will XP install on Primary Partition 3?

[Anthony Ewell]

Hi All,

I am setting up a multiboot system with partition
magic, boot magic. Somewhere I remember reading that
XP does not like to play well with others in the sandbox
and insists on being installed on primary partition 1.
(And don't even think of installing it on a logical
partition!) Can anyone confirm or deny this? Can
I install it on primary partition 3?

Many thanks,
--Tony

 

[Jerry]

It will install wherever you want. I have two each 120Gb drives partitioned
into four pieces each and when I installed XP it asked which one of the
eight drives I wanted to install it on; two were primary partitions and the
others were logical drives in extended partitions.

Sound slike you've been listening to myths or urban legends.

 

[CS]

That's true, but I believe the OP may be referring to the boot sector
files - which will install to the first active primary partition on
HDD0. You can direct the windows folder to any drive; primary or
logical.

It will install wherever you want. I have two each 120Gb drives partitioned
into four pieces each and when I installed XP it asked which one of the
eight drives I wanted to install it on; two were primary partitions and the
others were logical drives in extended partitions.

Sound slike you've been listening to myths or urban legends.

 

[Guest]

yes, windows xp will install on partition 3.

but I have never used partition magic, so my recommendation will be to use
XP setup to create the partitions and install windows on the desired
partition. (i would also recommend not using the partition magic program to
modify the system or boot partitions, as MS does NOT support installing their
operating systems on 3rd party partitions)

you may want to contact Partition magic support.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am setting up a multiboot system with partition
magic, boot magic. Somewhere I remember reading that
XP does not like to play well with others in the sandbox
and insists on being installed on primary partition 1.
(And don't even think of installing it on a logical
partition!) Can anyone confirm or deny this? Can
I install it on primary partition 3?

You can have it on any primary partition that is set as active and the
BIOS can get at in order to boot. Some BIOSes restrict where on the
disk an active partition may be, quite often within the first 1024
cylinders. Or can have its boot files (for a dual boot) on an active
partition, pointing in boot.ini to load Windows from another one.