-=PCTechTalk=- Re: pctechtalk new question

Ted,

I have no idea what you are trying to do.  Now it sounds like you are
wanting to create a dual boot system with WinXP on one partition and WinNT
on the other.  From another message you wrote I think you are trying to do
this on a 20GB hard drive.  That is probably a minimum size for a single OS
and certainly way too small for two.

Please tell us exactly what you want as an end result and exactly what it is
we are working with.  You might also tell us WHY you are trying to do
whatever it is you are trying to do.

Dual boot (not double boot) means that a computer system has TWO operating
systems installed on it's boot disk... typically an internal hard drive.
When the system is turned on or booted up, a choice is given to the operator
as to which OS to boot up with.

Both WinXP and WinNT have the ability to partition a drive.  Once a drive is
partitioned it must be formatted before it can be used for any purpose.  If
a drive is already formatted and has an OS installed a utility may be able
to safely create new or resize existing partitions.  I do not know if a
utility of that sort is available in XP or NT.  I do not know if trying to
install a second OS on a harddrive would result in either OS providing the
opportunity to create or resize partitions as part of the installation
process.

In DOS, Win95, Win98, WinME and WinXP the FDISK utility is used to create or
delete partitions.  That is all FDISK does.  FORMAT is used to format the
partition so it can be used.  That is all that FORMAT does.

Don

Greetings from the sunny east coast of Central Florida.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ted" <ted_clark@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 3:56 AM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: pctechtalk new question


> Being 77 and grumpy, i occasionally have bother translating
> 'big A' into english, this makes XP help a little difficult to follow.
> 1. my interpretation of what i've read, is that XP OS with NT does not
need any third party app to create partitions. however it is
> unclear as to whether or not it formats in the process. if it doesn't, i
would appreciate help in clarifying this process.
> 2.  i'm also having bother interpreting what it says about 'double
booting'.
> please can someone set me straight.
> cheers ted
>
> From: "T. Hunt" <ilrover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ilrover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
> Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: pctechtalk new question
> If you have recovery CD's, you normally will not be able to access any
> of XP's install functions, as the procedure for replacing your OS is
completely different. One way to preserve the status quo is to
> create
> an image of your harddrive as it exists right now. You will need either
> a CD burner or an external harddrive and some sort of imaging software.
> I use Ghost and many here recommend Acronis True Image (I hope that's
> the correct name). You can create an image of your drive, redo the
> partitions and then restore the image to the primary partition and use
> the other partition for whatever you want.
> There are tools like Partition Magic that will resize existing
> partitions, leaving the data intact. Please back up anything that is
> important to you as these things can always find a way to screw up when
> you least expect it.
>
> From: "Don" <don101@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:don101@xxxxxxxxxx>>
> Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: pctechtalk new question
> Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:57:59 -0400
> You cannot format a hard drive without destroying (for all practical
> purposes) all the data on it.
> I suspect what you want to do is to partition your harddrive into 2 or
more
> partitions with your perfectly honed XP Home on the boot partition.
> You do not need to format to do that. There are many utilities that will
> create, remove and change partitions without loss of existing data.
> If you feel you MUST format, then make a back up copy of what you want to
> keep or use a utility like Norton GHOST or DISK IMAGE to create an image,
> save it to CD or DVD Rom, format and partition the drive and then restore
to
> the desired partition. Be sure the partition you restore to is large
enough
> to accept everything that you backed up or imaged.
> Greetings from the sunny east coast of Central Florida.
>
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