Newbie needs Mandrake/Win98 dual-HD, dual boot system design help...
 

I'm trying to figure out how I should set up a Win98SE + Mandrake, dual hard drive system. I just built a frankenstein compaq for home use:
2 HD's (2GB and 10GB)
P2 400MHz
192MB RAM

I originally had Win98 on the 2gig and have that currently running as the primary drive. The 10gig drive has been formatted and not partitioned. I basically want a dual-boot type system that I'll use mainly for playing and storing mp3's, basic MSoffice activities, and surfing the internet/IMchat. I want Mandrake so I can learn to use linux. I'm an intermediate windows user (work PC is a thinkpad w/WinXP) and fairly computer literate (can install windows from scratch and basic troubleshoot). I can handle fdisk and formatting.

I'm trying to figure out which OS should go where, partition arrangement, and how to set-up the booting process for easiest use/upgrade/cross-compatibility (use my windows-related programs like MS Office, play mp3s, learn to use linux, surf, etc...possibly from both OS's). I do have access to partition magic v5.0 if that helps.

Any suggestions? All the documentation I've found so far only describes 2 OS's on one HD, nothing about 2 OS's on 2 HD's.

Please help...

Cory

The process doesn't really change whether you have 2 particians or 2 HD's.

What I would do is put Mandrake on the 2 gig and Windows on the 10 gig (since you want it for MP3's etc, use the most space).

Here is what I do. Install Windows First. Install it on the 10 gig drive. Next, install Mandrake. I am assuming you have a fairly new version of Mandrake. Install mandrake on the 2 gig. When the boot manager part of the install comes up, it should pick up your Windows Drive and put it in the Boot Loader for you. So after you have installed Mandrake and reboot, you should get a screen asking what OS to boot into. Choose whichever one you want.

It should be that simple.

Alright then....good info. That was the general direction I was heading. Let's expand.

I have already installed Win98 on a 1GB partition on the 10-gig. I installed Partition Magic so I could set up all of the other partitions. I'm trying to make the filesystem design (partitions and such) as dummy-proof as possible (in case of some disasterous crash incident, I want to affect as little of the rest of my drives as possible. Meaning I don't want to lose my MP3 collection), so I'm curious how I should do the rest of the partitions.
Obviously EXT2 for the 2Gig linux HD. I also assume that the mandrake installer program will take care of the 2gig drive partitioning. So how should I partition the rest of the Win98 10-gig drive for dual OS access to my MP3s, movies, and shared files and such, while still being relatively safe from infamous Win98 bluescreen of death?

(BTW, I appreciate the help. MandrakeExpert website is not working.)


Which bootloader will mandrake install, LILO, Loadlin, or Grub?
I

If you do the expert Setup Madrake will give you the option of LILO, GRUB, etc. Depending on your Version of Mangrake, I am not sure what the typical install will use.

Just partician the rest of your 10 gig as a fat32. Again, depending on your Mandrake version, you should be able to access your Windows Partician in case you want to listen to MP3's in linux. You could of course use SAMBA regardless the version of Mandrake to access your windows particians. Just make sure that the folders in Win98 are shared.

Mandrake 9.1 will read NTFS and FAT32 right out of the box. Do NOT write to NTFS though. Shouldn't be a problem though, as you are using win98 (fat). So, like gdboling said, partition the shared space as FAT32 and you can read and write to it.

I have a similar setup on a 40gig hd. 14gb's NTFS for windows XP and apps, 20gb's FAT32 for data (doc's, mp3's, pics etc.), then the 5.5gb's root partition and a 500mb swap for Mandrake 9.1.

Good luck and have fun!!

SAMBA?

Please be more specific about the partitioning.....are we talking about primary, extended, logical?

I plan on installing v9.0 since that's what I have currently burned onto CD. Thought about dling v9.1, but I figured there'd be a little more info available about 9.0 since it's a little older.

What are your thoughts about Partition Magic? Should I use that instead of the embedded bootloaders in Mandrake? If not, any explanation why? (after all, I am just trying to learn...)

Personally, I have had nothing but trouble with Partitian Magic. But most of my dealing with it have been on NTFS drives.

You can use Mandrake to create a fat32 primary partician on your 10 gig drive. As long as that partitian already exists. What I mean is, you should have 9 gigs unallocated, right? So in the Mandrake install, just select that space in the partitian chart during that setup and tell it to make a fat32 partitian.

SAMBA is a client and server that allows you to mount Windows shares in Linux and allows you to mount Linux shares in Windows.

SAMBA is for accessing windows shares, and not really applicable to your situation. I would say more, but thats all I know on the subject;)

I love Partition Magic for managinf my windows patitions, but if I were you I would just use the one Mandrake provides during install. It is very simple, and can even take care of the actual work automatically if you want. I always choose "advanced" and set up the partitions myself. Linux doesnt work on the primary/logical/extended principal that windows does. You'll definitely need a " / " partition (the root directory) and a swap. Just those 2 would suffice and would be an easy choice for just getting started. Some people choose to include a "usr" or a "home" partition as well, though I don't. Since this will be your first install, you can guarantee it wont be your last ;) (took me around 10 before I got my system stable and the way I like it) no need to get really involved with this stage. Keep it simple. As far as the windows partitions, you seem to be pretty knowlegable in that area so set it up however you feel most comfortable.

OK....problem.

Got my 10-gig as the primary with a 1GB FAT32 partition and Win98 installed. For some reason I am not able to see the rest of the 10gig drive. I tried to use PM to make the rest into an extended/logical FAT32, but it said I only have 2Gig on the drive available. I didn't have any trouble seeing the entire 10GB when I had the drive installed as the secondary.

Like this:

Before.... 2G (w/Win98)=Primary IDE Drive 0
10G (empty)=Primare IDE Drive 1
no problem to see all 10 GB.

Now...... 10G (w/Win98, only 2GB visible)=Primary IDE Drive 0
2G (empty)=Primary IDE Drive 1

=can only see 2GB on each drive...

I know I've read about this somewhere, but what did I miss for using the last 8gig on my HD?

How did you make the 1st partition, with fdisk? Same thing happened to me one time, and I can't quite remember why. Thing about it is though, while partition magic and windows might not recognize it (I use winxp and with it's native disk management service I was able to get around this), linux will. So if you want, you should be able to use Mandrake to finish the partitions. This is kinda a mickey mouse way to go I know, but I just can't remember the deal with fdisk and the 2gb limit. I thought it was just for fat16...:scratch:

edit: I am going to look @ my A+ cert book. I know thats where I read about it...

Ok, well the A+ book says that if you see only approx. 2.1gb and you know your drive is larger, then you are using FAT16. I thought that was the deal. Although, I don't know how this could be because it happened once to me and I was definitely using NTFS with WinXP!

Well after more reading, it seems that FAT16 only supports partitions up to 2.1gb, but that you could make as many 2.1gb part's as you want. So that doesn't explain your drive appearing to be only 2gb's...

I do know that you can beat it though by using Mandrake's partition util with no ill effects. It's up to you. Though if someone knows what is causing the 2gb issue, I would be very glad to hear it :)

Used fdisk to create the 1GB partition on the 10G HD. Converted Win98 via DriveConverter to Fat32 immediately after install.

For simplicity's sake, I would like to have everything OK before attempting to install Mandrake. I'd like to have the 10G HD partitioned how I want it before I go messing around with linux. This should be possible without using Mandrakes utilities.

Any help here would be fantastic.

Why can't you use your Win98 disk to boot to DOS, use fdisk, and just create all the partitions in FAT32 from there rather than converting the filesystem after the fact? That probably has something to do with your issue. Create your primary, then your extended/logical in FAT32 to begin with. Win98 was optimized for FAT32, so there is no reason you can't do it like that. Choose "boot from cd" and go from there.

fdisk will only recognize the first 2GB.....deleted the original partitions (including my Win98 install), but still only 2GB available? I must be missing something here.

Partition Magic Boot disk only recognizes the first 2Gig also. I'm getting confused now. Does this have anything to do with some "1024 cylinder limit on the primary drive" business I've read about?