Multi Boot system

[Ronald]

After reading a lot of articles about the subject, I get oven more confused. Can someone please help me with this?

I used to have a Win98 system with Win98 installed on a primary partition and 4 (D: to G http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif logical drives on an extended partition.
I recently added a bigger harddrive and moved all logical drives to the new HD and kept Win98 on the older and smaller HD as 1 primary partition.
Now I would like to add at least 1 and maybe up to 3 operating systems on the first HD and use some sort of bootmanager to switch between them.
The active OS does not need to have access to data of the other OS, therefore I use my extended partition.

Can this be done by just adding a primary partition for the new OS I would like to install on the first HD and install the OS on it, or is this a little more complicated?

Notes:
1. I NEED to keep the data on the drives on the extended partition.
2. I prefer to keep the already assigned drive letters (D: to G http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif on the extended partion
2. I can create/modify partitions using Partition Magic as needed
3. The final result should be a boot menu with the choice between Win98/Win2K/Linux/BeOS (or something like that)
4. I must be able to share data between the OSs

[sea69]

hi,

you can get System Commander (http://www.nocturnanight.com/FOSI/set.html), this will help you with the managing the multiple OS('s).

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)




[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 07-09-2001).]

[Adam Pintar]

as far as I know you can only have 2 operating systems.

Usually it would be like win98 with win2000 pro.

go to this link http://www.microsoft.com/technet/404/default.asp and do a search page and nderserach use these key words " dual boot " also an other site that I found useful was this website http://www.guru3d.com/tech/dualboot/ and I recommend you go to this site since I found it easier to use.


Hope this helps


Adam

[sea69]

yeah but he may mean addi linux or BeOs.

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)


;)~

[Vic 970]

I,ve just partitioned my hard drive with partition magic. yesterday I started to change one of the logical partitions to primary (currently 1 primary & 3 logical) I got a message saying something like 'you can have only 2 primary partitions' then another saying (to effect of) 'if you load another o/s you will lose data in w98'
needless to say I opted out. I will get around to having a look in the manual, but there are 151 pages, meanwhile I.ll keep my eye on this topic. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

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for every question there's an answer. Then a load more questions.

Regards..,
Vic.

[Ronald]

Thanks for your replies already.

But what I would like to do is to set up a system that gives me the coice of booting Win98/Win2k/Linux/BeOS and have the same configuration for each of these systems:
C: as the boot drive
D: to G: as drives where I currently keep my data and program files, and which I would like to share to every other system.
It is no problem for me to create more drives as long as D: to G: remain what they are.

Last week I added Linux to my system, but the Linux partitions (/, swap, /usr) messed up a little of my Win98 configuration and although the Linux drives where visible in Win98, they were not accessible. How can I manage to hide these for Win98 and other OS?

What I had in mind was:
Win98: Boot C: and use D: to G:
Win2K: Boot C: (if possible different from Win98) and use D: to G:, maybe add other drives
Linux: Boot C: and mount drives D: to G:
BeOS: Boot C: and use D: to G: (don't know exactly how BeOs works with drives, but wil find out as soon as I get there ;)

I thought this could be done by just creating 4 primary partitions on my first HD and leave the logical drives in the extended partition on the second HD.
Guess I'm wrong in here, but don't know where...:( need help!!

[sea69]

some say it can't be done, some say it can.

click me (http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8824)

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)


;)~

[mjc]

Basically, my understanding is that you need some kind of boot management program and not allow any of the OSs to boot directly to a GUI, something that pauses the boot process until you choose which one you want...I think you are looking for something like BootItNG (http://www.TeraByteUnlimited.com)



BootIt Next Generation

What Can You Do With BootIt NG

Create over 200 primary partitions (if desired).
Configure detailed boot items to fit your needs.
Boot from any partition or volume on up to eight hard
drives.
Boot multiple operating systems from a single FAT or FAT32
partition.
Logically swap the boot hard drive to look like the first.
Logically swap floppy drives.
Boot from the A: or B: drive on the fly.
Resize FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions without data loss.
Convert between FAT and FAT32 without data loss.
Format FAT or FAT32 partitions/volumes.
Create volumes in extended partitions.
Setup users and passwords.
Create compressed images of your partitions.
And much, much more . . .





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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Dinosaur]

Partition magic comes with Boot Magic which will manage a multiple OS system.

As I understand it, you can have up to 4 partitions on a drive, all of which can be primaries. Only one primary is visible at a time, the others are hidden. Partition Magic & Boot Magic handle the Hide/Unhide logic.

One alternative is to have three primaries, each with a differnt operating system and an extended partition with one or more logical drives. The logical drives contain data available to more than one OS.

Another alternative is to the have common data on a separate physical Disk.

I do not know all the details, but some OS's must be in a primary partition on the Master Disk (Id est, they must be on the C-Drive). All of these types must use the Hide/Unhide logic in Boot Magic & Partition Magic. I beleive that DOS, Win3.x & Win9x are examples of this type of OS.

Some OS's need not use the C-Drive. OS/2 Warp, for example can be anywhere: In an extended partition on any disk, or in a primary partition on any disk.

You are likely to need at least one Logical drive using the old DOS FAT16 file system. Almost every OS can read or write to such a partition.

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Gouverneur
Eschew Obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea.

[boraomega]

I have triple boot system without any boot manager. I have two HDD, 20GB partitioned in C http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif10GB) with Win98SE, then E http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif5GB) with W2000Professional, and F http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif5GB) with BeOS. Second HDD is my backup drive(3.2GB) and that is D: drive without partitions. Win98 MUST be installed FIRST and it HAS to be on a primary partition (otherwise it won't work). All other OS-es will work on any partition. W2K, if installed as dual boot system MUST be installed AFTER Win98. It will recognise that Win98 is already insalled and it will give you option,during the boot process,to boot either in 98 or 2000. BeOS can be installed on the same partition with Win98 but I left only boot files there and the rest of the BeOS on F: partition. This work perfectly except that you have to reboot PC if you want to change OS during the same sesion. I don't have problem with that. It only takes 30-40 seconds to reboot anyway. I never have any experience with Linux(and after all what I witnessed on three PC's with different versions of Linux, I don't think I will ever want to have any!)

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If you are arguing with an idiot, first make sure that he is not doing the same thing.

[iisbob]

What did you see on other systems that ran linux that has got you concerned boraomega? I've never had problems with linux( at least nothing that wasn't do to my own error ), so i'd like to hear about your " horror " stories. As i'm sure some of the others here would too.

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[wiltrot]

I read an article on the TechRepublic website where someone had 9 OS on their one 20gb harddrive using windows 98,all three NTs,all three 2ks,
lenix and ? I forget the other one. They had several partitions for data
and some not allocated.

[wiltrot]

I read an article on the TechRepublic website where someone had 9 OS on their one 20gb harddrive using windows 98,all three NTs,all three 2ks,
linux and ? I forget the other one. They had several partitions for data
and some not allocated.