If you installed Windows XP on your computer after you installed BeOS on the same disk you might have some trouble getting into BeOS again. Don’t worry; here is the nice way to do it without bootdisks and installation CDs.
NOTE: This is a bit risky and I take no responsibility if it doesn’t work for you!
You must have Windows XP and BeOS installed on different partitions on the bootable hard disk. This may or may not work if BeOS is located on a separate disk. It’s up to you if you want to try.

1. Start Windows XP
2. Select Start -> Run
3. Type in cmd and click Ok
4. Type diskpart and hit ENTER
5. Type list volume and hit ENTER
6. A listing of volumes on all your disks should appearSample (Swedish Windows XP):

   DISKPART> list volume
     Volymnr.    Enh  Etikett      Fils.  Typ         Storlek  Status     Info
     ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
     Volym 0      E   rtcw         CDFS   DVD-ROM      661 MB
     Volym 1      C                NTFS   Partition   6659 MB  Felfri     Systemst
     Volym 2      D   WIN98 2      FAT32  Partition   6460 MB  Felfri
     Volym 3                              Partition   6453 MB  Felfri
     Volym 4                              Partition   2059 MB  Felfri

7. Find the volume that is your BeOS-volume. Normally it should not have a letter, name or filesystem specified
8. Use the volume number instead of the italic text and type select volume BeOS-volume-number and hit ENTERSample: ‚select volume 3‚
9. CAUTION: Be 100% sure that this is your bootable BeOS-volume
10. The next step will make BeOS boot instead of Windows XP. If anything goes wrong, your system can become unbootable, so make sure you know how to fix the boot record if you mess up.
11. Type active and hit ENTER.
12. When you reboot, BeOS should load instead of WIndows XP.
13. Install bootman by typing bootman in a Terminal.
14. When you reboot, bootman should let you select the OS to boot.

Editor’s note: There are other ways to boot into a non-booting installation of BeOS, although most techniques require a bootdisk of some description, or an installation of MS-DOS / Windows 9x.
If you have MS-DOS, Windows 9x, or a DOS bootdisk, then you can use LOADBEOS.COM, which is supplied with BeOS 5 Personal Edition. This will let you boot from one or more BeOS partitions (both virtual and real) by pressing space when the screen fades in, and selecting from the volumes list.
Another method you can try is to burn a BeOS bootdisk, such as the image provided with Personal Edition. Floppy images may also be burned onto a CD using a CD burner package which supports El Torito bootable disks.