[BlueMak]

My current system is XP home, with the hardware you can see on the right, plus 2 drives C: and E: both 300GB Maxtor (different models), 1 internal DVDRW NEC, soundblaster x fi gamer. Both drives are NTFS formatted and full of data.

Considering doing the following. After copying most files to DVDs, make enough room to install 4 OSes.
A)Windows 98, just to have 2-3 games on it that do not run otherwise.
B)Windows XP, possibly main partition since Vista will take a couple of years to catch up I think.
C) Windows Vista, but not yet since it is not out and I don't know when I will get it.
D)Some small Linux distro, perhaps even smaller partition than the w98 one.

Here are my questions.

1) My guess is I will have to partition only the C: drive to fit them all. Then install games, programs etc for the XP and Vista to another partition on the C drive or make other partitions on the E: drive. Correct or do you have something more logical?

2) Will it matter if I leave the partition to future install Vista empty for how easy it will be to install Vista, or will I find myself in trouble for doing so, in some weird way?

3) Is it possible to have games/programs etc for XP and Vista on the same partition without problems/conflicts or would it be better to arrange them in a different way?

4) How do I proceed to do any of the above?

5) My guess is that XP and Vista will not have any problem accessing files of the rest of the partitions (for examples videos, mp3s etc), but w98 will, right?

6) Any suggestions for an indexing DVDs program that is free?

7) If the games that I want to run under 98 have no requirement for 98SE, is there any other reason to install SE "expansion" to 98 since all I am going to do with that is play those games?

8) Where on earth can I download/update w98 to SE since I think there is no more support for it?

9) Anything that you think it might help me please let me know. If I do remember something else I will post more questions here.

[BlueMak]

10) Freeware software firewall programs for XP other than Kerio and ZA that are good?

[PangingJr]

not sure if i would be able to walk you though all the process areas of this system setups, however, i am going to just try it with everything in short and see if you pick something up on it.

i think it's okay to you, if i won't call the 2 hard drives by their drive letters,
but will call them: boot drive and secondary drive, which in my terms are short for Boot hard drive (or the first BIOS hard drive) and Secondary hard drive for storage.

if you want to use only these 2 drives then i suggest, for now, you leave the secondary drive (include all the files on it) alone, and also perform the following...
- create a backup of your files that are on the existing boot drive by saving them to whatever (CDs/DVDs, external drives...)
- repartition the boot drive, and to create some new partitions to make room for installing all the operating system's that you want to install.
- but before anything else, you should know first, what is your plan on booting the installed Windows OS's and Linux OS system...

now, if you plan to use Grub as your main boot loader for this multi-OS booting system setups...
below is (an example of) the grub.conf that should be able to work with your system when you install each of the 3 Windows OS's onto its own and on to 3 separate primary partitions and these 3 partitions will exist on the hard drive as first, second and third (primary) partition, and the Linux is installed on the first logical drive (partition) of the hard drive.
then another logical drive can be created next to it and use it as a Linux swap, and then you can create another logical drive that will be using the rest of the free space and use it as FAT32 or NTFS as you wish.

# grub.conf
#
default=1
#timeout=10
#splashimage=(hd0,4)/boot/grub/...........
#hiddenmenu
title GNU/Linux
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-...........
initrd /boot/initrd-...........
title Windows No.1 (hd0,0)
unhide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
hide (hd0,2)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
#boot
title Windows No.2 (hd0,1)
unhide (hd0,1)
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,2)
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
makeactive
#boot
title Windows No.3 (hd0,2)
unhide (hd0,2)
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1
makeactive
#boot

=====================

[BlueMak]

I was semi following you till you reached the part about Grub and the list later.

[PangingJr]

have you ever installed any Linux, or used it from your hard drive, or used Grub to load any Linux's??
have you ever been Windows/Windows or Linux/Windows dual boot experienced?
do you know how to partition a hard drive?

[BlueMak]

Yes only to the last question.

[PangingJr]

okay, hmm, if i can think of anything more than that i may come back to this.

[PangingJr]

hmm how's it going with those questions?
any other questions? may be i can help you on the other questions.

[OldBuzzard]

You might want to take a look at HyperOs 2004FE at this site: http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/ You will have to click on the products button at the top of the page and then scroll down a bit to find it.

For your purposes the s11 version (which would allow for up to 11 Windows installations of various flavors) would seem to be the ticket, and is only £19.00. The 22 installation version is £29.00 but that may be overkill for what you want to do.

There is a very good user support group for all flavors of HyperOS here: http://www.hyperosforum.co.uk/hosf/i...9f961798cd050d

I've used HOS for years, (started with HOS2002), and am a firm believer in it.

As a disclaimer, I'll also say that I'm a beta tester for them, so I 'could' be a bit biased.

[PangingJr]

OldBuzzard, since the Vista and Linux will be involving in the multi-OS setup, i still don't know much about the new Vista bootstrap components, including its MBR, however, it had and does always occur to me that Vista's designed to work differently from all older Windows operating systems,
and this and my past experience with the software makes me wonder that, are there all or what version of the software exactly that are fully support both Windows Vista and Linux?
anyway, another question for you, have you tried using the software with Vista yet, and what version?

[BlueMak]

Well, I am trying (slowly) to get organized for this. Trying to figure out what software and drivers I have to be ready to install, several as you can imagine, how to make enough space, the size of the partitions, and the key for the windows98 that I can't find right now.

[OldBuzzard]

PangingJR

I'm assuming that when you say 'the software' that you are referring to HOS?

HOS2004 will not support XP Pro x64 or Vista. For what the OP is wanting to do right now, however, HOS2004 would meet his needs.

If, in the future he decides to add a Vista and/or XP x64 partition or 2, then the only way to do it would be to install HOS2006 (or the recently released 2007) on top of HOS 2004, and use 2004 for switching to the prior versions, and 2006/7 for Vista and XP x64. Even then, 2006/7 does not officially support Vista, but it can be made to work as detailed in the post on the users forum: http://www.hyperosforum.co.uk/hosf/viewtopic.php?t=1698

[BlueMak]

So, should I first create partitions with the xp disc, format one of them in fat32, then boot with the w98 disc, install w98 in the fat32 partition, then install XP on the second partition? How will i be able to choose what to boot at start?
AFter this I will just install linux on a 3rd partition?

[RoyBatty]

Originally Posted by BlueMak

10) Freeware software firewall programs for XP other than Kerio and ZA that are good?

Jetico Personal Firewall (needs very little resources)
http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/jpfirewall.htm

Comodo Firewall (if you like nice graphics)
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

They are both good but I'm using JPF because it takes only 3MB HDD space and 6MB of RAM.

[BlueMak]

Thank you.

If I have on two different partitions xp and vista, would it be a problem to install games and perhaps other software too for both OSes on a single 3rd partition?

[RoyBatty]

No, that won't be a problem.