I found from painful experience that the ntldr file (and possibly
ntdetect.com) are specific to the OS.
- Win2k's files (SP4) will not allow WinXP (SP2) Home to boot
- WinXP (SP2) Home files will not allow Win2k Pro (SP4) to boot
- WinXP Pro (any release) files will boot Win2k Pro (any release)
If you are installing Win2k Pro to multi-boot with WinXP Home, get
WinXP Pro files ntldr and ntdetect.com and copy to your system
partition (C
after all OS installations (or reinstalls). Then, your
mult-boot environment should work OK.
Microsoft also recommends that you install the OSs in order of the
oldest release (e.g. Win2k and then WinXP).