All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software
Format/Partition
voidmain:
Calum, I think you are making it out to be much harder than it really is.
First, just a note on Partition Magic. PM comes with a great graphical DOS program that will fit nicely on a boot floppy. It is best to just boot from floppy and run this app from floppy. I believe the program is "pqmagic.exe". You'll need to format a bootable floppy, and stick this file on it, along with PQMAGIC.OVL and MOUSE.COM from the same directory that PQMAGIC.EXE resides (it might need a couple of other files but I don't believe so, I can check my disk if need be). You then don't have to worry about which OS you have installed that you want to manipulate and don't have to change your OS to accomodate partition magic. I know 3.0 and 4.0 have this DOS program, not sure if the newer ones do.
Second, when you get the two partitions that you intend to install Linux on freed from files, just delete those partitions with partition magic. Preferably leaving one large section of drive that does not have a partition on it.
Third, stick your Linux CD in the drive and boot from it (hopefully you can set your CMOS to boot from CD, it's easiest). Linux should create the Linux partitions on that free space and install there (do a custom setup so you can set the partitions up exactly the sizes you want and how you want).
Fourth, Linux will also install LILO on the Linux parition and change the Master Boot Record on your drive to point to LILO on that Linux parition (install LILO to /dev/hda which is the MBR when it asks). It should detect your other two Win* installations or however many you have, it will give you a chance to set up LILO at install time to boot all of your OSs. In addition to LILO some of the newer distros are using the GRUB boot manager but the setup is similar.
Fifth, don't use a *.0 version of any Linux distro. For instance I would *highly* recommend if you are thinking about trying our RedHat to use the 7.2 version. Similar with Mandrake, use 8.2. 7.2 is a lot better than 7.0.
Sixth, I will have to check on your USB CD writer but I would speculate you may have trouble with this one. It surely will on a *.0 version of a Linux distro. CD writing works best (far superior to any other OS in my opinion) with a SCSI CD burner but I have two IDE CD burners that work just as well, one HP, and one Memorex drive.
Hopefully this helps and if not, we can help you with any more questions.
[ February 07, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
Calum:
That is incredibly helpful, Voidmain! Thanks for taking the time to look into my questions!
I discovered the really good DOS interface in PartitionMagic last night, and i reckon i may not go back to the crummy GUI again! It's 4.1 i have so, the dos version works much better, especially since Partition Magic needs dos to run properly, and DOS doesn't come with WinME (so i am using a win98 startup floppy for the purpose of running dos).
I have now got two 3 gig partitions at the start of the drive, each with a totally unblemished (and unused! incase it all fucks up!) versions of WinME. You can't install win98 on a C: drive if you already have a copy of windows on the E: drive! but winME will let you do it.
Bootmagic, which comes with PartitionMagic, wants dos in order to run properly, and is not letting me dual boot to 2 copies of windows. What i need to do then, is install Linux (what size partition do you recommend, off a 12 gig drive, 2, 3, 4 gigs?) and LILO with it, so that LILO will allow me to boot to all three OSs/installations, yes?
does LILO have that thing where the partition to be booted from must begin before cylinder 1024? i don't think it does from memory, but it pays to check.
My CDRW drive is a USB DiamondData, model number DD4432UE, and the support drivers come from the Mitsubishi Electric Australia site at http://www.mitsubishi-electric.com.au/downloads/cd-rw/external-usb.htm . If anybody knows of other win drivers, or linux drivers, then cool, let's hear about them, but no hass, i will get around to it myself...
Lastly, why should i not use a *.0 release? I only have, as i say, RedHat 7.0 and TurboLinux 6.1, and i am not in a position to download any large stuff right now due to not having an isp (or even a proper permanent abode!) so what i have is really my only choice for the time being. Maybe there's some way i can download relevant small parts of the software and then insert them into my installation some way? sounds a bit unlikely to me...
Anyway, thanks again for your help. I'll get right on it.
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]
voidmain:
Hmmm, let me see if I got this right. You currently have a copy of Win98 and a copy of WinME installed and are dual booting between those two OSs? If so, could you explain in a little more detail how you are doing this? If you are currently doing this, and you are using bootmagic to do it then I would guess you have bootmagic installed on C: and have that partition set as the "active" partition, or you have another small partition with bootmagic installed by itself there.
If the above is correct, when you install Linux you'll want to set it up as I said, but you'll want to install lilo on /dev/hda as I said and then add your C: drive to the LILO boot menu during Linux install (if C: is the first partition it would be the /dev/hda1 partition). Of course if you have a separate bootmagic partition you would add it to the menu rather than the C: partition. The way it would work when you boot your machine is you would get a lilo prompt/menu and you will have two options. Linux and Windows. If you select Windows it should bring up your bootmanager menu with the option to boot either Win98 or WinME.
As far as the 1024 cylinder thing. I am pretty sure that the newer versions of LILO no longer have that limitation and if you were using RedHat 7.2 you would have the option of GRUB or LILO. GRUB definately does not have that limitation. I don't remember if RedHat 7.2's LILO had that limit. To get around that what I used to do is create about 50 meg of free space at the beginning of the drive using partition magic, then on the Linux install I would create a 50MB partition on that free space for "/boot" which is where lilo and the kernel get installed.
Having said that, here is another scenerio that *should* work. Since you may be using boot magic, I believe boot magic can also boot the LINUX installation. If you wanted to do it that way you would install LILO to your Linux partition rather than /dev/hda (if you create a 3rd partition to install all of Linux you would install LILO to /dev/hda3). Then in the bootmanager setup add a 3rd OS and set it to boot the 3rd partition in which case bootmanager will then bootstrap LILO which in turn will start Linux automatically as it's only option.
Now I am doing all this from memory and making some assumptions but I believe it will work and I believe I have done something similar at one time or another in the past.
As far as why not run *.0 versions of Linux it's basically because they are more like beta versions than anything else. *.1 versions are usually pretty good and *.2 versions usually have most of the bugs worked out. Having said that, you can grab the pieces you want to upgrade after install but most of them that I would suggest upgrading are pretty big. I forgot how much it sucks not to have a broadband connection. You don't have any friends that can download a CD image and burn it for you?
As far as how much disk to give to Linux, if you can spare it I would suggest 4GB. Not necessary but will give you enough room to install just about everything.
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
Calum:
Again, thanks for your thoughts,
Well, i actually have 2 copies of WinME installed, because once i had got WinME on the E: partition, Win98 would not install on the C: partition. So i have WinME on the C: partition, some fat32 type files on the D: partition, and another WinME on the E: partition.
The C: partition is currently set as the default booting drive. I have set up BootMagic on the C: drive to boot to either C: or E: but it will just freeze up when i try to boot to E:. The E: partition starts about 3.1 gigs into the physical hard drive, so i thought maybe it was a 1024 cylinders thing.
What i am anxious to do is replace BootMagic with something stable (which is why the words "command line" and "linux" are running around in my mind) which *can* boot to a partition regardless of it's filesystem structure and physical place on the disk.
I didn't realise i could set up bootmagic on its own partition, but that makes sense.
I think the best arrangement may be if i could set up a small partition at the start of the drive for each OS, which could reference the computer to wherever the OS actually is. This way, all the OSs would have a representative presence under the 1024 cylinders limit, but still be able to go from anywhere on the drive in actuality. This is something i am not sure about in the strongest possible terms!
I think i will stick with the idea of using LILO, but the main question there is, will it be able to replace bootmagic completely? ie: can i use lilo to boot to Linux, WinME(E and WinME(C all from one place? I am not really convinced about bootmagic at the moment.
Thanks for yr speedy reply too, VoidMain! :D
voidmain:
Oh yes, I remember your situation. I can tell you that you wouldn't have any trouble at all only using LILO if you were using ((WinME *or* Win9x) *and* (Win2k *or* WinNT)) but since you are using two copies of Win9x like OSs you may have to use another boot loader that is capable of hiding one of the Win9x like OSs while the other one is booted. They will both think they are installed on C: drive that way and the second installation will be hidden while the first installation is booted. Is bootmagic capable of hiding the partition? I know System Commander and some other boot utilities have that capability but don't recall if bootmagic does. When booted into Linux you do not need any partitions hidden and it will be able to see both the Win* installs. I don't believe LILO or GRUB are capable of hiding one of the Win* partitions when booted in the other. And I don't really have any experience with ME so I don't know how much different it's boot loader is than Win9x. I would suggest doing a Google search for "dual boot" and Windows. There are many documents out there for doing just what you want to do. I'm even thinking you could install both Win98 and WinME on the C: drive (but in different directories) but I've never done this. I know you can do it with NT like installs with 9x like installs no problem. Then you just use NTs boot loader to boot either Win9x or NT by editing the BOOT.INI file.
I don't know if I've been any help at all on this but good luck. I can do some more research on this later this evening if you like and come up with an exact scenerio that should definately work for you.
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