Bill, fpantovich, sechs, fatal- one more time

[Bachus]

Hello

First to the four mentioned above thanks for all your help on my post from June 30 - Partition Sizes ? - (2) OS's on WD 160. I finally have time to tackle this drive this weekend. One way or another it's going in. I did however found someone with almost the same system and situation. Here's what he did and I'd like your opinion on which is considered better overall in not just performance but back-up and security.

He had one drive (20gig) with 98se on one partition hooked to the MB (primary master) with two CD/cdrw players as (secondary master/slave).

He got a 120gig Maxtor with ATA Controller Card (IDE) and XP. He loaded XP on the new drive (unsure of the partition - primary(?) and how many). Left the old drive as is with 98 on it. Hooked the old to (IDE 1) and the new to (IDE 2) on the ATA card. Moved the cd/cdrw to their on channel as master on the MB. When he boots he's given a choice of 98 or XP.

Ok originally I wanted to take my new WD 160 with ATA card and have 98 and XP on the same drive with 3 or 4 other partitions as followed:
(C) -98se - FAT32
(D) - XP - NFTS
(E) - Win98 Apps/games - FAT32
(F) - XP - Apps/games - NFTS
(G) - Files/storage - FAT32
Then partition the old drive into two sections for backup.
Connect the cdrw and DVD each as a master on a seperate channel on the MB

Now the "old" drive is only a 13.7 gig and a IBM from "99". If anything I could (if it's better) load XP "Only" on the new drive and leave 98se on the "old" one. Later on get a newer drive to replace the old and transfer 98 over and have at least (2) partitions on it. Either keep the old drive or get another and use it for backing up 98 and XP.

Now if I go with the "first" set-up with each drive connected to it's on channel via the ATA card how do I set-up the new drive with XP? I'll for sure use NFTS on the new drive and I'd like to have 3-5 partitions. Will the first partition be (D) a primary where XP resides followed by (E, F, G, H) as extended? Also I'm not sure how or if I can use the "Data Lifeguard Tools" that came with the drive to set the drive up or just use the "Drive Managment ?" feature in XP?

I appreciate all your help and time on this. I'm probably making as we say "a mountain out of a molehill" about this. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thanks again.

Kenny J.

[sechs]

Fewer partitions is better. At most, I see that you would only need three partitions -- and probably only two.

There's no reason to separate an OS and its applications, especially on the same drive. You'll just decrease drive performance and gain nothing.

If you already have a drive with Windows98 on it, there's really no need to do anything with it. Just install the new drive and install XP to it. If you need the extra space that the new drive provides for your data files, you can create a second partition on that drive, after the one for Windows XP. Otherwise, you can just continue to keep data on the old drive.

[Bachus]

Hello sechs


Thanks for the reply and help. I'm getting another drive (Seagate 40 gig) to replace our aging IBM with 98 on it. I'll break it into two partitons and do a fresh install which I've never done but it's long overdue. I'll connect it to the IDE 1 on the card and the new WD 160 with XP to IDE 2 on the card.

I do have one question. I'd like to take the old 13.7 drive, have two partitions, and use it as a back-up for both 98 and XP. Would I connect this to the 98 drive or the XP drive as a slave? Should I use FDISK or XP to do the format and set-up the drive? Thanks again


Kenny J.

[FatalException]

I'm just curious, and you may have answered this question before, so my apologies if this is a repeat... but why are you installing both 98 and XP on the same system? Is there a particular program that you have that will only work in 98 that you know for sure will not operate on Windows XP? That's about the only reason I have heard of for keeping both (and most of those old programs are far too outdated, like old DOS programs, so most people don't want to use them any more). You could perhaps avoid this entire situation if 98 was not needed by simply installing XP.

[Bachus]

I'm still a kid at heart and there's some "older" games that just run better under 98. We also have Office 2000 that came with our Dell that the misses uses along with some other older business apps that seem to favor 98 over XP. I always favor the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach. By getting XP and putting it on a separate drive we can keep what's working for us now while slowly work into XP which both of us really hasn't messed with.

I was going to hold off for a newer system at the end of the year which I still might do. Not saying anything is wrong with the current one it's just as far it can go hardware wise - (Powerleap 1.4 Tel. Cel , Ti-4200 video card, Hercules 7.1 DigiFire Sound card, Lite-On cdrw & DVD player, DSL via eth card Alcatel modem all on a Intel 440BX motherboard).

Kenny J.

[FatalException]

I think the easiest thing to do in order to accompany your "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality would be to leave the old drive as-is with 98 installed. Disconnect the drive from the system. Then connect the "new" 160GB drive and install Windows XP on there. If you are comfortable playing with the Windows Boot Manager setup, go into the Windows System control panel (Windows Key + Pause/Break Key). Go into Advanced, then into the Startup and Recovery settings area. You can setup the system to show a boot option for Windows 98 once you reconnect that drive (as primary slave) later. If you aren't comfortable with that, you could get a copy of PartitionMagic 8 and use the Bootmagic program that comes with that to setup the dual-boot menu system. Both can be tricky, but one is free and one is not. I'd suggest using the Windows built in boot menuing system - just read some online tutorials about how to set it up.

When you are done, your system would look like:

Primary Master = 160GB Drive = 1 Partition with Windows XP installed
Primary Slave = Small / Old Drive = 1 Partition with Windows 98 installed
Secondary Channel = two CD drives.