[Dapper Dan]

I thought that might grab some attention! Actually I've got three Linux distros on my box, and between that and the problems caused by Qtparted, (After initially partitioning with Partition Magic), my hard drive and grub are a mess.

Anyway, I bought a Western Digital 120 GB external USB drive, formatted it with ReiserFS and have transferred all my /home files from the three OSs, (Gentoo, SuSE 9.1 and Mandrake 9.2) over to it.

Since we've seen so many problems here with partitioning, especially when folks run XP along with FC, and also since I have licensed copies of 98SE and XP, and Partition Magic 8, I thought it might be a good choice to nuke and pave my drive, start over by installing Windows for the sole purpose of having access to Partition Magic which I would solely use to create new partitions as I go.

I have to give credit where credit is due. Partition Magic is the best partitioning utility I've ever used, regardless of O.S.

So that's the plan.

My only problem at this point is I can't decide whether to use 98SE at the first part of my drive or XP. I'm leaning toward using 98SE since I can always boot it from floppy if I mess things up. In the long run though, XP would likely be more stable.

I will gladly listen to any and all recommendations and suggestions.

Thanks.

[Wicked101]

Maybe I can be of some assistance here, I hope. You can install XP, then download the software called bart's PE Builder, with this you can create a Live CD like Knoppix, but with the windows interface and you can add all kinds of programs to that like CD Brning software and Partition Magic. Then you can boot from the CD anytime you want/need to into a live windows session running from the CD and run partition magic and install only Linux without having Windows close to your hard drive.

[mjwebb007]

Hey Dapper...

I thought I had posted a topic without knowing it when I saw your header....(experiencing a little frustration wiht my Linux move)....

Part of my problems resides in the fact that I have very little understanding of what a kernel even is...anyway...

I would love to know how you do it Dan...looking at my PC9 manual it seems to say that WinXP has to be the "C:" drive and Win98 can be any (which doesn't make sense to me since XP should be the more configurable of the two). Either way you could do what I have done and install three hard drives and use one for Win98 and partition friendly Linux distros..one for WinXP and WinXP 64-bit trial and the third for customizable install distros of linux....

But as of yet I still only have WinXP loaded on the one drive...

Need to learn GRUB customization a little and learn how to install my dang WiFi card so I can update stuff....

Let me know how you decide to do this...I want to install 98 purely to play one of the most underrated and involved games that I have, "Sanitarium"...

[iamroot]

Why don't you try your luck with WINE? It doesn't seem worth to install and run Windows on ur system just to play 1 game...

[mjwebb007]

I will...once I get a Linux distro installed and network card setup....is ndiswrapper a good way to try to get my Netgear WG311 working? All the posts and info I see says to use ndiswrapper with the windows drivers...should I use the new 2.0 drivers or the ones that came with the card?

Back to Sanitarium...it's not just that game but the older games I want to play are just that....older...so hopefully WINE will work....since they are less complicated....

I still have to maintain some MS loyalty since I just applied for a job there....but I also applied for one at Redhat....we'll see....

[indifferent_karma]

I'm new here, been playing around with linux off an on for a few years and read through some of the topics here fairly often. I do hope to learn more as I integrate, not transition to, linux more.

That said I'm far more competent with Windows.

Posted by Dapper Dan:

Quote:

My only problem at this point is I can't decide whether to use 98SE at the first part of my drive or XP. I'm leaning toward using 98SE since I can always boot it from floppy if I mess things up.

If I'm reading this right, then you can follow the link below to create a floppy that you can use to point to and boot a WinXP installation, you can do the same for NT 4 and Win2k as well.

How To Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

[Dapper Dan]

Coming to you from my RedHat 6.2 Packard Bell Legend 814CD box as I'm presently formatting the hard drive on my regular box with NTFS. Yep, you know what that means. I decided to go with XP. It's taking the install for danged EVER to format the drive in NTFS. I didn't really have to do the whole drive but decided, "what the hell."

Thanks for everyones input. After the XP install, I'm gonna install Mandrake 9.0, my first true Linux love! Then my present squeeze, SuSE 9.1, and possibly the new lady i have my eyes on, ProMepis Beta 3. After that who knows...

[mjwebb007]

Dapper please let me know (As detailed as possible but nothing to in depth to minimize your typing) how this goes...

I still eventually (when all systems up and running) will have a purely dedicted Windows XP MCE 2005 box but want to run WinXP Pro with my Linux distros in another box....and since I presently have 4 versions of Linux and want to add a fifth to my collection, any insight would be greatly appreciated...

[clutch]

One option could be to use Windows (or Linux, if that's what you want) as the host, and use VMware to run your other OSs. This is what I do, and it's worked out well. I keep XP as the host OS (or 2003 Server, and use Virtual Server on top of it) and run copies of Linux, BSD, and Windows within that.

[mjwebb007]

Yeah but isn't VMWare a little expensive and isn't it also USB keyobard and mouse unfriendly? I am making no assertions, I just remember reading these things somewhere (CPU Magazine maybe?)

[PenguinPowerPack]

Having multiple OS's is tricky. It took me a while before I got what I wanted, but now that I found a way to bend the rules I have Mandrake 8.2, XP-pro, Win2k, Win98se, Win3.1, Dos6.22 all running on my P4.

I have an unusual scenario that works for me: I have 4 hard-drives. 3 are Windows flavors (FAT, FAT32, NTFS) and connected to a Siig PCI drive controller which is assigned as the primary boot device in bios (by default).

I have a dedicated Linux drive connected to IDE-1 on the Mainboard with a couple of cdrw/dvd drives on IDE-2.

I use System Commander 2000 (commercial) to select amongst the Win/dos OS's.

I can boot the Linux drive directly (bypassing Sys Cmdr) by pressing the Escape key at a particular moment on bootup. This brings up a bios menu with choices to boot from: cdrom(s) or Mainboard IDE drives as alternatives to the Siig. I can choose cdrom for Linux install, and then the hard-drive number for Linux later after it is installed.

I use Lilo to boot Mandrake 8.2 on the Linux drive and it is installed to the MBR for that drive. I used the cdrom boot-install (A boot drive option on the bios menu obtained by the Escape key.) to install Mandrake. When I boot in this manner the drives connected to the Siig are invisible to Linux, so the HD connected to the Mainboard IDE-1 appears as the only drive to Linux and this makes it work for the install of Mandrake/Lilo, and for booting it up later.

I used Partition Magic 8 to create formatted partions for Mandrake before the install. It was easy to just select the partions for \, \usr, \home, etc and just install. PM8 is an awesome product. The only downside is that you have to install Windows, then PM8, then you can create a bootable floppy with PM8 that allows you to partition outside of the restraints of Windows. I recommend not trying to format from within Windows, boot from the PM8 floppies instead.

This is probably the strangest of PC setups, but it works for me.

You can email me directly if you run into questions while attempting to create your multi-OS PC and I'll try to help. I have been down that road, and I know where it leads...

Now I just need to get my hands on the Mandrake 10.1 PowerPack Plus (eval cackle)
-matt

[Dapper Dan]

Hi Matt and welcome!

Funny you should mentionn Mandrake 8.2. I got Windows XP installed at hda1 and decided to try my very first distro, Mandrake 8.2 next. Trouble is It doesn't like my newer on board NIC, and I had problems with it after a necessary cold re-boot. I sure would like to get it on this box at some point though for old time sake.

Right now, I have ProMepis as my 2nd OS and will install SuSE 9.1 as the third. I might have to resort to Mdk 9.0 which I know will work on this box. It would be neat to get Mdk 8.2 up and running though. It brings back a lot of sweet memories!

[clutch]

Originally posted by mjwebb007:

Quote:

Yeah but isn't VMWare a little expensive and isn't it also USB keyobard and mouse unfriendly? I am making no assertions, I just remember reading these things somewhere (CPU Magazine maybe?)

I have a USB mouse and Keyboard on my PC, and it works fine. In addition, I use a USB mouse with my laptop, and it still works (including the mouse wheel, which I use for scrolling desktops in Fluxbox).

As for cost, it might be about twice what a couple of good harddrives cost, but still cheaper than most CPU/Mobo combos and a whole lot less than a new system (about $190). VirtualPC is less, but don't bother with it if you want to use KDE, Gnome, or any other rich GUI as it drags a lot.