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Re: Partitions...

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Tazz wrote:
> <SNIP>
>>> What you could do is divide up your hdd into partitions, as far as
>>> Windows is concerned it will see and name them C, D, and E. Install
>>> your primary OS on C. When it's up and running go in the Disk
>>> Management section and remove the drive letter for the partition that
>>> you made for the future OS. So if the other OS partition was D then
>>> remove the drive letter. Then select the E drive and change the letter
>>> of that drive to D (or whatever letters you want to use).
>> This is risky. The BIOS creates a map of physical partitions.
>> The OS maps that to drive letters. I've had several occasions where
>> the map got messed up and the OS starts booting from C:,but soon 
>> discovers
>> that it can't find c:.
>> I suspect/accuse that this is all the effects of copy protection.
> 
> I haven't had any trouble that way, YET. Hmmm, I'd better make a backup.
> 
>> Another wrinkle is that win7 creates a hidden partition at the beginning
>> of the drive. I had all manner of backup/restore problems until I
>> used GPARTED to partition/format without that hidden partition.
> 
> Let me see if I understand this. I know Win7 makes a 100 MB or so hidden 
> partition on install. Are you saying that if I backup the Win7 C drive 
> and restore it to a newly formatted hdd WITHOUT the hidden partition 
> that it'll still work?

My experience has been that it will NOT work using Acronis 10.  Other backup
programs may know how to figure it out.
I also had problems backing up a PATA drive and trying to restore to a 
SATA drive.  The clone function of acronis 13 did work as long as the 
partition tables
were consistent.
There are a lot of variables in play, so not at all clear what is required.
> 
>>> That way you'll have your primary OS space and another partition for
>>> your data files. You won't see the other partition, Windows will sort
>>> of know it's there but it won't do anything with it.
>>>
>>> (I haven't fully tested this next part, I'm assuming this is how it'll
>>> work. aka my best educated guess) If / when you do decide to install
>>> another OS just run the installer and it'll see all the partitions and
>>> you can choose what one to install it on. I would think the installer
>>> would then put the dual boot stuff in place.
>>
>> I've had various degrees of luck installing win/linux dual boot.
>> Problems happened when I decided I didn't want dualboot any more.
> 
> Won't fdisk /mbr fix the unwanted dualboot?
Not sure that works any more.
For XP/win7 don't you have to boot the cd and go into recovery mode?
Then you run fixboot and/or fixmbr.  I think Win7 may be able to
restore the system.  As I recall, XP just fixes itself and leaves
WIN7 and linux disconnected.  Been a long time since I messed with it.

> 
> 
>> M$ and hardware vendors don't want you to dualboot. It causes support
>> problems. And M$ doesn't want to help you migrate to linux.
>>>
>>> As others have said, it's best to have OSs on separate physical drives.
>>>
> 
> Here's my current setup.
> hdd1 - 80 GB only Win7 installed. no partitions except for what Windows 
> made.
> hdd2 - 320 GB partitioned into 20 MB for XP and the rest for data.
> There's a third encrypted hdd but it don't come into play here.
> 
>  From Windows Explorer in Win7 there was originally C (hdd1), D 
> (Actually WinXP C: hdd2), and E (hdd2). From Win7 I removed  the D 
> letter and renamed the E to D so I wouldn't be able to mess with the XP 
> install.

I've never tried changing drive letters.  I have tried plugging in
additional hard drives.  This worked in win98, but since XP I've had
all manner of grief with partition sequences moving around and causing
the OS to look in the wrong place...and crash.
I've also tried turning physical drives on/off in the BIOS. Also had grief.

I'm also dealing with older hardware.  BIOSs may have become smarter by now.
> 
> In XP there was C (hdd2), D (hdd2), and E (hdd1). I removed the E drive 
> letter so I couldn't mess up my Win7 install.
> 
> The D drive is common to both installs. If I put a file in a folder on D 
> from Win7 the boot to XP I can use the file, and vice-versa.
> 
> One time when Win7 was new I installed incompatible software (didn't 
> know it at the time), long story short I got stuck in a reboot loop when 
> the software tried to run at startup. I booted into XP and assigned the 
> drive a letter so I could access it. Then I renamed the offending 
> program that was auto starting, removed the drive letter, rebooted to 
> Win7. Surprise, it couldn't find the program. I then uninstalled it.
> 
> 
> 
> 

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Thread

Partitions... JakeD <fgdfgdfg@ghghfgh.com> - 2011-11-07 16:33 +0000
  Re: Partitions... mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-07 13:00 -0800
    Re: Partitions... JakeD <fgdfgdfg@ghghfgh.com> - 2011-11-08 09:52 +0000
      Re: Partitions... mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 04:04 -0800
        Re: Partitions... JakeD <fgdfgdfg@ghghfgh.com> - 2011-11-08 13:39 +0000
          Re: Partitions... BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2011-11-08 08:15 -0600
            Re: Partitions... "RnR" <rnrtexas@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 09:38 -0600
              Re: Partitions... BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2011-11-08 10:02 -0600
          Re: Partitions... mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 12:50 -0800
            Re: Partitions... wrat@panix.com (the wharf rat) - 2011-11-09 20:31 +0000
              Re: Partitions... mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-09 12:49 -0800
                Re: Partitions... wrat@panix.com (the wharf rat) - 2011-11-12 09:38 +0000
        Re: Partitions... BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2011-11-08 08:44 -0600
        Re: Partitions... wrat@panix.com (the wharf rat) - 2011-11-09 20:27 +0000
      Re: Partitions... Tazz <dmswaine@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 15:26 -0400
        Re: Partitions... mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 12:21 -0800
          Re: Partitions... Tazz <dmswaine@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 19:33 -0400
            Re: Partitions... mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-08 17:32 -0800
      Re: Partitions... wrat@panix.com (the wharf rat) - 2011-11-09 20:24 +0000

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