>>anyone know if windows 2000 professional can read ntfs?
>
>Yes. However, there are problems with NT4 reading an NTFS partititon once Win2K has handled it directly - IOW, you can't dual-boot NT4 and Win2K successfully.

I dont like the sound of that... What if I try to install Win2K Pro on my notebook and have troubles like I did when I first installed NT4, and then chicken out like I'm prone to do with hardware/os conflicts and wish to go back to NT4 for awhile? Am I going to be screwed in this (albeit worst case) scenario?

And while I'm on the subject of working up the nerve here to venture into OS install hell, is there a new HCL for Win2K? My toshiba notebook & all it's parts were listed on the NT4 HCL and yet I still had major headaches...