Newbie, dual booting, multiple HDs, questions

[bygdaddy]

I want to dual boot W98se and XP. I have a 15gig HD and a 40gig HD. Need some direction on which drives to put OSes. Not sure if I should put both OSes on the 15gig or one OS on each. I also have a DVD drive and a burner. So any good setup combinations would be appreciated. As always, thx for your input.

 

[Shuja]

It is always better to install both OS on single HDD, First install WIN98Se on first boot partition i.e. on C keep it 2GB(it should be decided on your Software requirement but keeping it 2 GB is good what I have experienced prasctically) and than install XP on second partition of the same HDD (keep it atleast 4GB)

 

[MoFunk]

How much are you going to be using each OS? I use a 40 gig drive split into 4 partitions. 1 gig for 98, 4 gigs for XP, 10 gigs for Apps ( I load them into the same directory but in each OS, that way it gets registered with each OS so I can use it and it doesn't take up twice the space.) then 25 for Data.

 

[bygdaddy]

So, I could load both OSes on the 15gig. Use the rest of the 15gig and all of the 40gig for APPs and DATA. Correct? Would it be better to have both HDs on one IDE channel and the DVD and CDRW on the other IDE channel. Or is there a better way?

 

[KenCleanAirSystem]

Keep the hard drives on the primary channel and the cdrom drives on the secondary channel. Its always best to avoid putting a cdrom on the same channel as a hard drive.

 

[MoFunk]

<< So, I could load both OSes on the 15gig. Use the rest of the 15gig and all of the 40gig for APPs and DATA. Correct? Would it be better to have both HDs on one IDE channel and the DVD and CDRW on the other IDE channel. Or is there a better way? >>



Yes you can use both as long as you are partitioning. I tried to have Win98 and Win2K on the same partition once and it caused some issues. So partition the 15 into at least 2 drives. Keep the HD's on the same channel (primary)and the CDRW and the DVD on the other (secondary).

 

[lilnnjaboy]

I would use the 15 gig to install the OS. Split it into 2 partitions one for each OS. Then use the 40 gig for data. That way you have enough room on the harddrive to install the programs you need...and you have one drive to access all the data. For example MP3's you can use for both, documents,etc.

 

[bygdaddy]

Thx to everyone for your input. I'm gonna do it tonight.

 

[vcarpio]

I dual boot between Win2K Pro and WinXP Home. I prefer having each OS in its own HD because I prefer setting the boot drive in the BIOS, instead of Windows' dual boot menu. Just my personal preference.

 

[bluesky]

I put each os on each drive, if I have any drive failure, a drive still boots up without any hassle.
If you put 2 OSes on a drive, make it sure you get a primary and the rest as logical drive on both drive. Otherwise your D drive will be a partition on the second drive.

 

[bygdaddy]

Just wanted to let everyone know I got my rig up and running with w98se and xp. Setup went great! Thx all for the help.

 

[Muse]

I'm in a similar situation: 2 big HDDs (40, 60 GB). Have Promise HDD controller.

However, I want to also install WinNT 4, SP6. How do I go about this?

Can I just install W98SE, then NT, then Win2k? Do it all on one of the HDDs? Does the C: partition need to be FAT or can it be FAT32?

As I understand it, the 3rd boot OS should start before 2 GB limit has been reached, so I plan to make Win98 around 800 MB, WinNT maybe 1 GB, and give Win2k 4 or 5 GB. I will use Win2k 99+% of the time, and am installing the others just for testing problems I may have in Win2k for one reason or the other. I may even have apps and data for NT and W98 in their own OS partitions, since they will be lightly used.