Re: Partition and Dual Boot MkII (longish)

On 02/12/2005 Hawkeye23 wrote:

> I have tried booting from the Recovery CD as you both suggested.
> You are absolutely right.This produces a completely different options
> screen from that which appears from autorun and which is decribed at
> the top of here.
> The boot options screen is a big blue graphic the words of which are
> as follows:-
> Title: xxx Technology Ltd(PC Mnfr) Quick Restore Win98 (v1.0)
>
> Restore Options:
>
> (1)Restore your Windows System Files
> (2)Recover Current Windows
> (3)Quick Restore System - No format
> (4)Quick Restore System - Quick Format
> Then there are Next/Quit buttons.I have only dared press Quit.

Good choice :-)

The real question is if you select option 4 when you're ready to do a
re-install would it install to a smaller partition or would it strip
the partitions and restore to the whole disk. I don't have an answer
except that both my Sony and Toshiba laptops install to a smaller
partition I have set up, so the signs are good. In any event we may be
able to avoid a W98 re-install if Partition Commander does its stuff.

> Down the LHS of the above 4 options there is a vertical list of
> icons/options labelled as follows:-

These are progress icons and would light up as the install proceeds.

> What do you make of all that.Obviously we are getting somewhere but I
> don't know where it is.

I reckon we've made good progress :-)

I think we have enough to put a plan together here, pmj will also give
us some input when he's here next.

I think I should raise one more caveat while you're deciding what suits
you best. There'll be no issue putting a couple of XP installs on, one
for 'real' and one for testing - and pmj has confirmed there's not a
licensing issue.

I am less sure about more than one install of W98. One will be fine,
together with as many XP installs as you like. But W98 uses a file
called msdos.sys when it boots to tell it where things are *AND* that
file *HAS* to be on the 'C:' drive. I have a PC that dual boots DOS
(actually W98 without the GUI stuff) and a normal W98. To get it to
work I had to install a boot manager - otherwise W98 always boots from
the same drive - so a second install is inaccessible.

When pmj pops in perhaps he could think about that and let us have his
thoughts. At the moment I would be inclined to stick with 1 x W98 as
you have at the moment plus 1 x XP for real and 1 x XP for testing.

On the basis that we could guide you through that (and you're welcome
to my 'phone number if that would re-assure you) it might be an idea to
have a think about the suggestions made so far - I think the key
decision is whether to have a partition for data on the current 'C:'
drive which you would back up to your new drive or whether you just use
the new drive for data. To help your thinking you could split the 'C:'
drive as follows:

C: - W98 say 6GB
D: - XP 'real' say 10GB
E: - XP 'test' say 10GB
F: - Data what's left, about 12GB after formatting

G: - Your new drive, which if drive letters turn you on you could also
divide up :-)

It would still be best to set up the new drive first, copy stuff on to
it and then copy it back once the old drive is re-jigged but that's
just process, we need to fix the strategy first :-)

Let's see what pmj, and anybody else, has to say, you may have a deep
meaningful thinking process ahead this weekend!!!

--
Jeff Gaines - Damerham Hampshire UK
http://www.jgaines.me.uk/
Using XanaNews 1.17.6.5
.

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