Jix

A brief reply to a complex situation.

How to multi-boot....

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm

I suggest three primary partitions and an Extended partition containing a single logical volume. The logical volume will be seen by each OS and will contain data and backup images.

For a boot manager, I use BING.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1237655769

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/index.htm

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 12:57pm:

Yes.

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 12:57pm:

No.

Create the three primary partitions in BING. Only you can decide what size is appropriate. The extended partition size will be what space is remaining. You can always change partition sizes at a later date but it's easier if you get it "right" before you install the three OS.

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 5:20pm:

If you have the apps installed in another partition and reinstall the OS, none of the apps will work. They will need to be reinstalled. Or do I misunderstand your question?

By having OS and apps in the same partition you can image the partition and store the image in your logical volume. (But the image should ideally be stored on another HD in case your 1 TB HD fails). You can delete the partition and install another OS. When you decide you would like the initial OS again, just restore the image.

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 5:20pm:

Have your been using the Microsoft boot manager?

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 5:41pm:

In another thread, I can't find it at present, Nigel Bree from Symantec mentioned it doesn't matter where you have the OS partitions on a modern HD. You won't notice a performance difference.

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 5:41pm:

Great.

Jix wrote on Apr 21^st, 2009 at 5:41pm:

See "What's Wrong with the Microsoft Way?"

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/principles.htm


Edit.... Found the thread.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1233428861

Thanks a lot guys for your feedback. I guess keeping the apps on the OS' partition is the best thing to do.

So 3 partition for 3 OSes and a 4th one for media/personal files storage.

What about imaging? Any links that would be helpful. I can do a google search, but I am sure you are elite in this, and know which guides are better.

Thanks a lot,

With BING, I'm currently multi-booting several DOS variants, two WinXPs, Vista, two Windows 7s, Ubuntu, BartPE, IFL.

I use Microsoft Virtual PC as well.

Jix

Quote:

I'm not at my home computer where I have my reference material--so I'll have to wait until later for more on that--but currently available--probably Brian's recommendation is one of the best--others also like www.storagecraft.com/products/ShadowProtectDesktop .

Also see:  http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_alternatives.ht

You can use Rad's Ghost Guide as a primer on imaging for any other imaging product:  http://ghost.radified.com/

My personal layout:

drive #1:  

A.  Primary, active, WinXP (NTFS, OS plus apps)

B.  Primary, hidden, spare for testing, currently formated as FAT32 as placeholder--no data to keep backups smaller until needed

C.  Primary, hidden, Win98se (FAT32, OS plus apps)

D.  Primary, Extended

(I have 4 FAT32 logical partitions in the extended partition to divide up data plus a small FAT16 logical partition of an old DOS based database business program.)

When I want to boot to a different operating system, I hide the current active partition, and then unhide and make active the alternate partition.  This keeps each OS separated from each other, and if one crashes the others are unaffected.  The *Microsoft Way* of multibooting makes all the OS's vulnerable to a crash or boot problem.  But, this might be considered a *disadvantage* by some because you do not have access to those other partitions directly when booted to another OS.

drive #2:  

whole drive is an extended partition:

A:  Swap (approx. 4 GB, FAT32)

B:  Temp (approx 4 GB, FAT32)

C:  Ghost backups (approx 110 GB, FAT32)

If drive #1 goes down, I restore one of the Ghost images stored on drive #2 to a replacement drive #1.  If drive #2 goes down, I just replace it and re-establish the needed structure, and create a new Ghost image as backup protection.

On drive #1, I do not save any program data to the OS partition--I re-direct all data to one of the data partitions.  So email, favorites, document programs, digital pictures, etc., etc.... are on non-OS partitions.  So, if I install a program on the OS and something bad happens--I simply restore my recent Ghost image backup--it over-writes everything on the *bad* OS partition with my known *good* image--but all my data is not lost because it's in one of the data partitions--not on the OS partition!