Multi OS Boot Question

[Ducker]

I am wanting to create a new primary partition and install Win XP Pro on it. I am using Partition Magic to create the partition. Here is how I have my hard drive setup now. The first partition is 3.3gb with Win 98 SE (fat 32) installed on it. Second is a 40gb partition with Win XP Pro (ntfs) on it ( this is the os I use the most ). Then I have 3 logical partitions of 14, 12, and 6gb 9FAT 32) for data storage, ect. My question is?if I create the new partition between Win 98 SE and Win XP Pro and make it 6gbs, will my Win XP Pro (the 40gb partition) partition still be bootable? It will be beyond the 4gb barrier. In other words, will all 3 primary partitions be bootable? Thanks.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Partition Magic *should* be smart enough to make everything work. However, have you install CDs ready just in case something unexpected happens.

Any particular reason why you want to make a new partition "in between" the Windows installs?

-SUO, mutli-booting six OSes on one hard drive

 

[Ducker]

My reasoning of haveing it in between was that I had thought that it needed to be near the beginning of the hdd to be bootable.

I went ahead and created the partition & installed XP on it. The install seemed to go ok. When I tried to boot it for the first time, it wouldn't boot up. I put the emergency floppy disks in for Partition Magic and ran a "check for errors" on the partition. It came back with this error message "Partition improperly dismounted". I could still boot off of my Win 98 SE partition, but can't boot from the new partition. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.

 

[NumbaJuan]

do you have boot magic installed also? if so, you will have to add the new os to the boot magic menu.

 

[SUOrangeman]

"My reasoning of haveing it in between was that I had thought that it needed to be near the beginning of the hdd to be bootable."

So, if everything was already working, why did you need to create a new partition between the two existing Windows partitions (presuming C: for Windows98 and D: for WinXP)? Are you trying to make room for something like Linux?

-SUO

 

[Ducker]

I do have boot magic installed, but disabled it. I just don't understand what it means by the error message "Partition improperly dismounted".

Well, everything is working ok. I just wanted a seperate XP os to experiment with different programs. Something I will not mind reformatting fairly often.

So, should it matter where I put a primary partition on the hdd, and it still be bootable?

 

[SUOrangeman]

For XP, it does not have to be a primary partition.

Given that I have six or so OSes installed on my hard drive, I try to make heavy use of the extended partition and the logical volumes inside of it. The only exceptions are OSes that must use a primary partition (FreeBSD and QNX on my system) and a lone C: drive for the NT Loader and temp files/swap space. Each of my Windows OSes has its own logical volume inside of the extended partition. Heck, even BeOS and Linux seem to be quite happy on logical volumes in the extended partition.

-SUO