, or VMware have to be installed into another physical HDD (not C drive)?

Webmaster

It will be installed in the Program Files folder by as any windows software by default. The space (partition(s)) used by the quest operating system (the virtual pc) is stored in a single file, which you can store on any disk you want.

nama

is there any tutorial that guide users step by step into installing?
I'm new to this and I do not want any wrong move or configuration to mess up my original OS.

Webmaster

Well, that's the great thing of these programs, you can't mess it up (well, there are always ways of course). I'm sure there's a step by step how-to at microsoft.com or in the product documentation. You basically configure a virtual pc (select guest os version, amount of ram and disk space you want to assign it), start it up (shows POST inside a windows), insert a windows installation CD, and have the virtual pc boot from the cd to start setup. You can't mess up anything on your host OS while performing setup and configuration inside the virtual PC window. Regardless, it's advisable to read the documentation files first.

nama

whats the min requirements for installing such softwares?

Webmaster

Depends per Windows version. The same hardware requirements apply for virtual machines.

nama

so i'll assume that no "special requirements" is needed.

Webmaster

One of the most basic requirements is having plenty of RAM to accomodate for the host OS 'and' the guest OS(s). And of course one to several gigabytes of disk space. No, nothing really 'special'.

nama

my pc only has 512mb of ram, i wonder is it sufficient to cater for it.

Webmaster

that would be enough for 2 or 3 guest OSs at the very least.

nama

alright, thanks.

Webmaster

You're welcome.

student775

one more thing, i have a computer with windows me on it..
How much of windows me is on the exam??
i really want to remove it and have 2000 and nt on it..if its possible

Gennosuke HIGAKI

I used to use "Removable Hard Disk Case" that fits in a 5 inch bay in desktop or tower PC. Both EIDE and SCSI available. HD is cheaper now. So you might try. I don't recommend Virtual Terminal. Learning in a real stuff is best. Regards

Webmaster

student775 wrote:

How much of windows me is on the exam??

That's for you to find out. Personally, if I had to start from scratch, I'd focus primarily on XP, a bit 2000, and a bit 98, and read up on the ME vs. 9x v.s NT4 v.s 2000/xp differences.

Gennosuke HIGAKI wrote:

I used to use "Removable Hard Disk Case" that fits in a 5 inch bay in desktop or tower PC. Both EIDE and SCSI available. HD is cheaper now. So you might try. I don't recommend Virtual Terminal. Learning in a real stuff is best.

It sounds you don't recommend using something, while you don't even know what that something is (it is 'not' a training 'simulator'). Surely removable harddisks are useful for lab setups, and I don't know what Virtual Terminal is, but learning operating systems by using Virtual PC or VMware is the real stuff.

TeKniques

Gennosuke HIGAKI wrote:

I used to use "Removable Hard Disk Case" that fits in a 5 inch bay in desktop or tower PC. Both EIDE and SCSI available. HD is cheaper now. So you might try. I don't recommend Virtual Terminal. Learning in a real stuff is best. Regards

Screw that, it's a waste of money and resources IMO to do this for the A+ exams. Using Virtual PC or VMWare is the best thing you can do as suggested. I'll tell you what is cheap nowadays ... RAM, so go buy yourself another 512mb of RAM for about $35 from Newegg.com and then you can run every OS you want as virtual machines.

I used to think that setting up the labs with the real stuff was the way to go, that was until I blew the power circuit to my garage because I had too many machines in there. On top of that it sucked in the summer because it was 140 degrees in there and then about negative 20 degrees in the winter. I'm exagerrating a little bit, but you get the point. It's much better working on one computer with multiple virtual machines that can do everything I want them to do in an isolated environment in the comfort of my den.

Webmaster

And since is this about the A+ OS exam, it really doesn't matter at all that the underlying hardware is virtual, the guest OS has no knowledge of this whatsoever. So from the OS point of view, using virtual pc is as real as it gets. Apart from that, Virtual PC/VMware can be valuable on a resume. Many of the larger companies use it for testing purposes, as well as actually running multiple Windows server OSs on a single physical server (see Microsoft Virtual Server). It's not developed to become a training product for certification students, but it's definitely one of the best additions to the study material arsenal for any student.