BIG Multi-Boot setup guidance...

[Skirge01]

I hope someone can help me out with this in some way. I've got a new system I'm building (finally!). Here are the specs:

Adding:
AMD 1800+
ASUS A7V333-RAID
2 x 512MB Corsair PC3000
2 x 120GB WD Special Editions (IDE)

To the current:
1 x 80GB WD (IDE)
2 x 9GB IBM Ultrastar 9ZX (SCSI)
1 x 36GB IBM Ultrastar 18XP (SCSI)
and ditching old mobo, cpu, memory, etc.

My current system is dual booting Win98 and W2K. Win98 is at the front of one of the 9GB drives and W2K is at the back of that same drive (see picture below of my exact disk setup). I've also got RedHat installed on the 36GB drive. I don't care if I lose Win98 or the Linux install, but I can't lose the W2K installation.

What I want to do is use something like XOSL (http://www.xosl.org/) to multi-boot between MS-DOS 6.22, Win98, Linux, and W2K (for now :D ... XP will come later). But, the catch is that I want to have all of these operating sytems on the RAID 0 array, which will be the 2 120GB WD's. I've done a ton of reading, but I'm extremely concerned I'm going to mess this up.

http://home.covad.net/~georgelsjr/Disk/disk.jpg

Key: Disk0 = E:general files, Disk1 = Linux partitions, H:general files, Disk2 = C:Win98, D:all applications, F:W2K, Disk3 = K:Win98 swap file, G:Games

Anyone have any suggestions (besides "give it up" :) )? Watchouts? Websites to read? Bootloaders to check out? I'd love to hear that someone has already done this and can tell me exactly how to go about it, but I don't think that's going to happen. ANY help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

[BipolarBill]

What a nightmare! You're NUTS! Which partition has your Windows boot files?

You have a problem. NT systems boot themselves by controller-disk-partition. If you try moving Win2K, there's no guarantee that you will be able to boot it. Trying to move everything to a RAID 0 array is a job for the troubleshooters at Powerquest, not we mere mortals.

If your boot files are on drive 2 and you're using the Windows bootloader, you can move that to the RAID array and then edit the BOOT.INI file. Afterward, run a Repair and change the controller drivers accordingly. That will give you about a 60% chance of success.

Bad odds.

[WAFord]

WOW! :eek:

There's a program at http://www.xxcopy.com/index.html that allows you to easily clone drives, but I dunno about yours. :confused:

Good Luck! :rolleyes:

ßill╒

[smelanson]

I have played with partitions for a while, the most I had was Win 98, Win95, Linux, Win 2000, Win NT server, Win NT workstation, and DOS. Norton Ghost works great but if you just need to keep Windows 2000 then you should try something like System commander, it is cheap and for what you are doing it is great, you could even try Partition magic with boot magic or norton ghost to copy the partition, but system commander supports being installed on a NTFS partition (well the new verison anyways). But if you try this remember RTFM, I formatted those operating systems alot before I got it down pat. the bottom line it that System commander (http://www.v-com.com/) and Boot magic (http://www.powerquest.com/) are the best. malke sure you get the newest verisons, old verisons don't support XP. the both have GUI.

If you have any multibooting questions I have done it all just ask.

ICQ: 93110780
MSN: melanson_stephen@hotmail.com

[Skirge01]

I'm going to go check out System Commander and see how it works for this. My RAID drives should be delivered by next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes... if my system is still working! ;)

[Skirge01]

Thanks again to everyone who offered suggestions. After about 40 or so hours (in one weekend), I got the system up and running. I decided not to "save" my Win2k setup, but did copy the files I needed (start menu, documents & settings, etc.). So, I got the dual boot working so far (Win2k & 98), using XOSL (great program, btw) and the Ranish partition manager.

Now, I went to install Linux, but it looks like it can't be done! :eek: During installation, the Raid array doesn't show up as a choice to install to. According to everything I've read, you can't install Linux to a Raid array that uses the Promise PDC20276 chip... and that's exactly what the ASUS A7V333 has!!! DAMMIT! Anyone know if there's a way around this? Can I install to another--non Raid--drive and transfer it over to the Raid somehow? This is the first time I've found a combination that won't even allow me to install Linux! :(

Anyone? Help? Pleeeeeaaaaase? ;)

Thanks!
George

[SPEEDO]

Why not just build a clunker box for Linux..;)

It would make your life much less complicated...:D

SPEEDO

[BipolarBill]

If Linux can't be installed on the RAID controller as an array, it can't be installed singly either. It's the same driver. How about the onboard IDE ports?

[Skirge01]

As for a "clunker box"... that defeats the whole purpose of multi-booting. Besides, I like making things difficult... :D AND... I want everything on one machine.

Which brings us to the last suggestion of installing to the standard IDE drive I have. I didn't WANT to do that, which is why I asked if there was a way around it. But, if that's what I have to do, I will.

Thanks guys.
George

[SPEEDO]

I want everything on one machine

A friend of mine is the same way.

He spends more time Fdisking, Formatting, Loading, Reloading and unloading than he does running his machine.

But he's got everything on one machine so I guess he's happy...:D

SPEEDO