Setting up Win2K and Win98 dual boot

[Rediranch]

Anyone have suggestions on the best way to setup a dual boot, Win 98 and 2k?

Using single 100gig hdd, multiple partitions. I imagined that C will be the Win98, FAT32, while the remaining partitions are NTFS.

Only reason for Win98 is a few programs that don't like 2k (and no 2k updates for them).

I've tried this setup already, but 2k ends up trying to be at the end of the disk - Partitions C is 98, D was a dummy 7.8 (see my reply on this post if you want to know why I did it this way (http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=735224#post735224) ), was trying to get E to be 2k os, and F was going to be storage and data.

I setup the drive partitions using pqmagic, and only made one primary partition (C), and the rest were logical. When I went to install 2k, it wanted to go at the end of the drive, which ended up being drive leter F. It seems to work this way, but wanted to know other suggestions.

Should I have made a 2nd primary, NTFS, for 2k OS, and the remaining be logical (so to speak)?

Thx. :t

[AllGamer]

The TRICK is to Format the Partition E: alredy with FAT32 using Partition Magic

then HIDE EVERY other partition except C: and D:

now it should take it as E: when you perform the install from DOS using a Win98 boot disk, if you use Win2k bootable CD, it'll give it another letter other than E:

cuz, the software is simply dumb

but if you load it first with a bootable Win98 FDD then load the setup from the CD or cabs files on the HDD, it'll take it as E:

During the install DO NOT make it into NTFS yet

after the Win2k install finishes

use the convert e: /fs:ntfs command to make it into the E: drive
after that, you can make another E: drive for FAT32 if you want

:t

as you can see from your Other post

my

C: (fat16) drive is boot

D: (fat32) drive is 98
D: (NTFS) drive is 2K

E: (fat32) drive for 98 programs
E: (NTFS) drive for 2K programs

F: (fat32) is for data share for both 98+2K

and boy, as you can see it's quite a task to make them into the letter you want :D

the other spaces are for linux and other OS, that don't uses drive letters

[fasttoon]

Hey Rediranch,

Question, why do you need PM? from your other posts and this one, you don't need one.

I used PM and other partition management software and unless you really need it its a waste of time and very confusing.

btw there is a freeware program that will allow you to have over 100 primary bootable partition and will hide them all except the one you're using, I don't know what the use of this is.

Here's my take - use fat 32, set up c: as primary partition, set up extended partion and divvy that up into as many partitions as you want. Why fat 32? so I can access data from any partition with win98, including the win2k partition, so if I have to troubleshoot something then its easy otherwise you would need to get another program to be able to work with NTFS from fat32. Why only one primary partition? Because you don't need to run an os on a primary partition, you just need the boot files on the primary partition, I've run multi os with just one primary partition. When you get a second hard drive just make it one large extended partition and divvy it up into how many more partition you need, why? so dos, win98 and yes win2k keeps the same partition lettering without having to dither with the order/lettering schemes, keep doing this with additional drives, I do this with all my removable drives. The only changes I do is set my dvd/cd/cdrw to the end so it will never change.

My opinion is unless you need to have multi os and hide them as well you should just run it with one primary partition and the rest as extended partition. Oh and you can put the boot files on a floppy and boot win2k, linux and other os even if your primary partition is hosed. Unlike most if not all boot managers which take a small slice of harddrive, so if its hosed its all hosed.

As to your dummy partition, any reason why you set up as D?, since you're not going to use the dummy except in extreme cases then why not make it the last logical partition that is usually also the slowest partion. I don't have a dummy partition, seems like a waste of space what I do have is a partition 8g just for backups and if I need space someplace I pick a partition to mirror, use Drive image and mirror a new format over that partition takes about 15min or so, when I'm done using that partition I restore what was originally there and I'm done, very little wasted space. If you are using as a backup as someone suggested, then use it as a backup partition and mirror your primary os, all other os and anything else you want to back up including troubleshooting someones drive, thats what I do mirror the bad drive, fix it and if I screw it up more, just mirror the original problem back in and start again. Most mirror programs like Ghost, DI, NTI backup, etc will usually compress the partition down to about 20-30% of actual size. And using the partition in this way gives you a better chance of correcting any problems with an os, why trouble shoot when you can restore in minutes a known working os? Thats of course that you backup up frequently.

[Rediranch]

I think I got PM originally, so that I could resize partitions without losing the data. I probably started that around the time I started making systems with a C (OS) and a D. At that time, before I was aware of Ghost and it's use, I would put programs on D along with the data, leaving C for OS only.

Since I started using it, I've used it almost exclusively, vs fdisk. The few times I've used fdisk since I got pm, it was because pm showed errors on partitions, causeing it not to be able to see them.


The only reason I've started using NTFS instead of FAT32, is for security setups on the partition, or setting up an FTP site on the partition, neither of which you can do if it's FAT32. And I don't intend on using Win98 for the same programs I have installed for the 2k OS, with the exception of internet browsers. All I want 98 for, is my scanner program (doesnt like 2k), and a few games that seem to run better on 98 than 2K. All other programs will be only installed in 2k, and ghosted after they are setup, so that I can recover quickly.


On the dummy partition, D, I use that because when you slave up a drive, it's primary partition goes in as D. I suppose, although I havent done it, you could use 2k to change the drive letter to the end of your list, so that you can continue to use your OS and programs, while monkeying around with the slaved drive. But it seems like about the same amount of work as hiding D so it can be replaced by the slave. I've had to do this enough times, to save someone's data off, so I adopted this method (no one told me to do this, just figured it was easiest/quickest).

I think either way, booting and changing slave drive letter, or hiding dummy D and letting slave take its spot, would work well enough for you to get the data off of a non-working PC's drive.


As for the boot records, I like your idea of booting off something other than the hdd (I might use a CD instead of a floppy, though), and will probably play around with that a little, but it's going to take some research to figure out how to setup just a boot partition. But then again, if I keep on the Ghost images of the OS, recovery of the OS and program installs can be less than 15 minutes, from a bootable CDR image.

Thanks for your comments (it's how I learn), it'll give me something to think about. Let me know if you have more you want to share.

[AllGamer]

have you tried my approach?

it works perfectly for me :t

[Rediranch]

Sorry, AllGamer, I should have thanked you, too, cause I liked your solution of hiding them.

I think I almost did that, but at the time (just yesterday, before I let 2k install itself at the end of the drive) I wasnt sure if unhiding the drive would throw the OS drive letter out of whack, and then not be able to boot into 2k.

Thanks!

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by Rediranch
Sorry, AllGamer, I should have thanked you, too, cause I liked your solution of hiding them.

I think I almost did that, but at the time (just yesterday, before I let 2k install itself at the end of the drive) I wasnt sure if unhiding the drive would throw the OS drive letter out of whack, and then not be able to boot into 2k.

Thanks!

You only need to hide it during the install

after the install the letter gets fixed

so no problem on that one :t