Multiple OS !!

[markt]

Hi,

I got a 13gig WD HDD and have been formatted to 4 partition space by 3.5g, 3.5g, 3.3g, 3.3g. My PC system is 300A Celeron PPGA(overclock to 450Mhz), 64 100Mhz sdram,
Abit BX6 Rev2.0. I am currently running Windows98 and would like to add two more OS, Redhat Linux 6.0 and WinNT4.0 SP6. Which one should I install first and what configuration should be noticed ?? Thank you !!

Regards,
Mark

[Mntsnow]

you will want to install NT first but you will need to be doing some partition reconfigurations (I hope you have a program like Partition Magic) because to dual boot Win9x and NT the boot partition has to be FAT16 and with your drive being partitioned larger than 2 gigs means you are running FAT32. or you can just forget about NT and install redhat and during it's install you can convert one of the existing partitions into linux native and linux swap partitions.

If you have any further questions I will be watching this thread.

Mntsnow

[markt]

Hi,

So, u means I can only install either WindowsNT / Linux with Windows98 ?? Can I install 3 of them ?? Will the partition erase all of my current stuff in HD ??

Regards,
Mark

[Mntsnow]

What I was trying to say is under the current way you have your harddrive setup you will NOT beable to install NT and dual boot.

But if you have a program like PowerQuest's "partition magic" which allows you to "change" the size and FAT type WITHOUT losing data. you would then beable to "reconfigure" your harddrive into partitions that meet the requirements to beable to dual boot or infact triple boot like I do (Win98/Win2K/Mandrake 6.0 linux)

if you dont have a program like partition magic the ONLY way to resize and reconfigure you drive WILL CAUSE YOU TO LOSE YOUR DATA if you try and triple boot. but you WILL beable to dual boot Win98/linux WITHOUT losing data if you are VERY careful and follow the directions on how to use diskdruid. (linux's partition and formating utility)

Mntsnow

[markt]

Hi,

If I repartition my HD and put the boot partition drive to be 2gig and set it to FAT16 and the others partition drive to FAT32, will this method work for triple boot ?? So, which OS should I install in the boot partition ??
Thanks for your kind assistance.

Regards,
Mark

[Mntsnow]

Mark,

If you make your first and second partitions 2 gig's and fat16 and the rest of the partitions what ever you want you will be on your way to a triple booting system [img]/forum/biggrin.gif[/img]

Install Win98 FIRST and install it on the FIRST partition(drive C [img]/forum/smile.gif[/img] then install NT on the 2nd fat16 partition(drive D [img]/forum/smile.gif[/img] (at the time of the install you will be given the opportunity to convert that fat16 partition to NTFS..I personally would not do so UNLESS you need to have the NTFS file system security) then after you have both Win98 and NT working then you can install Linux. and choose one of the partitions(drive E [img]/forum/smile.gif[/img] that you are NOT going to use with win98/NT (but make sure it is under the 8 gig mark or Linux will not be bootable) and follow the instructions on installing linux. When you are all done and you startup your computer it will first pull up "lilo" (the linux boot manager) from there you will choose either "dos" or linux If you choose dos it will then start the NT Boot manager and from there you will choose either Win98 or NT......Vovla TRIPLE BOOT!

Mntsnow

[This message has been edited by Mntsnow (edited 10-30-1999).]

[bobcat]

markt - One thing to consider is that if you have a partition over 1 gig with FAT16 you lose roughly 50% of you disk space within that partition. The larger the partition the larger the cluster. So, if you have a 1 gig partition that is FAT16, your cluster size is 32K. What this means is that your 1K shortcut that is sitting on you desktop will take up 32K of disk space. Now, if it is a 500Meg partition, then the cluster size is 8K. Which is better?

This is how I used to run my system:

500Meg Fat16 boot partition. This had w98 OS only. The NT loader is also located here too.

3 gig W98 FAT32 - Games and other.
2 gig Linux
125Meg Linux Swap

4 gig - NT Workstation.