Win XP partitioning question

[Zero In]

I have a 60GB HDD, and I already have WIndows ME but am thinking of installing Win XP. I read ont he Microsoft website that you can only have a partition of less than 8GB, unless my BIOS supports Interrupt 13 extension. No, how do I know if the BIOS supports this?

 

[flippinfleck]

Ummmm, where is it that you read this? Can you provide a link, cuz I've got three 30G hd's that all have a partition of greater size than ~8G... My 60G drive is partitioned (albeit under linux) into three 20G's, and my 40G is a windows drive with two 20G partitions.

 

[Zero In]

I just thought of something. SInce I have to install WinME first before Win XP, and since I have 2 hdds, would it make sense to move my WIn mE OS (which is currently in the 60GB faster hdd) to the slower 20GB hdd and then install Win XP to the 60GB fasted hdd?

Would it degrade system performance since the comp would always have to go through a slower HDD before accessing Win XP? Or is there a way to make the new WInXP the primary hdd?

 

[Zero In]

I read it from the Microsoft website, but thanks. Since my system config is pretty new, I shouldn't have a problem then. But what about the solution that I suggest? I would really not like to mess around with partitions if possible.

 

[flippinfleck]

Personaly? I'd put your os (both of them) on the faster drive. Use the other drive for data / storage type stuff.

But that's me, and I love wasting time setting things up the hard way. If you already have your OS on the slower drive (I'm assuming it's a 5400RPM drive), use a program like partition magic (or something of that sort) to resize your current partitions to allow for the installation of XP in another partition. Keep in mind that XP is a space hog.

edit
whoops, didn't read your entire post.
my previous statement is moot, leave ME on the 60G drive, repartition it to allow room for XP, and turn the slower drive into data / storage space
edit

 

[Lord Evermore]

Any motherboard made in the last 2 or 3 years will work fine (probably older too). If it can even SEE a 60GB hard drive it'll be fine.

I'm not sure how well moving WinME to the second drive would work. The master boot record is currently looking for the OS partition on the first drive. If you move it off that drive, you won't be able to boot.

I'm not sure what you mean about it having to go through the slower drive. You should always make your faster drive the main hard drive (primary controller, master) and install your primary OS on it.

Are you sure the 20GB drive is actually slower? A lot of larger drives are actually slower than smaller drives (increased seek time and/or lower rotation speed).

If you're going to be installing WinME fresh as well as XP, then just install WinMe on the second drive (you'll want to create all your partitions first, so that WinMe doesn't think it's on the C drive and then you change the drive letters around when you install XP). Then install XP in the first partition on the first hard drive. XP will install it's own boot loader, so you select which OS to use every time you boot. If you do it the other way around, the boot loader will still be installed to whatever the first drive is.

Here's my setup:

drive0: C drive with Win98SE, E drive with WinXP
drive1: D drive random stuff, F drive random stuff

For some reason I found this easier to do than installing XP on the second drive (slightly slower, but probably would be faster than where it is now, since it could have gone to the beginning of the drive instead of the middle). I think I just had partitions in place already on the second drive and didn't want to move them around.

 

[Zero In]

Thanks.

I have a question though. I already have a WinME installed. Is there a way to make WinXP become a C:?

By the way, how do you make a system volume that's separate from a boot volume?