For the last 12 hrs i've been working hard trying to recover my damanged partition table. Unfortuantly i had to format it. 15 GB worth of stuff, just gone.

This may have been linked with the problems i've been getting with lilo to dual boot, as well as boot magic where both failed. So i need to know a good linux and xp set up. I don't want this happening again. 15GB is alot of stuff. That's what i get for trying out linux . Oh well, i should put my self together and not give up.

I am asking you for the best Linux and XP partition set up method.

So i have 2 HDD.

First HDD [C:/Windows XP]
Second HDD [D:/Linux] [E:/Storage] [ F:/Music]

*in that order*

Is it correct to place Linux in the first spot on my second HDD? Or should i palce them some where else like after [F:/Music]?

I though two OS should be in front of everything. But i'm getting the feels that this is exactly why my [E:/Storage] partition got corrupted. Linux Partition some how messed up the [E:/Storage] which was NTFS.

Would placing [Linux] partiton behind [Storage] and [Music] a better idea?

So it looks like this:

First HDD [C:/Windows XP]
Second HDD [E:/Storage] [ F:/Music] [D:/Linux]



-----------------Swap Partition Question-------------------------

Also, where should linux swap file be placed? Should i make ext3 partition right beside First HDD? So it looks like this:

First HDD [C:/Windows XP] [linux Swap]



And XP's Swap file in the second HDD like this:

Second HDD [E:/Storage] [ F:/Music] [D:/Linux] [XP Swap]

I read somewhere telling me by seperating Swap partition and the OS partition speeds things up since two HDD can be read simuntaniously. So should i go with this Swap setup?

------------------------------------------

I'm sorry, That's 2 question. So ultimatly i want to ask which is better setup between these two:


A)

First HDD [C:/Windows XP] [Linux Swap]
Second HDD [D:/Linux] [E:/Storage] [ F:/Music] [XP Swap]

Two OS in front, is this a good practice?


B)

First HDD [C:/Windows XP] [Linux Swap]
Second HDD [E:/Storage] [ F:/Music] [D:/Linux] [XP Swap]

Linux in the back so it can't mess up the windows partitions behind it


Thanks for your help. I'm really tired, what a day.

Ok, it dosnt matter where you put them if youve got 2 hard drives. All you need to do is partition one drive install XP on one then partions the other and istall Linux on that one then during the linux installation choose a boot manager either Grub or lilo, preferebly grub. Then switch the bios over so the linux drive boot first and then you should have a menu when you boot to choose linux or XP. You have to do alot of stuff in the bios but thats pretty self explanatory.
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

Is it ok to place another partitions like Storage and Music right behind Linux Partitions? Or is it better to partition my whole second HDD into Linux?

I am planning to use Partition magic to do all the work instead the linux installatin. But i fear the linux boot manager dosn't set up correctly if i do it that way. Is this true? Should i let Linux installation handle the partition setup?

Quick question, should Linux Swap be "Primary" or "Logical" partition?

I like the swap on opposite disks. Doesn't matter where you put Linux. I'd use Linux tools as much as possible, but that's just me. Swap doesn't matter - I do primary until I run out and then extended/logical if I have to. I'd put the boot loader in the master drive's MBR and I'd use LILO. But I have yet to try my XP. I've just got Slack 9, Debian Woody, and W2K sharing two drives in one computer so far. My Debian's in extended, including swap, while my Slack and hdb's swap is primary.

If i installed Lilo in MBR, wouldn't that cause some complication when i reinstall windows since it will try to reset MBR?

Always install Windows first. You could either cut up hda first and maybe Windows will respect the partition and only install in /hda1 or you could install it and go back over with a resize to pull the swap out of the end. Because, yeah, Windows will overwrite the mbr. You *can* boot both systems with the NT loader but I've never wanted to do it that way. And you can install LILO elswhere. So it is up to you. I was just relaying what was working for me in a similar situation.

-- Wait - do you have a working Linux you want to save? I thought you were going to do a clean install of the whole thing.

I am doing a clean install right now. I don't want to lose 15GB worth of data again. This time i'm planning my Partition layout before i install anything.

In any case MBR does get reset, i can always go back and reload lilo back into MBR and dual boot again right?

So if i want lilo to reside in MBR sector, which one do i pick? dha? or does it depend? I'm really confused what each of those 3 letter partition ID really represents. What would MBR always be? I heard dha, is this right?

BTW, thanks for your help. I'm partitioning all my drives and refreshing this forum every 5 second . Sad i know.

Yeah - I've only hosed LILO in DOS but I reinstalled and that much is the same, whether DOS or NT.

Well, if you use fdisk to partition, or whatever you use - make /hda bootable and install to hda.

/hda Primary master (my Win2K/Debian) What Windows usually calls C:
/hdb Primary slave (my Slack) What Windows might call D: if each drive had a single partition
/hdc Secondary master (my DVD-ROM)
/hdd Secondary slave (my CD-RW)

The last two are hooked up backwards in my opinion but I didn't feel like switching it. If you have scsi controllers they're sda, etc, I think.

Hey, no problem. Partitioning and dual-booting can be a breeze or a disaster. Sorry you got hit by the disaster. "Always backup" - though I guess it's a bit late for that now.

Thx alot! As soon as my partition magic finish i should be ready to go. Currently 3:00am here, i don't think ill be getting much sleep tonight . But i'm the type of person that just have to finish once i start something.

Again, your help was so valuable! Thank You.

I know what you mean - I do that a lot too. Must. Finish. Good luck!

When I first started playing around with Linux, or soon after, I had a setup using both Boot Manager (that was before Boot Magic) and lilo. As I recall, I had some version of Windows, some version of OS/2, and some version of Linux, all on the same box. I booted first into Boot Manager, where I could choose any of the OS's I had. If I chose Linux, I got lilo, which again gave me a choice of any of the OS's.

In those days, Windows (and maybe also OS/2) had to boot in the first active primary partition on the first drive, and any data partitions on the second drive also had to be at the beginning of the drive. Linux didn't care. So Linux, being the last to be installed, ended up somewhere on the second drive, after everything else, partly in a primary partition and partly in logical drives (I think /usr wanted to be in its own partition). It might still be important to put Linux partitions after Windows partitions.

As digiot said, the swap partition should be on a different disk from the OS and data, if possible. This is just for performance reasons; it will work either way. And with all that stuff (Windows, Boot Magic, lilo) all trying to take over the MBR at installation, I'd install Windows first, then Boot Magic, then Linux, and take care when installing Linux.

One strangeness I noticed ... does "D:/Linux" mean that the Linux partition is visible in Windows as drive D? I wonder how would that come about, and what effects that would have. I thought a straight installation of Linux always made it invisible in DOS and Windoze.

And I just realized: if you use both Partition Magic and whatever your Linux distro uses, both altering the same partition table(s), there might be errors created in the partition table. I'm not sure how, but there must be a way to check the partition table to make sure the partitions don't overlap....

Perhaps irrelevantly, I once trashed a Windows boot partition by installing a big Windows 3.x program in a logical drive that crossed the 1024-cylinder boundary. The installer wrapped around the boundary and started writing in the MBR, the FAT, the root directory, etc....

Sorry about the 15 GB. That is a real bummer.