Multi boot and partition recommendation needed

[vbportal]

Hi,
I would appreciate your views/recommendations on the following
setup (I unfortunatelly have no experience in this area
and reading the respective forums has not entirely
clarified things for me):

I have 3 HDs:
80GB 7200rpm fixed in PC case,80GB 7200rpm removable
and a 20GB 5400rpm removable and would like to have:
(a)a multiboot boot system (XP Home,XP Pro,Win2000,Linux,BSD
and perhaps Win95* and Win3.1* (*maybe not mandatory
as I have an older PC on which I can load this - if that creates
problems)
Note: I wrote "multi boot" but I was also thinking of
maybe not having all HDs active in each setup since
some HDs were removable/could be switched off.
The important thing would be the possibility of
accessing data produced by one OS environment
and using it in a nother.
(b)backup of complete OS,Applications etc


Could you please give me a recommendation on partitioning
(as well as reason/benefits) and any pointers on achieving
the setup.

Thanks,
Vjeko

 

[Snickle]

Some reading:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/management/mltiboot.asp

Note this about drive/partition formatting:

MS-DOS 6.22/Win95/95A and earlier can work only with FAT16 hard drives.

Win95B/95C/ME can work with FAT16 and FAT32. The DOS that is part of Win95B and later is different and can work with FAT32 drives. None of them can see/work with NTFS.

WinNT4 can work with FAT16 and NTFS 4 only.

Win2000 and WinXP can work with FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS 5 [converts NTFS 4 to NTFS 5 on an upgrade].

You can have FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions/drives in the same computer when using Win2000/XP.

Networked computers are not part of this particular equation as they do not have to know the drive formatting of other computers.

A tip on Win95/98/ME, they usually have to go on the boot/system drive [C:] and cannot share the registry.

 

[vbportal]

Hi Berton,
Thanks for the info !
One more question - what about complete OS + Applications+
data backup so that I can quickly have the exact same system up and running if hard disk crashes (without
hours of re-installing software/configuring etc) - OK the
backup must be on HD with compatible file system type (FAT/NTFS) but what does a complete backup consist of/can
it coexist on the same HD as the working OS ?

Thanks,
Vjeko

 

[SQLScholar]

quick question... just curious

why have XP home and XP Pro on the same system??

Just can`t see the logic

Dan ----------------------------------------
There are 2 types of computer, the prototype and the obsolete!!

 

[crwpulsar]

One more thing to add to Berton's post.
if you do decide to install a Linux based Os, Linux can extract data from windows based partition(FAT,NTFS etc etc) but Windows "ignores" Linux partitions to the best of my knowledge. So the best thing to do if you install redhat, is to partition a "scratch drive!" as data stored in Linux home directory will be invisible from windows!
Hope this helps
David

Ps: Please point any errors in my answers as it is the only way I will learn!)

 

[vbportal]

Hi Dan,
XP Home is the only OS working right now - I want to
get XP Pro in the future.

Thanks
Vjeko

 

[ato]

Vjekobalas, check out the VMware workstation 3.2 is a virture machine. it can run multi os in one machine. no hardware configuration need it. you need to install your host os. then install virture software. it also come with VMware GXS server 2.0. it a cool software you may want to check it out. Below is a link.

http://www.pugh.co.uk/Products/vmware/workstation 3.2.htm

HOST OPERATING SYSTEMS:
Microsoft:
Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition
Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server, Service Pack 2
Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Service Pack 3 or higher
Windows .NET Server Beta 3
Linux:
Mandrake Linux 8.2 -- stock 2.4.18-6mdk
Mandrake Linux 8.1 -- stock 2.4.8-26mdk, upgrade 2.4.8-4mdk
Mandrake Linux 8.0 -- stock 2.4.3-20mdk
Red Hat Linux 7.2 -- stock 2.4.7-10, upgrade 2.4.9-7, upgrade 2.4.9-13, upgrade 2.4.9-21, upgrade 2.4.9-31
Red Hat Linux 7.1 -- stock 2.4.2-2, upgrade 2.4.3-12
Red Hat Linux 7.0 -- stock 2.2.16-22, upgrade 2.2.17-14
Red Hat Linux 6.2 -- upgrade 2.2.15-2.5.0, Dell specific 2.2.14-6.1.1
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 -- stock 2.4.7
SuSE Linux 7.3 -- stock 2.4.10
SuSE Linux 7.2 -- stock 2.4.4
SuSE Linux 7.1 -- stock 2.2.18, stock 2.4.0
SuSE Linux 7.0 -- stock 2.2.16
Caldera OpenLinux 2.4 -- stock 2.2.14
Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 -- stock 2.2.10
Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 -- stock 2.2.5

GUEST OPERATING SYSTEMS:
Microsoft:
Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition
Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and
Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Service Pack 2
Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT 4.0 Server 4.0,
Service Pack 3 or higher
Windows .NET Server Beta 3
Windows Me
Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE
Windows 95 (all OSR releases)
Windows for Workgroups
Windows 3.1
MS-DOS 6
Linux:
Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2
SuSE Linux 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, SLES 7
Mandrake Linux 8.0, 8.1, 8.2
FreeBSD:
FreeBSD 3.x, 4.0-4.5

 

[SQLScholar]

i would say at which point when you buy XP pro, get rid of home. Its just hanging arround confusing things... plus with pro there, will you EVER use it?

Dan ----------------------------------------
There are 2 types of computer, the prototype and the obsolete!!