Partitioning Gurus...

[iamtrout]

What's the best partitioning setup to do this?

I have partition magic and an 80GB HDD.

Which should be primary, logical, extended, etc.

Where should swap file be located?

Can I install a program in W2K and have it runnable when I'm in WinXP without have to redundantly reinstall it again in WinXP, and vice versa? In short, can I have a single program install like Word run on both OSes?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Raincity]

You don?t need partition magic. You can partition using the diskpart utility in Win2K and XP. Most apps need to registry entries to run so you will to install the apps in both operating systems.

 

[iamtrout]

Ok. I'm asking this because I had XP on a 5GB partition (primary, NTFS). Then I created another 5GB partition after it (NTFS, extended, logical) for my Win2K. After I installed Win2K I noticed that it could no longer boot into XP when given the option because there was an error in "C:/Windows/Systemd" And no, the "d" at the end of "system" is not a typo. It told me to use the Win2K CD to repair... but it's the WinXP partition... So basically I think I screwed up partitioning or something. Methinks I shouldn't have had the second 5GB partition be extended and logical, but I'm not sure because I have very little experience with partition types. The reason it was extended was because it was set aside for a Linux OS, and was the only partition that had free space available at the time.

 

[D1gger]

Your problem may be that you installed Win/XP first and Win2k second. The rule of thumb is that the oldest OS must be installed first, and then the newer OS. When you installed Win2k it writes the new master boot record and it Win2k doesn't properly recognize WinXP. If you boot into console mode using the WinXP CD and perform a FIXMBR, you will be able to restore your WinXP installation.

 

[Raincity]

Thats correct. You need the lastest NT boot loader to reside on your primary partition.

 

[futuristicmonkey]

Edit #2: My whole post was useless.

 

[iamtrout]

How do you boot into console with the WinXP CD? There's a press any key to boot from CD option which immediately leads to the blue setup GUI. No option for console.

 

[jackschmittusa]

In reply to the other part of your question, you have to install the app in each os.

 

[ColKurtz]

Can I install a program in W2K and have it runnable when I'm in WinXP without have to redundantly reinstall it again in WinXP, and vice versa? In short, can I have a single program install like Word run on both OSes?

Yes, for many/most apps you will be able to do this. You will have to install the application in both W2K and XP ( ex. install in W2K, reboot to XP and reinstall the same directory) in order to update the registry of each OS.

Actually, if you have any freespace or another HDD, a shared application partition would be preferable to your scenario. That way you could back up your configuration and if your OS ever gets FUBAR, you can reformat/reinstall without touching your programs and data.

How do you boot into console with the WinXP CD? There's a press any key to boot from CD option which immediately leads to the blue setup GUI. No option for console.

Boot to the GUI and choose recovery mode. One recovery mode option should be "recovery console".

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: ColKurtz

Yes, for many/most apps you will be able to do this. You will have to install the application in both W2K and XP ( ex. install in W2K, reboot to XP and reinstall the same directory) in order to update the registry of each OS.

Actually, if you have any freespace or another HDD, a shared application partition would be preferable to your scenario. That way you could back up your configuration and if your OS ever gets FUBAR, you can reformat/reinstall without touching your programs and data.

Thanks for the reply. I don't know what you mean though about "if your OS ever gets FUBAR, you can always reformat without touching your programs and data."

If I reformat Windows won't my programs on the seperate disk stop working also because the formatted Windows disk had registry entries, system files, etc. that my programs needed in order to run?

I've actually done this before... formatted my Windows partition, and after the clean install none of my programs on a seperate partition would work anymore.

 

[montag451]

pros of using the same partition for both os:
save overall disk space.

cons of using the same partition for both os:
if there is a problem with that partition, you lose all your apps on both os

 

[homercles337]

Curious. Why would you want both win2k AND XP on the same machine? That would be like having win95 and win98 on the same machine.

 

[ColKurtz]

Originally posted by: iamtrout

Originally posted by: ColKurtz
If I reformat Windows won't my programs on the seperate disk stop working also because the formatted Windows disk had registry entries, system files, etc. that my programs needed in order to run?

Yes, most of your programs would need to be reinstalled - to add the registry entries. Actually, you could back up your configuration too but most people (like me) don't. I was really pointing out the fact that it's easier to FFR if you don't have data to be concerned about losing. When I mentioned programs, I was thinking about the slew of little programs/applets I have that donn't have registry entries - those would be fine. But you're right in pointing out that installing most programs to the 2nd parition doesn't buy you much.

Curious. Why would you want both win2k AND XP on the same machine? That would be like having win95 and win98 on the same machine.

As long as they're on different partitons they're fine. I multi-boot Win2k and XP b/c my box is a Win2k file server 90% of the time, but I boot XP up to test certain things before I implement on my main workstation.