Partitioning for dual boot help

Hi all

I have a HP Pavilion computer with an 80GB hdd. I want to partition it as follows:

C: -- 15GB -- NTFS -- XP
D: -- 10GB -- Fat32 -- 98
E: -- 5GB -- Fat32 -- Data
F: -- remainderGB - Fat32 -- Backups/Whatever


What I want to know is:

Does C: and D: need to be set as an Active partition?

If Yes to above will E: be the extended partion and F: the logical?

Or is my thinking on partitioning all wrong?

What is the best method to partition, Fdisk or other?

All help appreciated.

 

Use Fdisk, partition, make the first one active.
Install Windows 98.
Install XP to other partition.
Done.
Don't make this more confusing than it needs to be.
Convert the XP partition to NTFS after, or during, install.

 

I am confused, although not intentionally.

I only know the basics of fdisk. No partitioning experience at all.
Will fdisk give me the option to make a partition active? And, do I need to set any of the other partitions as extended, logical, etc.?

Thanks guys.

 

Heh, sorry, no offence meant.
Run fdisk, select YES to the first question about large disk support.
Select NO when prompted to use the whole disk.
Enter the size of C in percentage or megabytes.
Do the same for D, E, and F.
Make the first partition active.
Install Windows 98 to D. It will format the drive in FAT32 and install, putting a couple of files in C. This is normal.
Install XP, choosing C as the installation path, and have it convert to NTFS, and install.
XP doesn't care if it's partition is first, second, or 125th, it will install where you tell it to, and will also set up the multi-boot menu for you.
You can now boot to XP, go into Admin tools, Computer management, disk management, and format the other two partitions as you like.
It's easier to do than it is to explain.
No need to format partitions beforehand (usually).
If you DO need to format a partition, only format C and D, unless you want to wait the interminably long time it takes to format a disk in DOS. The XP disk management does it much faster.

 

Hey Reboot, no offence taken.

Thanks for the explaination. Once I do this I'll be ok, just a little nervous. I'll post back tomorrow to let you know how it went.

 

Got my tail in a sling here.

Fdisk only sees 10.8GB. I need it to see 80. Is there another utility to do this? Or another fdisk or something?

I've already deleted all partitions. Computer is useless at this point. Don't even have a start up disk for it, using 98's. Hope it works. Help me out guys. Thanks.

 

Nope. don't do that.
The FAT tables will be messed if you use the jumper limiter. Then once the jumper is moved, the disk will again be useless.
Run fdisk, and set your partitions in percentage. Should work easily.
I have never seen fdisk have a limitation of 10.x gig. It's usually somewhere around 112 gig, but I only use percentages when in fdisk.
Another option is to change the C and D partitions around, install 98 on C, then install XP on D. It won't make the slightest bit of difference to the way the system runs, and actually may be better, because the boot (active "C ") partition will be FAT32, and recoverable in DOS with a boot disk.
If XP was on C (NTFS), and you have a crash, you are stuck with a reinstall of 98 and XP to get the system back, total loss of all data on C and D.

In Fdisk, set the first partition at 13% (about 10 gig for Win98 on C), set the second partition at 19% (about 15 gig for XP on D), set the third at 8% (about 5 gig for data), and let fdisk set the remainder for F.

 

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
The limiter jumper is so hard wired into the drive, that it must remain to use the drive.
Remove the jumper after fdisk and format, and you just have to start all over again, because all the disk parameters (Cyl, head, sector) have changed, and the FAT is useless (nonexistant/unreadable).
If the FAT cannot be read, one cannot format the disk, which is why fdisk exists.

 

Been busy. I was using the mb setting instead of the percent setting. I made one partition of 9gb to see if I could get xp installed. Run the recovery disks but only got error that the EULA couldn't be found. So here I am badmouthing HP. Tried installing 98 but could only get to safe mode. Error said a device driver or dll was trying to run that wasn't in the win.ini, sys.ini, or one of those inis. Went all through device manager but couldn't find anything.

So I pouted around a while and realized that maybe I didn't set the partition to active. Worth a look. Run fdisk and partition wasn't set as active so I set it. Ran the recovery disk again and installed xp. Only problem is that the recovery disks formatted and reinstalled as it was when I bought it. Bummer. C: is 67.7gbs and D: (which is the recovery drive but I can delete it since I have it on disks) is 6.74gbs.

I can use Xps disk management to delete the D: partition and make data partitions. But can I use it to create a partition for 98 and still have dual boot?

Thanks for your patience.

 

OK, first, you didn't say it was a "recovery" disk, or we could have saved a ton of time and trouble...

Christer is right. NO matter what you do, the recovery disk is going to mess up everything you did in fdisk.

You CAN install 98 after XP, with some juggling of software, and patience, but it's a tedious process.

To get XP's dual boot menu, you must install 98 first, then XP from a "normal" CD, although there is a way around that, explained here: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24831
You need two hard drives to do it though.

For you to get the dual 98/XP boot, you are going to need both a normal 98 disk, and a normal XP disk. A recovery disk just isnt' going to work

 

Sorry Reboot my mind was ahead of my fingers..

I'm planning to get a copy of an xp disk from my brother this weekend. Using my product key number instead of his. I want to get rid of this recovery disk asap. I do not like it. As far as time and trouble goes....well when I do get the disk at least I won't have to ask again. I'll be prepared. Hopefully it'll be smoothe.

Christer -- I thought this darn thing came with an os disk. Also I have 8 recovery disks and 6 startup floppies. Go figure. The only disk I have is one for the monitor. It explains how to turn it on and how to adjust the volumn. Acrobat Reader 5.0 comes with it so I can read the manual. The other one contains MS Works and Money. But they are already installed so .....

Thank you both for your time and advice.

 

I should know better as well, and NEVER assume anything