hard disk management problem

[vj]

Hi all,
I have some queries regarding how to manage my hard disks:

I have two PCs, one Home PC (AMD athelon) and other Office PC (P-III).
I have a 80GB Hard disk on my Home PC, which has Windows XP-Pro and
Windows 98 installed on different partitions of this disk. My Office PC
on the other hand has quite a small hard disk of 4GB, with Windows XP
pro.

I have started facing problems running windows on both PCs, as both
hard disks are now almost full and Windows gives a message "Low memory"
very often after which I have to cleanup.

I have to run simulations using Borland C++ which will generate huge
data. To make this possible, I have bought an additional new HardDisk
of 80 GB, which I intend to use on both PCs interchangeably so that I
can run simulations both at home as well as office.

I am not sure how to manage the hard disks. I have following issues and
thoughts in mind:
(1) The new hard disk should be used as a slave on both PCs, with the
original harddisks still in

place and acting as respective masters, so that even if the new hard
disk is removed from one

computer, the computer is still bootable, without making the original
hard disk change from slave

to master again and again. OR is it advisable to have the new HD as
master on the office PC and the original disk as slave (which is only
4GB), though

I will have to change the original disk from slave to master if I
remove the new HD.
(2) I am not sure if the new hard disk should have an operating system
loaded. (I have read that

it is better to have different OS on two hard disks used in the same
pC, so that if one fails, other can be used for

booting).
If I should have an OS on the new HD, should it be XP or 98? In any
case, what would happen if

this HD is connected as a slave in Home PC which already has XP and 98
both and gives an option

of selecting the OS at the booting time? Would I get three OS options
while booting now?
(3) Both my original HDs have Norton Antivirus. Do I need to install it
on the new HD also?

Any comments on abve issues, as well as other relates suggestions are
very welcome.
Thanks

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Low memory messages refer to memory (RAM plus page file), not hard disk
space.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Swapping a hard disk between two machines doesn't sound like a good
idea.

Installing Windows XP Professional on a machine with only a 4 gb hard
drive was not necessarily a good idea because the operating system
requires something like 2.5 gb without any allowance for programmes and
data file. The machine is also a Pentium 3 so you need to check the
Motherboard Manual before upgrading it's specification. How much RAM
does the machine have? How much free hard disk space is there on this
machine? What is the processor speed for this machine?

You have made the home machine dual booting? Why? How large are the
partitions and how much free space in each? Do you have two page files
are one or more than two?? Where are they located? How much RAM does the
machine have and what is the processor speed?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Guest]

Hi
I just finished installing a secondary operating system on one of my
computers running windows XP. I sucsesfully installed Fedora Core 1 on a
second 10 GB hard drive, the first being a 4 GB with the windows OS on it,
and when I went to reboot after finishing the installation I got a "GRUB hard
disk error". Then when I followed some help from another website the computer
woulden't see the hard drive any more... Help please?