|
| | >
| > | > >
| > > | > > > I have a win98\xp setup, both on different drives. XP has
two
| > partitions -
| > > > ntfs\fat32. It's the fat32 I'm having trouble with, it
won't stay
| > > formatted.
| > > > If I use xp, 98 wants to format it. If I use 98 then they
both want to
| > > > format it after re-boot. I want to setup a third OS. I
can't use the
| 98
| > > > drive because it's too small for another partition and I
rather not
| swap
| > > the
| > > > OS's. Is there a way to make this work?
| > > >
| > > > Thanks
| > > > Sam
| > > >
| > > >
| > >
| > > I have a suspicion what the problem is, but it's way too
complicated to
| > > detail here. What I would suggest, however, is that you keep
ALL OSes
| on
| > > the first HD (as primary partitions), and any shared DATA
(which I
| assume
| > > the FAT32 partition is) on the second HD as one or more
volumes in an
| > > extended partition.
| > >
| > > HD0/Part0: Win98
| > > HD0/Part1: XP
| > > HD1/Part0: Extended
| > > HD1/Part0/Vol1: DATA
| > >
| > > I'd be willing to bet if you did this, your problems would
disappear.
| > > Again, a bit to complicated to detail here, but the issue has
to do w/
| the
| > > way the system makes drive letter assignments, esp. w/ the
older Win98
| OS.
| > > What I've described above is the BEST way to avoid several
problems that
| > can
| > > arise when configuring multiple HDs for multiple OSes and
shared DATA.
| > >
| > > Jim
| > >
| >
| > I thought about doing that but I didn't want to do all of that
work if I
| > didn't have to. You mentioned drive letter assignments... do
you mean the
| > reason it is an issue because the OS's might see the partition
with
| > different drive letters? Like win98 sees it as Drive D and XP
as Drive E?
| If
| > that's the case, are you saying if I manually change the drive
letters to
| > match so both OS's see it as the same letter my problem will go
away?
| >
|
| Essentially, yes. There's a somewhat complicated algorithm for
how drive
| letter assignments are made. And it's different between
DOS-based OSes
| (e.g., Win98, WinME, vs. XP). Something like Win98 uses
*physical* location
| of the partition to assign drive letters AND cannot be changed
unless you
| move the partition(s). In contrast, XP does not. It will
usually use the
| physical location for the initial drive letter assignment (just
like DOS
| based OSes), but at least w/ XP, you can change it using Disk
Management.
|
| Can you can change the drive letter assignment in XP to match the
FIXED
| drive letter assignment in Win98, and fix the problem? Maybe,
not sure.
| Because I've seen so many problems when ppl DON'T use the
arrangment I
| described above, I simply avoid it.
|
| That's not the ONLY issue either. For example, MS OSes hate
being booted
| from anything but the first HD. In fact, if I install certain MS
OSes on
| the second HD, it will sometimes refuse to boot. I then have to
use my boot
| manager (BootIt NG) to alter the second HD's ID (a hidden field)
from 1 to 0
| (0 indicating the first HD) so that Windows remains happy. IOW,
trick
| Windows into believing the second HD is actually the first HD.
|
| All things considered, I'm just recommending you stay away from
anything but
| the arrangment I described above, if possible. Just more trouble
than it's
| worth. If you can work around it and find it works for you,
great. But
| just beware that what I described above is the BEST arrangement
and will
| usually avoid several known issues when arranged otherwise.
Obviously it's
| your call, I'm just giving my advice from having worked w/ MS
Windows and
| multi-booting for some 15+ years.
|
| Jim
Ok... this is strange. I formated the partition in XP as FAT not
FAT32 and now both can see the drive. Perhaps there's something
wrong with Format in XP for 32, not sure. Man, I just built that OS
last week. This works for me becasue I was going to add DOS\Win3.11
to that partition anyway and use Acronis Disk Director to boot to
it. Miss playing those old games.
15+ years? You got a couple of years on me. I've been in the field
since 95 and a consultant since 98. It's amazing how much the OS's
have changed over the years.
Any way... thanks for your input Jim much appreciated. I'm going to
keep tinkering and see what happens.
