Re: Dual Boot 98SE and XP on two hard drives with PartitionMagic

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From: George Kleynhans (loly61"at"hotmail.com)
Date: 03/26/04 

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 16:55:08 +0100

"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in message
news:OX2D8ayEEHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>
> "George Kleynhans" <loly61"at"hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uCzAB1wEEHA.3180@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > Hello everyone.
> >
> > I have the following current setup:
> >
> > Disk 1: (50 GB)
> > CO: Win98SE OS (10GB, FAT) Primary
> > DO: Win98SE Programs (50GB, FAT) Logical
> > Everything works fine except that the disk is almost full. I now have a
> new
> > (second) HD (160 GB) and both Win XP Pro and Partition Magic 8.0 with
> which
> > I would like to create a dual boot setup. I installed Partition Magic
and
> > started to run the "Install another operating system" wizard but was not
> > satisfied when it would only want to install XP on Disk 1. Since Disk 1
> with
> > 98SE works perfectly I want to keep it as is. Now, what can I do to
> create
> > a dual boot setup without disturbing the existing 98SE setup on Disk 1?
> >
> > Since the new hard drive is quite large one scenario I thought of is the
> > following:
> >
> > 1) With PartitionMagic copy partitions C: and D: from Disk 1 to Disk 2
> > 2) Create new NTFS partitions for XP OS and Programs and an additional
> > partition for shared data (FAT32)
> > 3) Disk 2 would hopefully look something like the following:
> > C: Win98SE OS (10GB, FAT32) Primary
> > D: Win98SE Programs (50GB, FAT32) Logical
> > ?: XP OS (10 GB, NTFS) Primary
> > ?: XP Programs (50 GB, NTFS) Logical
> > ?: DATA (40 GB, FAT32) Logical
> > 4) Run the "Install another operating system" wizard in Partition magic
> to
> > install XP since everything is now on the same disk.
> >
> > I don't know what drive letters will be assigned to the partitions, or
in
> > what order they should be created, as I am not sure how PartitionMagic
> will
> > hide/unhide the different partitions but ideally I would have a C: D: E:
> > setup for each OS with E: being the only drive common to both. Finally,
> my
> > original Disk 1 is untouched and is available as a fall back should
> > something go horribly wrong.
> >
> > Is this achievable? If so, could somebody please give me some tips
> > regarding how to do this with PartitionMagic and what should I be
careful
> > with. Also, after copying the partitions from Disk 1 to Disk 2 what
> happens
> > after a reboot? Will the system be confused? Do I need to do something
> with
> > BootMagic (e.g., activate/deactivate drives) or do I just disconnect the
> > hard drive cable from Disk 1 after shutting down?
> >
> > If the above is not possible, what is the best suggestion on how to
> proceed?
> >
> > Many thanks for any suggestions/comments,
> >
> > George
> >
>
> You wrote about "CO:" and "DO:" - what are these things?
>
> My preference in multi-booting systems is to keep all OSs strictly
> separate, in partitions that are mutually invisible from each other.
> I also allow for a data drive that is visible to all OSs. I don't see
> any point in having separate drives for the OS and its programs.
> Doing this creates a zoo of drives and makes it difficult to keep
> things separate from each other.
>
> I have never used the boot manager tools of Partition Magic
> but I have used XOSL extensively. It lets you do all of the above,
> and it's free.
>
> I would go about it like so:
> - Create an XOSL partition of 15 MBytes on the new disk.
> - Install XOSL there.
> - Create a primary partition for Win98.
> - Use Partition Magic to copy Win98 across.
> - Add Win98 to the XOSL menu.
> - Create & format a primary NTFS partition for WInXP.
> - Install WinXP.
> - Add WinXP to the XOSL menu.
> - Modify the XOSL menu so that Win98 and WinXP are
> hidden from each other.
> - Create a logical partition for my data.
> - Modify the XOSL menu so that the data partition is visible
> to Win98 and to WinXP.
>
> With XOSL it is possible to boot into an OS that is installed
> on a slave disk. You could therefore tell XOSL to boot into
> your existing installation of Win98 on the slave disk. There
> is no need to place the Win98 boot files onto the primary
> master disk.
>
>

Thank you for your reply and suggestions. Sorry, the CO: = C: and DO: =
D: - guilty of not paying attention during spell checking!

Following your last paragraph I could just leave my existing Disk 1 with
Win98SE as it is (avoid making a partition for Win98 on the new drive and
copying with PartitionMagic) and make the new Disk 2 with:
1) 15 MB partition for XOSL
2) Primary NTFS partition for XP OS
3) Logical NTFS partition for XP programs
4) Logical FAT32 partition for shared data
5) Make this disk boot first in the Bios
6) Install XOSL via a bootable floppy
7) Add the original/current Win98 drives on the other Disk to the XOSL menu
8) Install WinXP
9) Add the XP drives to the XOSL menu
10) Modify XOSL so that the Win98 and WinXP drives are hidden from each
other and that the shared data drive is visible to both Win98 and WinXP.

This makes for fewer steps and avoids the use of partition magic to copy
partitions and waste space with duplications. This was much the way I
(naively) imagined a dual boot could be setup before I ran into the problem
that PartitionMagic wanted both operating systems on the same disk.
However, how does this setup cope through all the reboots during WinXP
installation?

George

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