I just put a 20 GB drive in my laptop. I was able to set up the partitions I wanted, which leads to my 1st ?:
partition advice
Any advice on my choices? I wasn’t sure about ntfs as I’ve only used Win98 in the past… I’d like to be able to access data from all OS’es…
Right now I have AOL (feel free to flame me which has e-mail &
downloaded e-mail), my documents, pix, etc. on my win98 D: drive…
Will that be tricky setting up the shortcuts with win98 & win2k to access
the same data even tho they have different dir. trees?
2 GB fat32 win98
2 GB fat32 win98 programs
2 GB ntfs win2k
2 GB ntfs win2k programs
Would it be possible to just re-install the programs from win2k in the
win98 programs partition, or do I have to make another one?
6 GB fat32 data
2 GB linux
384 MB linux swap
rest empty (try w/BeOS?)
10 GB max. HD???
I tried to install both mandrake & win98. mandrake just stops.
win98 gives a disk i/o err & says to replace the disk.
The laptop is a compaq presario 1200XL111, AMD 500MHz,
192 MB RAM (8 for video), 5.7 GB HD (that’s now languishing in an
external usb2/firewire box).
I took it in to Compaq service a couple of weeks ago bec. the pcmcia
slot stopped working after the battery ran out one day (coincidence?).
They confirmed that the pcmcia h/w was bad & that the only solution is
to replace the MB (1-2 wk.s to get from singapore – nt$6000 + nt$1500
for install.; btw, they charged me nt$750 to take it apart & check
it out, which seems quite reasonable).
So I found a usb lan adapter & decided that i can live w/out pcmcia
(altho i miss really miss the firewire card :-(.
Anyway, I thought that if I could see the 20GB in setup & fdisk then I
should be able to use the 20 GB drive… i wasn’t able to find much
about upgrading online, & compaq support just seemed to be going by the
book. i did upgrade the bios once before, but am not sure what fixes
that had…
Get PowerQuest Partition Magic and Boot Magic. Install that and you’re set to go. Use it’s wizard to creat, erase, resize partitions, install OSes and all. Easy and tidy. Otherwise figure cylinder 1024
Partition suggestions:
1st partition Primary, Win98, 4GBs.
2nd partition Primary or logical, W2k , 4GBs.
3rd partition Primary Extended, the rest
Then creat 2 logical partitions in the 3rd partition (Extended). 1 will be drive D: and the other for Linux.
Drive d: is where you store user created data so make it huge. Your Word files, power point, MP3s, movies, porn, etc. all go here. That way anything you download, write, creat etc. stays in one place and can be accessed from all OSes. Just remember to move your ‘My Documents’ folder to drive d: and all files you make are saved there. In outlook you have to move your inbox folder to that drive too.
Install linux in the last partition. During install it should format and partition the /boot/ and figure /swap/ itself, so no need to mess with it. If your using Boot magic, then install ‘Grub’ in linux partition and NOT in the MBR. After install, Mandrake 9 figures FAT drives on its own and mounts them, no need to edit the fstab.
Do u know where one can pick up an English version of Partition Magic around here?
I actually tried booting off a friends Chinese versions & just got a line of weird char.s at the top of the screen… he’s coming by tonight so we can try it again, but it’d still be nice to have an English version.
Oh yeah, what about the fs’es? Which should be fat32/ntfs?
So will I have to install all the Win s/w in both Win98 & Win2k? I was hoping to be able to put the programs on a partition & then install in both Win98 & Win2k to update the dll’s in the system dir… so just have the Win programs in one place to save space.
& are you thinking that partition magic will take care of everything so that I can use all 20 GB’s?
You’ll have to install the programs PartitionMagic & BootMagic. Don’t boot from someone elses boot disks, it’ll mess up your rig. Use FAT32 for all Win partition. Install s/w on each OS in their own partitions, don’t share the same program file. You can share the user created data, as I said before, but not the program files. Also, Win98 cannot see W2k drive C: and vice versa. And Win cannot see Linux partition, but Linux can see Win partitions.
“You’ll have to install the programs PartitionMagic & BootMagic.”
I don’t have any OS at the moment… do u mean just boot off the PM CD?
I setup my old disk (5.7 GB) w/ Windows (98) on the C: drive, data on the D: drive, and programs on the E: drive… I thought this would make it faster to degfrag as the program files partition doesn’t change as often as C: (i.e. cache files, temp files, virtual memory, etc.) or D: so I don’t need to defrag it (E:) very much… maybe that’s not worth the trouble? I guess the main thing is to keep the partitions under 8 GB to save on wasted space due to cluster size, no?
Sorry, I should have been clearer. You can use PartitionMagic or FDISK, if you’re comfortable with it. PartitionMagic lets you resize, move and merge partitions without damaging your present data, i.e, you can do all that after installing your OS.
Use FDISK, make the 1st partition, e.g. 4GB, and install win98 on it. Then install PartitionMagic and then, BootMagic.
In PartitionMagic, choose ‘Make a new partition’, under ‘Wizards’ and just follow the prompts.
Having Windows and the Program Files in separate partitions, is not worth the effort. Many moons ago I had the Swap file in a seperate partition, but its unneccessary with the newer drives.
arggghhhHHHHH!
Okay, I booted off the Win98 CD, went to a command prompt, got rid of all the other partitions that I’d set up so I just had 2 GB Fat32 partition for Win98…
Reboot off Win98 CD. Install… took about 30 min.s copying files. Completed okay. Restart. Boot from HD only to get:
"Disk I/O error. Replace the disk and then press any key. "
So I feel that I’m at a deadend… maybe I’ll try returning the disk & getting a 10 GB… but they didn’t have anything smaller than 20 GB!
Thanks everyone for your help.
Any other suggestions?
Ok, check the mundane stuff, like, have you set that partition to ‘Active’? Fire up FDISK, select option 4. Under ‘Status’ column there should be an ‘A’, in the C: line. If no, then go back, select option 2, and set it to active.
YES! I’m writing from my laptop altho currently at 640x480 so I can barely read what I’m typing! :?
I booted off Win98 CD, fdisked to remove all partitions, added 4 GB fat 32, & installed Win98… had a few prob.s but now at least I’m online
Thanks again everybody for all your help (esp. Jeepers)!
I don’t know why it didn’t work as setup through Mandrake… maybe I’ll run into trouble again when I go over 10 GB… I’ll keep you posted.
I found the video drivers & am back to 1024x768 w/only Win98 on a 4 GB C: partition… boy, is it nice to have more than 16 colors & not to have to scroll vertically & horizontally to see a web page!
Win2k install
Jeepers suggested putting it on a 2nd primary partition… I don’t see how to add a 2nd primary partion in fdisk. When I try I get:
Primary DOS Partition already exists.
Am I missing sthg?
Partition Magic 8.0
I found it for $39.95 ( powerquest.com/webstore/ )… thinking about ordering it to a US address (not sure if they deliver here; I hate going through the whole buying process that most web stores use only to find out that they don’t ship internationally at the end!)…
Does anyone have a copy they’d be willing to share w/me until I get my S/N?
If you want to use Boot Magic - install it and make a recovery disk in your current default O/S - when you install the second or later O/S you boot record may be corrupted, but the Boot Magic recovery disk will fix it.
Thanks a lot for the tip Rian. I (thought that I had) made a post on Monday & just realized that it isn’t here… :? sorry for the slow response.
Luckily I generally edit my posts in notepad & save them before posting as I’ve lost several posts lately… I’d entered my id & password 3 times & it even seemed to appear when I previewed the post after submitting it… strange.
Moving right along (am I going off on a tangent? Talking about tangents… heh heh)… I’ll add the pertinent details tonight (& hopefully they won’t vaporize again )
The 20 GB drive seems to be working well & I am able to access my old 5.7 GB drive in an external USB case
Thanks a lot 4 the tip rian. I tried d/l’ing a trial ver. of PM 8.0, but that was alas a fruitless effort… I’ll be sure to do that before I repartition in the future (I’m thinking of doing away with Win98).
In the end, I booted off a Mandrake CD, added a 2nd primary part. for Win2k, then put an extended partition for data, the rest for Linux. I was going to add my partition table here in case anyone might be interested, but fdisk doesn’t seem to be available from the command line in Win2k…
At any rate, I was able to install Win2k (Chinese version, as that’s all I had) & find the appropriate drivers for my 3 year old laptop. The installation automatically set up a boot menu which gives me a choice to go into Win98 or Win2k… The Mandrake Linux install went very smoothly & added its own boot menu (which boots to Linux by default after 20 sec.s or so), but gives me a choice for Windows (which takes me to the Windows boot menu)… maybe I should have put it on a primary partition instead of extended, but everything seems to be fine…
fyi, after d/l’ing all the Windows updates along with traditional & simplified Chinese support & input methods, my C: drive (Win98) has about 530 MB, whereas E: (Win2k) has 1.6 GB!
English setting 4 Ch. Win2k? (Chinese Win2k)
Before I get rid of Win98 & take it’s space for Win2k/data/etc., does anyone know where to set English as the default language (for menus, etc.)?
Dr. Eye
Does anyone have any clues why Dr. Eye isn’t working in submenus? Maybe that’s just a setting, but I can’t figure out many of the options in Dr. Eye due to the translation not working in submenus/drop-down menus…
Dr Eye - You can turn on Dr Eye to read the menus and sub menues - It works for me (Dr Eye 2001) but you need deep thinking or Chinese IT savvy help to understand what they mean
which has e-mail &
