Dual boot doesn't recognize some drives (partitions)

J

Jimmy

I have a dual boot set up as follows:

HDD1 = 40GB
Partition 1 - 31MB (Dell Utilities)
Partition 2 - 10GB NTFS Primary (System) with WinXP installed (C:)
Partition 3 - 20GB Fat32 Primary set as Drive D
Partition 4 - 10GB Fat32 Primary set as Drive E

HDD2 = 10GB
Partition 1 - 4GB Fat32 Primary (Active) with Win98 installed
(Drive F:)
Partition 2 - 6GB "Unknown Partition" with Linux installed

External Zip Drive set as Drive G:
Internal CD-RW Drive set as Drive H:
Boot Manager = OSLoader (www.osloader.com)

The above information is what is described in Computer Management when
I boot into WinXP. From here all looks good.

When I boot into Win98, the drive that was F: in XP is now C: as
expected. I have changed the drive letters on my Zip and CD drives so
that they match what is in XP. I cannot, however, see what were
drives D and E in WinXP. How can I go about forcing Win98 to recognize
these two partitions?

On another subject, any advice on the following would be appreciated.

I would like to set up the system so that I can run the same programs
from either operating system without having to install them twice (I
know that this is not possible with all programs but am hoping that
some will take well to the plan). I was hoping to do this by
installing all of my program in the D: drive rather than on the C:,
since that drive will actually be different depending on which OS is
running. Does this seem like a logical plan - or should I say
feasible, since logic doesn't always mean it will work!

Thanks in advance,
Jim
 
P

pjp

Question 1: Why do I have the feeling that the NTFS partition should be the
last parition on the disk?

Question 2: I had little problem installing programs into the same folder
under both OS's but in my case, drive letters were the same regardless of
OS. In fact, as I had 98SE up first, in many cases I just created a new
shortcut under XP. Also I stayed away from NTFS as I trust the old
DOS/Norton's Diskedit utilites etc. too much to risk my only access being
the limited command line you can get booting with the XP cd.
 
L

Lil' Dave

Rather odd. Do I see 4 primary partitions on the 40GB HD?
Doesn't Linux require more than one partition?
Your setup is the very last way I would do things.
Dave
 
B

Bill Blanton

Jimmy said:
I have a dual boot set up as follows:

HDD1 = 40GB
Partition 1 - 31MB (Dell Utilities)
Partition 2 - 10GB NTFS Primary (System) with WinXP installed (C:)
Partition 3 - 20GB Fat32 Primary set as Drive D
Partition 4 - 10GB Fat32 Primary set as Drive E

HDD2 = 10GB
Partition 1 - 4GB Fat32 Primary (Active) with Win98 installed
(Drive F:)
Partition 2 - 6GB "Unknown Partition" with Linux installed

External Zip Drive set as Drive G:
Internal CD-RW Drive set as Drive H:
Boot Manager = OSLoader (www.osloader.com)

The above information is what is described in Computer Management when
I boot into WinXP. From here all looks good.

When I boot into Win98, the drive that was F: in XP is now C: as
expected. I have changed the drive letters on my Zip and CD drives so
that they match what is in XP. I cannot, however, see what were
drives D and E in WinXP. How can I go about forcing Win98 to recognize
these two partitions?

There exists a bug (not sure the exact details), where Windows will
not enumerate drives correctly if the last chained volume in an extended
partition is a non-DOS type. What "type" is your Linux (Partition 2) install?

On another subject, any advice on the following would be appreciated.

I would like to set up the system so that I can run the same programs
from either operating system without having to install them twice (I
know that this is not possible with all programs but am hoping that
some will take well to the plan). I was hoping to do this by
installing all of my program in the D: drive rather than on the C:,
since that drive will actually be different depending on which OS is
running. Does this seem like a logical plan - or should I say
feasible, since logic doesn't always mean it will work!

Most modern programs you will still have to install in each OS, but
you can direct the install to the same folder. You have to careful with
data and configuration files taht might exist in the program's home dir,
and aren't compatible with the other OS. A lot of 98 and NT/XP programs
are incompatible to begin with. Speaking from experience, it is more
of a hassle than its worth, but it can be done. (mostly)
 
A

Alex Nichol

pjp said:
Question 1: Why do I have the feeling that the NTFS partition should be the
last parition on the disk?

I don't know why you have the feeling but it is incorrect
Question 2: I had little problem installing programs into the same folder
under both OS's but in my case, drive letters were the same regardless of
OS. In fact, as I had 98SE up first, in many cases I just created a new
shortcut under XP. Also I stayed away from NTFS as I trust the old
DOS/Norton's Diskedit utilites etc. too much to risk my only access being
the limited command line you can get booting with the XP cd.


Win98 enumerates drives in this order:

Active Primary partition on the first drive found - C: where the boot
is.

First primary partitions found on other physical drives, in order of
finding the drives

Logical volumes in any Extended partition on the first drive

Logical volumes in any extended partitions on other drives

Only then does it get round to further Primary partitions - and it very
often happens that it does not find them if it also finds other devices
like CD drives

So if you are multi-booting with Win98 it pays to confine yourself to a
single primary on each drive, and put all other partitions inside
extended ones
 

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