Wigi said:
I am attempting to set up a multi-boot environment on 3
PC's (I work in a test lab). So far I have successfully
loaded Win98, WinNT & Win2k, they all boot successfully,
can see the network & internet on my first PC setup.
So far I have the following partitions set up:
C: - FAT 1GB & no O/S loaded (Primary Partition)
D: - Fat32 2GB & Win98se loaded (Logical Drive)
E: - NTFS 2GB & WinNT loaded (Primary Partition)
F: - NTFS 11GB & Win2k loaded (Primary Partition)
11 GB Unallocated
I have searched through MS KB and have found nothing
about what type of partition to load WinXP on, I am
assuming it should be a primary partion, however I can't
create one from the Disk Management screen.
Does anyone have any ideas on this?
You can (normally*) only have four primary partitions on one disk. You
already have four - one of which is the primary extended partition that your
Win98 logical drive is in. A primary extended partition can hold multiple
logical drives (that's how you can have more than 4 partitions on a disk),
so you could increase the size of the extended partition by adding the
unallocated space to it and then create another logical drive . . . except
it looks like the way you've set it up, the extended partition is
"land-locked" and not contiguous with the unallocated space. Anyway, that's
what's happening, but the broader issue is that for your purposes, I think
you're setting things up the wrong way. You probably don't want to be using
the Microsoft multiboot method.
Multiboot methods fall into two general categories: the Microsoft way and
everyone else's way. The two methods use incompatible concepts and cannot
simply be substituted for one another. The MS way intertwines the OS's and
uses boot.ini to define the available OS's in the boot menu. The
third-party way does not intertwine OS's and uses a separate boot manager,
not the boot.ini file. You can't mix the methods by installing your OS's
without intertwining and trying to control the multiboot through boot.ini,
or vice-versa, installing the Microsoft way and then trying to use a
third-party boot manager.
In a nutshell, the Microsoft way intertwines the OS's by always booting
through the same partition (C
and then forking to one or another operating
system on different drive letters (C:, D:, E:, F
. Third-party boot
managers keep OS's totally independent and truly boot separate partitions as
alternate "C:" partitions. The Microsoft boot loader cannot hide partitions
from each other. Third-party boot managers can keep OS's hidden from each
other, so when you boot 98 it will be designated C: and the other OS's may
be hidden, when you boot NT it will be C: with the other OS's hidden, etc.
OS's that are hidden from each other reduce the
risk of one messing up the other. OS's that are independent installations
are much easier to upgrade or eliminate later.
I think you'd be happier with independent installations and a third-party
boot manager. The bad news is that you can't switch at this point, you have
to start over.
You'll find much more info on my webpage at
www.goodells.net/multiboot.
Frankly, I think you're a candidate for BootIt NG (
www.bootitng.com), an
excellent boot manager/partitioner/imager all-in-one for a bargain price.
It has an optional proprietary method of handling partition tables that
allows you to create more than 4 primary partitions (hence, the * in the
first line, above). Beware, though, that "proprietary" means you have to
give up on utilities like PartitionMagic or XP's Disk Management service to
manage your partitions. If you don't want to do that, then study my
webpage, where I describe how to install multiple OS's in logical drives
without using proprietary partition tables.
