Setting up a duel boot system?

Setting up a duel boot system?

[Doug Lawlor]

Hello list, Here is what I need to do.  I have two drives here.  One is a 
20Gb/7200rpm and the second is a 40GB/5400 RPM.  I want to set up Linux and 
Windows on the first drive and use my second for data storage.  .  When I 
use the windows Fdisk command to create the Windows partition I get asked 
If I want large disk support.  Fdisk gives me a message stating something 
to the effect If I enable this no other operating system will be able to 
use the drive.  I know that is not quite true but Fdisk also goes on to 
tell me if I disable large disk support Windows will only support 
partitions up to 2GB.  Can I disable the large disk support and create a 
partition that's larger than two GB?

Thanks in advance,
Doug

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Jason]

Enabling large disk support has no negative effect on your linux installation.

When MS fdisk refers to other opertating systems they mean DOS, Win3.1, 
NT3.51 etc...

> Hello list, Here is what I need to do.  I have two drives here.  One is a
> 20Gb/7200rpm and the second is a 40GB/5400 RPM.  I want to set up Linux and
> Windows on the first drive and use my second for data storage.  .  When I
> use the windows Fdisk command to create the Windows partition I get asked
> If I want large disk support.  Fdisk gives me a message stating something
> to the effect If I enable this no other operating system will be able to
> use the drive.  I know that is not quite true but Fdisk also goes on to
> tell me if I disable large disk support Windows will only support
> partitions up to 2GB.  Can I disable the large disk support and create a
> partition that's larger than two GB?

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Thomas Ward]

Hi, you will want to use large disk support. When you do it will create a
fat32 partition for Windows, and not  a fat16.
Using fat32 which is large disk support will not effect your ability to add
Linux partitions provided that you leave space on the drive for them.
The warning message is warning you about msdos 6.2 and Windows NT 4.0 and
earlier which do not have fat32 support.


>
> > Hello list, Here is what I need to do.  I have two drives here.  One is
a
> > 20Gb/7200rpm and the second is a 40GB/5400 RPM.  I want to set up Linux
and
> > Windows on the first drive and use my second for data storage.  .  When
I
> > use the windows Fdisk command to create the Windows partition I get
asked
> > If I want large disk support.  Fdisk gives me a message stating
something
> > to the effect If I enable this no other operating system will be able to
> > use the drive.  I know that is not quite true but Fdisk also goes on to
> > tell me if I disable large disk support Windows will only support
> > partitions up to 2GB.  Can I disable the large disk support and create a
> > partition that's larger than two GB?
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
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>

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Steve Holmes]

When they say "large partition", they mean FAT32 or what we call in the
linux world, Vfat32. You really want that for your windows stuff. Linux
uses its own partitions for swap and ext2 file system so there is no side
effects from the MS activities.

Just remember that "lba32" option in lilo or you may have problems getting
linux to boot. The lba32 thing is for large drives.

On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, Doug Lawlor wrote:

> Hello list, Here is what I need to do.  I have two drives here.  One is a
> 20Gb/7200rpm and the second is a 40GB/5400 RPM.  I want to set up Linux and
> Windows on the first drive and use my second for data storage.  .  When I
> use the windows Fdisk command to create the Windows partition I get asked
> If I want large disk support.  Fdisk gives me a message stating something
> to the effect If I enable this no other operating system will be able to
> use the drive.  I know that is not quite true but Fdisk also goes on to
> tell me if I disable large disk support Windows will only support
> partitions up to 2GB.  Can I disable the large disk support and create a
> partition that's larger than two GB?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Doug
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Kirk Wood]

Doug,

No you won't be able to get partitions greater then 2GB without enabling
large disk support. Here is the explaination. Previously MS used a
partition table consisting 16 bit descriptions for each sector. Each
sector could be as large as 32KB. If you count (in bianary) from all 0s to
all 1s you will come up with enough sectors that will hold 2GB of data in
32KB chunks.

Now for the pertinent news. This file system came out in late 96. Thus,
unless you want to run original win95, dos, or NT4, NT3.x this is of no
concern. When the warning was written it was true. It is no longer
true. Win2K also reads the new FAT32. So does linux and a host of
others. In fact, you can get the driver to make FAT32 (large disk
support) work in NT4.

Go ahead and say yes to the question. Put in the size you want from
windows and leave the room you want for Linux. All will go fine. Just keep
in mind that in the default means of installation Linux can see the
windows stuff, but not the other way around. You cna install Linux on a
dos partition, but you should go to the howtos for info on that. There are
people on the list who have done so. I haven't and won't comment on it as
a result.

=======
Kirk Wood
Cpt.Kirk@1tree.net

"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missle at
a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."
	- President George Bush

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Doug Lawlor]

Thanks to all for the information on the duel boot setup.  I think setting 
the swap on one disk and Linux on another is a cool idea.  Incidentally I 
got a second 7200 RPM drive instead of the 5400 I was going to get.  When I 
went to install it I find out that the slide brackets included with this 
Dell Dimension L system do not seem to line up with the screw holes in the 
drive.  I always was under the impression that all 3.5 inch drive bays were 
the same.  It is not the drive bay that seems to be the problem but the 
bracket/clip things that fit onto the drive and slide into the bay.  If I 
could get the right clips I would have no trouble installing the 
thing.  Can other clips be purchased? I am trying to mount the drive into 
the 3.5 inch bay under by 5.25 bay.  The bay is meant for an external drive 
but I never new until today that this would make a difference.  I guess it 
may be time to go and post a message to Dell.

Doug

Drive dimensions (was dual boot)

[Kirk Wood]

You should contact Dell about this. All 3.5 inch hard drives have the same
holes in them. This is a single industry standard. But (and this is a
kicker) a 3.5 inch floppy has fewer (and thus different) holes. I suspect
reasons start with the fact that a floppy drive normally sticks out
further. In fact to place holes in the same places would place a hole in
part of the trim.

You may be able to solve the problem by simply ordering the right
slides. Thinking of the way the delss are assembled it should work. Funny
thing is that just yesterday I was working on a system where I could have
checked this.

=======
Kirk Wood
Cpt.Kirk@1tree.net

"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missle at
a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."
	- President George Bush

Re: Drive dimensions (was dual boot)

[Doug Lawlor]

I managed to get the drive installed.  What we did was take the orignal 
clips I had, cut off the end furthest from the front of the drive and 
substitute a screw for the last pin.  This made the clips line up with the 
holes in the drive.

Doug


At 12:43 AM 31/10/2001, you wrote:
>You should contact Dell about this. All 3.5 inch hard drives have the same
>holes in them. This is a single industry standard. But (and this is a
>kicker) a 3.5 inch floppy has fewer (and thus different) holes. I suspect
>reasons start with the fact that a floppy drive normally sticks out
>further. In fact to place holes in the same places would place a hole in
>part of the trim.
>
>You may be able to solve the problem by simply ordering the right
>slides. Thinking of the way the delss are assembled it should work. Funny
>thing is that just yesterday I was working on a system where I could have
>checked this.
>
>=======
>Kirk Wood
>Cpt.Kirk@1tree.net
>
>"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missle at
>a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."
>         - President George Bush
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Rodney Clowdus]

Another thing that you might want to do is to setup your swap partition on
a sererate harddrive from the one you will boot linux from.  I have Linux
and data on my second harddrive whereas I have my swap on the drive with
Windows.  Works great.  You will notice a big difference in access speed.
You can take an old 486 and set it up right and it will outrun a pentium.
I learned this trick from the local linux users group.  I hear that it's
even faster to have linux installed across three harddrives.  Swap from
hd1, boot from hd2, data from hd3.  An old computer set up this was will
scream with performance.  It's a very cheap way to make a hotrod out of
your computer and it's a piece of cake to setup.  Just my two cents worth.
Rodney

The Weaving Beaver
rclowdus@kcnet.com
"Chop your own firewood and it will warm you twice."
"Weave your own cloth and it will reward you twice."

Re: Setting up a duel boot system?

[Gregory Nowak]

No, because FAT16 partitions cannot be more then 2gb. That's why M$ came up with
FAT32 so that partitions more then 2gb could be created.
This is the short answer, since I don't know that much about FAT32 specs.
Greg


On Tue, Oct 30, 2001 at 04:12:25AM +0000, Doug Lawlor wrote:
> Hello list, Here is what I need to do.  I have two drives here.  One is a 
> 20Gb/7200rpm and the second is a 40GB/5400 RPM.  I want to set up Linux and 
> Windows on the first drive and use my second for data storage.  .  When I 
> use the windows Fdisk command to create the Windows partition I get asked 
> If I want large disk support.  Fdisk gives me a message stating something 
> to the effect If I enable this no other operating system will be able to 
> use the drive.  I know that is not quite true but Fdisk also goes on to 
> tell me if I disable large disk support Windows will only support 
> partitions up to 2GB.  Can I disable the large disk support and create a 
> partition that's larger than two GB?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Doug
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup