3 replies to this topic

[grubstake]

Friends,

I seek advice and info regarding the partitioning and OS-install in my main pc....a T60p thinkpad laptop.

I've run out of space on this 100gb, and since that forces a move to new drive, I figure I might as well update to XP....so very modern of me!

GOAL: to update my T60p from win2k-sp4 to XPsp3, with an XP install with minimal bloat in the disk/registry/processes....and also to improve/modernize the partitioning scheme I've been using for 20 years.


Current plans are....

- OEMBIOS files copied from laptop to 'clean' unpacked XP-msdn ISO
(I have no factory CD) and key from COA on bottom, making bootable
'full' XP not requiring activation, just like original XP on this laptop.
- nLite to strip some bloat from XP
- BootitNG as boot-manager (or other?)
- backup across GbEnet to other laptop
- Do all work from current win2000 install on current internal HD

Current HD setup:

C- 2gb primary FAT dos-bootable
D- 40gb NTFS 'extended' with the bulk of my 'data' and 'archiving' on it.
E- 40gb NTFS 'extended/logical' with Win2K-sp4 on it.

I have run that C/D/E config for many many years...since NT3.31....so that I always had an HD that could boot from DOS, in case of windows trouble/crash. Not that any such thing would ever happen with windoze, of course...

With the existence today of 'PE' things (bootable OS's on a CD), my long-standing drive config isn't so necessary. And it also seems that it might be a good thing to finally 'conform' by having windoze on a 'C' drive like 99.99% of the rest of humanity. And I do still occasionally come across a program or script that's foolishly 'hard coded' to C:.

Yet I still have to run DOS sometimes, for a piece of old PCB-CAD software that I have some long-standing designs on. There are a million scripts, batches, and buried setup-entries in this complex software (PCAD4.55) which are all coded to subdir's on C:. I.e., it'd be a LOT of work to change it to run on another letter. Thus, I still need a DOS 'C' drive as well.

And of course there is the issue of filesystem type too: I want XP, and my 'data drive' on ntfs partitions....and DOS must be FAT.....so the two 'C' drives must be two different drives/partitions.

And I want an entire 2nd XP install, as noted in the table below, to do backups from, and to be there in case the primary XP1 crashes.

Thus, I need three 'primary' partitions (I think).

And someday I really should 'touch' Linux for the first time and learn something of it.....so I reserved 10 gigs....and that would also have to be its own primary (I think)

Sooo....here is the setup I'm thinking of, and soliciting advice on....

PARTITIONS:

Pri, C, DOS, FAT16, 2gb, PCAD and emergency DOS-boot, maybe WIN98

Pri, C, XP-Main+Apps, NTFS, 104gb, Main XP boot, apps, storage
D, Win-work, NTFS, 104gb, Data-storage/work drive for XP
E, DOS drive, FAT16, 2gb, No firm plans for it; just for hell of it

Pri, C, XP-2, backup, NTFS, 10gb, 2nd XP, to run backups on XP1

Pri, C, Linux/Other, FAT32, 10gb, Future Linux or whatever
-------
232gb

Note: the target drive is a "250gb" that formats to 232. Currently in external USB box.

It is going to be really disorienting for quite a while, to get used to having windows/programs on 'C;' !

Question #1....is the above a 'sane' partitioning scheme? If not, what have I screwed up or missed?

Question#2- Any problems with BootitNG? I want something SIMPLE that can boot multi-primaries; something I don't need to write pages of scripts for just to boot my drive in a simple fashion.

Question#3- I have read on Thinkpad forums that if one installs XP to an external USB drive, all goes fine, except that when one then moves that drive -inside- the laptop, it will not boot! So....how do I fix that? Or will I not have that problem if I first run Easus or similar to set up partitions and have BootitNG installed PRIOR to installing the primary XP on the 2nd partition?

(I think maybe the people reporting trouble were doing plain vanilla 'microsoft way' install....shoving in CD and using XP-install to do all drive-prep)

Question #4- It seems an advantage to put swap-file as near outer-rim as possible. How is that most easily accomplished during such a partitioning/XP-install procedure?

If anything else in my plans seems like it heads me for trouble, please speak of it.

with many thanks,

grubstake

Edited by grubstake, 08 December 2010 - 01:06 AM.

[Sha0]

... ... ...
Current plans are....

- OEMBIOS files copied from laptop to 'clean' unpacked XP-msdn ISO
(I have no factory CD) and key from COA on bottom, making bootable
'full' XP not requiring activation, just like original XP on this laptop.
- nLite to strip some bloat from XP
- BootitNG as boot-manager (or other?)
- backup across GbEnet to other laptop
- Do all work from current win2000 install on current internal HD

You might (it'd be my preference) consider something like:

• Insert new HDD into computer
  
• Partition new HDD
  
• Make a partition active or install a boot-loader, test
  
• Put old HDD in USB enclosure
  
• Transfer all files from old OS partition to new OS partition
  
• Boot new OS partition to your Windows 2000
  
• Transfer any other files all over the place from Windows
  
• Copy your custom .ISO contents into a directory on the new OS partition
  
• Begin Windows XP SP3 upgrade install from directory on the new OS partition

I would expect this to leave you with a Windows XP which has migrated from your previous Windows 2000 installation; some programs and settings might still be intact.

... ... ...
PARTITIONS:

Pri, C, DOS, FAT16, 2gb, PCAD and emergency DOS-boot, maybe WIN98

Pri, C, XP-Main+Apps, NTFS, 104gb, Main XP boot, apps, storage
D, Win-work, NTFS, 104gb, Data-storage/work drive for XP
E, DOS drive, FAT16, 2gb, No firm plans for it; just for hell of it

Pri, C, XP-2, backup, NTFS, 10gb, 2nd XP, to run backups on XP1

Pri, C, Linux/Other, FAT32, 10gb, Future Linux or whatever
-------
232gb
... ... ...
Question #1....is the above a 'sane' partitioning scheme? If not, what have I screwed up or missed?

Your D: and E: drives: what kind of partition (primary, logical) were you going to make them? One can have up to 4 primary partitions.

Your final FAT32 partition: I like to put all DOS things at the front of a disk, to avoid any remnants of the age when disks were smaller.

Question#2- Any problems with BootitNG? I want something SIMPLE that can boot multi-primaries; something I don't need to write pages of scripts for just to boot my drive in a simple fashion.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with this one.

Question#3- I have read on Thinkpad forums that if one installs XP to an external USB drive, all goes fine, except that when one then moves that drive -inside- the laptop, it will not boot! So....how do I fix that? Or will I not have that problem if I first run Easus or similar to set up partitions and have BootitNG installed PRIOR to installing the primary XP on the 2nd partition?

The "lowest common denominator" (hopefully most compatible way) might be to partition from DOS, with the new HDD actually inside the computer.

... ... ...

[grubstake]

You might (it'd be my preference) consider something like:

• Insert new HDD into computer
  
• Partition new HDD
  
• Make a partition active or install a boot-loader, test
  
• Put old HDD in USB enclosure
  
• Transfer all files from old OS partition to new OS partition
  
• Boot new OS partition to your Windows 2000
  
• Transfer any other files all over the place from Windows
  
• Copy your custom .ISO contents into a directory on the new OS partition
  
• Begin Windows XP SP3 upgrade install from directory on the new OS partition

I would expect this to leave you with a Windows XP which has migrated from your previous Windows 2000 installation; some programs and settings might still be intact.
----------
Your D: and E: drives: what kind of partition (primary, logical) were you going to make them? One can have up to 4 primary partitions.
-----------
Your final FAT32 partition: I like to put all DOS things at the front of a disk, to avoid any remnants of the age when disks were smaller.

thank you Sha0, for offering suggestions.

Regarding your first item, the list of steps....I'm trying to avoid exactly that situation of not working from an "up and running full windoze with browzer etc".

I would like very much to have instant access to internet for help, such as this very forum ...and all other such help/resources, such as driver-downloads, if such is discovered to be needed in the middle of process.

So I really want to work from this existing win2k install, the whole way through until all is finished installing on the ext/new drive. At that point, I'd swap the drive into the laptop, do a fresh install of firefox, add my bookmarks-file, to again give me net/help/resource access, and then get on with installing the rest of my apps.

Regarding the suggestion of 'upgrade'....yes, I did think about that first...but I don't think an 'upgrade' actually cleans up the registry. This win2k install is now over 3 yrs old ....so the registry is just a huge pile of crap and confusion.

Also, some time back, when I had 'start/programs' open to start something, I accidentally clicked on "NetMeeting"...and the damn thing just began installing!

At the first available place, I chose to quit.....but this win2k install hasn't been the same since. It now has huge delays on boot, while it waits for RPCSS for 120 seconds, the MUP.xxx for something for another forever....

I once had Acrobat-8 installed as well, and the UNinstall of that must not have been proper, because it gummed up the works another notch.

So...I've decided I'm willing to go through the work of reinstalling all my apps from scratch, caused by doing a totally-fresh OS install, in order to have a super-clean registry and fast boot and ops again.

Make sense?

Regarding partition-2....I'd planned on C-pri, D/E extend/logical. My understanding is that unmodded XP cannot access other primary partitions. Also, that if I made more than 4 primaries, my HD setup would be outside of the 'standard' that any OS's bootloader can read without mods.

That's why I limited my plans, as shown in the table, to 4 primaries.

But if there's a serious problem with putting all 3 drives of my "main daily-use XP" in a single primary/extended partition pair, please do elaborate.

Regarding that final FAT32 part....I don't know what OS I might want to put there in future....so I chose FAT32 as likely being the most compatible type that also handles a reasonably large space.

I didn't quite understand what you were trying to say....what advantage is there to put it on the outside, the fastest spot on the HD?....when I'm not even going to be using it for some time? Shouldn't I have my 'main daily XP c/d/e' at the very outside/beginning of the HD ?

thanks again

Edited by grubstake, 08 December 2010 - 07:26 AM.

[grubstake]

hmm....

just read this in another thread...Jaclaz quoting someone else....

QUOTE
Besides, you will have on each OS, the partition letter set to "C:" before or later you will boot in, say, 2K and thinking you are booted in, say, ME, you will delete a file in the ME partition thinking to be deleting one in the 2K one.
After some time, you will boot to the 2K partition, and thinking you evidently did not delete it, you will delete the copy of it on the 2K parttion.
Then you will defrag all your drives.
And some time later you will get mad at finding that file of which you deleted the only two copies you had."
----------

I never thought about that....wonder if I'd do that?

might, I guess.

Is there any DISadvantage to running XP in a logical-drive of extended partition, the way I've been running win2k? (I just assumed primary was 'better').

Instead of the proposed table I presented, I could instead keep essentially the same setup I'm running now, plus the new primary with 2nd XP install for running backups on the 'main' XP drives. That is, like this....

1-pri-C-fat-2gb, DOS and old PCB-CAD, and boot-ini into 'main' XP on part-2

2-extended-D-ntfs-100gb, storage
and logical-E-ntfs-100gb, 'main' XP, apps, storage

3-pri-C-ntfs-10gb-second XP for running backups on XP1, and emgcy repairs

4-pri-C-fat32-10gb-for future use learning linux or whatever

ok, off to bed...