Wednesday, September 11, 2002, 8:49:39 AM, you wrote: GS> Hello TBOT,
GS> I'm upgrading my PC to WinXP. I have used Win98 which has a multi-boot GS> partitions. I have basically 4 partitions with the 1st 3 being for OS + GS> Applications, and the last being an Extended partition for data & GS> communication programs such as TB. This way I can Ghost restore my OS GS> &/or data partitions quickly from a working partition stored on a slave GS> drive. The slave drive is turned off in the system bios until necessary GS> use is required. I use System Commander to create multiple boot system. GS> It also provides the ability to have one message DB for my communication GS> programs such as TB. I've used NT based systems at work, but have never GS> configured one since they are already configured. GS> My questions are as follows: GS> 1) Can you create an extended partition in WinXP? Yes, extended partitions are supported. GS> If yes, will the drive always be drive "D"? It all depends... on stuff like which partitions are primary versus logical, on the extended. Example: you have 2 drives and each has one primary and one extended. The first drive's primary will be C and the second drive's primary will be D., etc. If you have SCSI, the letters may be influenced by SCSI ID.... The good news is that you can override letter assignments in Disk Administrator. GS> 2) Can you create a multi-boot system with WinXP? I probably should ask GS> this question to V-Communications who sells System Commander, but GS> maybe someone here already knows the answer. Yes, for Windows OS's. No matter where you install NT, the basic files are installed on "C:" along with a file named boot.ini. Boot.ini will control multi boot. SysCmdr is not really needed unless you want to boot Linux, etc. or want to use multiple primary partitions, hiding the unused ones. I use SysCmdr to dual boot Linux/Windows, but allow boot.ini to control which flavor of Windows. SysCmdr will do it all if you want it to. GS> 3) If #1 & #2 are yes, then I should be able to install TB onto the GS> extended partition. This was the same way I installed on Win98. If GS> you have ideals as to what maybe a better configuration, I'd GS> appreciate your feedback. Yes, but are you confusing logical versus extended partitions? An extended partition does not get a letter at all. It houses logical partitions that do get drive letters. Most of the time, people make one primary partition and one extended partition that contains multiple logical partitons. GS> With my present configuration when it is necessary to restore individual GS> files, I just recognize the slave drive in the bios, then reboot & copy GS> individual files. I run AV & AT programs. I periodically scan my system GS> with the AV program, but it is debatable as to the effectiveness of this GS> on trojans. This should work, but NT (XP is a flavor of NT) handles drive letters somewhat differently than W9X. After the initialization, made during install, letters are assigned (at each boot up) according to entries in the Registry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices combined with "signatures" placed in the boot sector of each partition (logical and primary). This can get a little muddled up if you swap drives around. You will probably be OK if you make sure that the slave drive has drive letters higher than all the partitions on the master drive. we have done a lot of backup/restore using plugable drives without problems. The registry entries remain even if the drive is removed from the system. It will also handle another drive being plugged in. Where it can get real confused is when you swap drives with primary partitions. W2K was easy to confuse, I haven't worked with XP enough to see if they have changed it. GS> BTW, Allie & Marck I double posted to TBUDL & TBOT because I thought GS> other in TBUDL may have an interest. If to much OT in TBUDL just say so. GS> TIA! -- ________________________________________________ Current version is 1.61 | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
