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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (5925)	2/5/1999 8:06:00 PM
From: Spots	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Clarence, you have arrived <g>. You are now asking yourself the same questions we all are, with your own personal twist, of course, which is as it should be because we all have our own needs, preferences, comfort zones, etc. I'm sure you know there are no pat answers (unless your name happens to be Pat<g>). Here's my quick answer to the (I think) main question you posed: I would implement a dual boot backup JUST because it is there when you need it with ABSOLUTELY no other intervention required. Suppose you can't find your &^%$&^% PM or DOS/Win98 boot floppy when you've been struck. Ha! the bios let's you boot your backup with no intervention. Sort of a freedom call: Depend On Nobody. That's more or less why I keep screwing around with primary partitions despite the convenience of extended ones. I would still put NT over Win98 on your IDE2 first primary partition after converting it to FAT16. Then I would probably clone the whole shebang into a backup image that could be restored. I'm looking at my own ways of cloning right now, but you and ZP are ahead of me on that, so you advise me. End of my suggestions. This is MY approach. You have to implement YOUR approach. You are now a member of the club with all the responsibilities for your own fate thereunto appertaining. So, decide it and do it! Welcome aboard. The management is irresponsible <g>. Spots PS. Picked up both my PCs from Jon this afternoon. My weekend looms. NOW we'll see if I have a clue what I'm talking about ...

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (5925)	2/5/1999 8:33:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

From ZPs method....I would keep DI clones of w98 on the primary NT drive in a fat partition. If the intent is to be able to restore the KOT Win98 installation from a boot from IDE1 and from files resident on IDE1 .. then keeping DI Images in a FAT partition at the end of IDE1 is not sufficient (based on my current understanding which is currently in a state of flux<g>..)If you are into floppy boots it can be done. Drive Image is not an NT executable. You will have to boot Drive Image from a floppy or other in order to restore a Drive Image from the FAT partition at the end of IDE1 to IDE2. The only way I know to accomplish the task solely from an NT (IDE1) drive boot is to use Partition Magic. PM 4.0 is an NT executable. If you clone the Win98 partition you can clone it back from an NT boot as needed. A Partition Magic clone is different than a Drive Image clone. Drive Image creates a file that is used to restore an OS. With Partition Magic you can clone a partition and end up with another identical working partition. This identical working partition is bootable... A Drive Image 'clone' is not bootable until it is restored. My proposal (well, one of my proposals<g>) was to use Partition Magic to clone Win98 to the tail end of IDE1 and then hide the partition. I no longer believe it is necessary to hide the partition ( unless for some reason it will dual boot...Spots indicated NT will dual boot if there are two OSes on the same drive...need clarification here) If it does cause a dual boot in NT I would recommend hiding it. If it does not cause a dual boot I have mixed feelings. The issue of changing drive letters has disappeared for me. In my own systems I plan on using one C drive for OS and apps. The boot partition will be the C drive and apps will not span to other drives. Primaries will be thought of as stand alone entities..ie can be deleted, changed, backed up, restored without having an affect on another drive..physical or primary partition. Zeuspaul

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (5925)	2/5/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14778

Your are almost in the cat's seat IDE1 is set up and running, you know how to use Drive Image and Partition Magic. You can restore NT from the KOT. One more step and you have a bullet proof (well ok, resistant) system. If you backup the KOT you will be in a position to play ie experiment with different options. Here is what I would do. It should not affect your existing system and can be altered or deleted with out much trouble. 1) Install Partition Magic on IDE1..NT 2) Use the copy Partition function to copy Win98 to the tail end of IDE1. Then Hide it. (size it smaller if you want..or wait to size it smaller until the other operations prove successful) You can always unhide it later. 3) Now you are in a position to play..you can restore either system from the other. 4) Clone IDE1 NT to the KOT using PM. You will need room..an equal amount of space....so you will have to resize the extended partition combo. That thing may be headed for the hills anyhow. You may want to move the extended to the end of the drive and put NT right after Win98. 5) Resize the NT clone (smaller) 6)Keep Win98 active and NT not. PM will only let you set one partition active.(caveat..I believe PM presents different options if you execute from NT..it may assume you are always working in NT and present NT friendly options) You may want to hide IDE2 NT for the first boot just to prove everything is still the same. Too many changes in one boot makes it harder to trouble shoot. You should then be able to play the switch game. There should be four combinations and my bet is they will all work, Win98 active and NT hidden. NT active and win98 hidden. Win98 active and NT not hidden and not active. NT active and Win98 not active and not hidden. I think Spots' comment about a dual boot NT/Win98 KOT as inevitable relates to an NT install. A clone (my best guess) will be different. Spots is busy right now so we should be able to figure it out on our own...the power of a dual drive system<g> If anything goes wrong you can boot to IDE1 NT and clone back the hidden partition at the end of the KOT. As a backup to the backup which I know is not a popular idea you could have a Drive Image of the KOT in the extended partition. You probably should have one anyhow for removal from the system..you are right , we should talk about the removable component. If the KOT setup proves unsatisfactory or other delete the NT partition and install NT with Win98. Better hurry up and get a CDR or a removable harddrive..or..<g> Zeuspaul BTW, the above is not a recommendation..it is a proposed methodology to implement what I understand to be your current intentions. You are ahead of me on this one..I am trying to catch up.