Re: [TCLUG:7688] partition magic II

[Randy Hayman <rhayman@visi.com>]

At 01:07 PM 8/19/99 -0500, Ted Pedersen <tpederse@d.umn.edu> wrote:

>My particular situation is that I'll be getting a machine with Windows 98
>already installed. I do need to have Windows available, but I  plan to
>install Red Hat so I can have a dual boot machine.
>
>I'm also considering doing some experimenting with Minix in the future so
>I might want to also install that. Which leads to another question -- is
>there any reason why I couldn't have a "tri-boot" machine -- I've heard
>quite a bit about dual boot but not much  about more than that...)
>
>Thanks for the previous replies to my original question. It seems like
>a consensus is emerging that Partition Magic may not be necessary but that
>it certainly won't hurt and that it might even be nice... (fair summary?)

I have two laptops dual bootable and one dekstop quint+ bootable.
I used to use System Commander Deluxe, but when Windoze 98, or
NT 4.0, SP4 and SP5 booted, Windoze decided to scandisk on each
boot because boot.ini became 1KB in size as opposed to remaining
0KB.  Removing System Commander cured that problem.

I now use Partition Magic and have all of my boot partitions in the
lower regions of the first non-SCSI disk.  I currently can boot my
desktop system into RedHat Linux 6.0, Solaris 2.6, Win 95,
Win NT, or into DOS 6.22; and I can boot my laptops into Win 95/
Red Hat 5.2, or Win NT/Red Hat 6.0.

I have configured LILO to boot into the DOS or Windoze partition
on the machine and into any of the Linux configurations I have built.

I have configured Win NT to boot into multiple instances of itself
(see below).

I have also configured my Windoze partitions into the following types
of partitions because I know I'm gonna have to recover them until
I can erase them for good:

o   Operating System (recoverable by backup tape, or re-install)
o   user dynamic data (recoverable by backup tape, or CD)
o   one or more installed-software partitions (recoverable by re-install,
         or backup tape)
o   temporary partition for downloads, etc... (recoverable by
         backup tape or re-download)
o   minimal O/S instance to be booted into when primary Windoze
         O/S hoses itself. (on alternate disk, recoverable via backup tape)

As an ex-SysAdmin of 64-bit UNIX systems, I find it unconscionable
that I can't do the equivalent of a single-user boot with Windoze, when
it FUBARs itself.

Enough of the preaching to the choir, Partition Magic works great
for my needs.

Randy Hayman
mailto:rhayman@visi.com