Dual boot/hard disk partions+ stuff??

[db909]

Hi,peeps hope someone can give us a bit of advice


Looks like its about time I upgraded from win98se as it's becoming very unstable/slow

I have two hard drives at the mo drive c=120gb d=9.5gb (out of my old machine)

Can I partion my main drive using partion magic or similar
without re formatting my c drive and loosing any data?

Do I need to copy my most important progs onto my d drive to be safe?

Can I then reload a new os (win2k) onto it and boot up from that part of the disk?

Can I then drag and drop programs onto this partion and run them from it,or will I have to re install them along with new drivers etc?

The programs I leave on the win98 part of the disk will I have to reboot onto that part every time I want to use them?

Finally is this the easiest way to go or is there any other easier/quicker shortcuts?

Cheers in advance for any (not too technical :$ ) help

 

[johns_ar]

Can I partion my main drive using partion magic or similar
without re formatting my c drive and loosing any data? yes

Do I need to copy my most important progs onto my d drive to be safe? probs a good idea

Can I then reload a new os (win2k) onto it and boot up from that part of the disk? new OS onto a brand new partition on the new/main drive? yes

Can I then drag and drop programs onto this partion and run them from it,or will I have to re install them along with new drivers etc? you can but 99% of em wont work and all the shortcuts will be bolloxed

The programs I leave on the win98 part of the disk will I have to reboot onto that part every time I want to use them? yup

Finally is this the easiest way to go or is there any other easier/quicker shortcuts? you probs doing it the best & easiest way imo...id leave the old drive with ur progs & win98 on there as back up like in case it goes belly up

 

[turpieaj]

tough measures require tough actions

With win 98 theres a good chance that most of your programs wont run under a new os anyway so there will have to be some loss. This is what I would do in your situ :

1. Back up all files (documents,mp3's and email addy book) to the small drive if it can cope with the capacity.
2. Get a copy of win xp
3. Boot from the xp cd and after a few mins follow instructions to delete the main C:\ partition (leaving drive in raw state - then use a quick format NTFS-it will ask you for the partition size it will tell ya what the max bytes capacity is - if you want just one whole drive enter the number of max bytes there is on the screen if you want to divide the drive into two then divide the max number by 2 and so forth)
4.Install XP and also get your hands on service pack 2 and install that after.
5. Export back all your files and docs
6. Find the latest versions of yer drivers and software they're around the tinternet y'know.


Sit back and relax - I usually take around the hour mark to get my system back up from a re format.

 

[db909]

Cheers for the help fellas

Just a couple of things:
Don't I need a 'partioning' prog to split the disk

Also I will be using windows 2000 pro not xp (as my pc is linked to my sampler through scsi running akai mesa which I have been told will be easier through win 2k)
will that make any difference? Is xp a better bet?

Thanks

 

[johns_ar]

xp is a better bet but 2k is sound, very reliable

partition magic what u mentioned does the job nicely - easy to use too

 

[turpieaj]

Personally with the likes of DVD-RWs (or the luxury of having 2 hard drives to float files inbetween) I have never really had to use partition magic, so can't give you any advice on such, but I would go with johns_ar comments on the OS, I would give XP the edge over windows 2000, but as long as your fully updated with the service packs and patches - go for what ever of the two OSes is available to you.

Andy

 

[db909]

Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!

So I've installed a copy of partition magic 8.0 and backed up files onto my
second hard drive (D)

opened partition magic and looked at the tutorial etc. (looked very straight forward )

But now I can't see my second drive in windows explorer
I think partition magic is hiding it as it is there in boot magic,
but I can't open the partition magic program to access it

I keep getting the error message
"init failed error 20 the libary or the partition is not open"

I have tried uninstalling the progs and re booting but still no d drive

If I try to boot up from the second drive I get a black and white screen asking to run from a command prompt

If I boot up from my 98se cd rom do I risk losing data from my main (c) drive?

Please Help!!
Fekking computers :$