FDISK question re:250GB drive...

[floepie]

FDISK simple question....

I have system I'm buying a new 250GB for that will be used as the main system drive. Will be doing a fresh install. My XP disk does not have SP1 (which recognizes larger drives). Therefore, I'd like to use FDISK (DOS), but I don't have a floppy drive.

Can I use a bootable CD w/ FDISK on it instead of a floppy?

What is the difference between FDISK and XP Setup's ability to partition the drive?

Which is preferred, given that my XP disk doesn't have SP1 (or does that even matter?)?

 

[bamacre]

You aught to combine your Win XP disk with SP2, this is called "slipstreaming." Read about it, and some simple instructions for doing so here...

http://www.nliteos.com/index.html

Basically, you'd copy all files off your win xp cd into a folder, then download and extract all SP2 files into another folder. Using nLite, you can combine them into one .iso file and burn that to a cd. You final result is a Win XP SP2 installation cd.

 

[Tlkki]

Also it would be smart to give XP and the apps a partition of their own, 40GB is plenty. I have a 30GB partition for my OS and apps, currently 15GB is free and this install is an year old.

 

[floepie]

Thanks fot the quick replies...

@bamacre. Do you recommend nlite b/c it's unsafe to repartition after XP and SP1 is installed? I think I may just go the bootable CD w/ FDISK in DOS mode route, but I'll look into nlite...

@Tikki, yes I was going to go w/ 15 GB for XP and apps (I don't have too many), but I might want more than that. I intend to play around with some other OS's, so I'll partition for them too. No idea how to setup dual or triple boot yet, but having fun so far!

 

[Matthias99]

@Tikki, yes I was going to go w/ 15 GB for XP and apps (I don't have too many), but I might want more than that. I intend to play around with some other OS's, so I'll partition for them too. No idea how to setup dual or triple boot yet, but having fun so far!

In this case, just format the first 15/20/whatever GB when you install Windows, then update to SP2 and add the other partitions through Disk Management. No need to get fancy here.

 

[imported_Sincity]

Why don't you just use the installation utility that came with the hard drive? You can also download the setup utility from the manufacturer's site. Using these utilites is much easier than using FDISK.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: floepie
Thanks fot the quick replies...

@bamacre. Do you recommend nlite b/c it's unsafe to repartition after XP and SP1 is installed? I think I may just go the bootable CD w/ FDISK in DOS mode route, but I'll look into nlite...

I recommend it because it will save you time/trouble/bandwidth in the future.

 

[floepie]

Thanks for replies. Now, if I'm interested in a dual (triple) boot setup, a primary partition is required for each bootable partition, correct? Any logical drives in the extended partition are not bootable is the way I understand it.

Nothing previous to XP will be installed, so I can just go ahead and put XP on the C drive and future OS's and MCE on the D:, etc, etc. up to 4 on one HD, correct?

And, Windows will automatically prompt for me which OS to boot?

Sorry for the basic q..., but most tutorials apply to XP/98 or XP/linux installs. Thanks!