Windows Vista Forums

TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

  1. #1


    Brahman Guest

    TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

    Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a third
    70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista Ultimate
    on that disc.
    2 questions,-
    1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista installed
    Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    Thanks




      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  2. #2


    David Morgan \(MAMS\) Guest

    Re: TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\


    "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:23093938-6852-475A-B0A1-1FDA3B8C866D@xxxxxx

    I'm not MS certified, so take my observations with a grain of salt.

    > Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    > created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a third
    > 70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    Sounds fairly optimal... although I've never had issues with installing
    programs on C: with Windows XP (or Pro). There was a time when
    98SE and 2K were used for running high powered graphics rendering
    and CPU intensive audio programs, that often a recommendation to
    install software on a separate partition was a short-term remedy for
    some issues. Personally, I never encountered those issues. If C:
    were ever corrupted, the software would still require reinstallation,
    thus the dedicated programs drive was fairly meaningless unless
    you had full program installs resting there with no hard copies on CD.

    > Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    I don't buy this at all. You have other 'issues'. I run XP Pro on three laptops,
    doing serious graphics on one and audio on the other two. Both C: drives
    are 8 Gig and all data resides on another drive(s). My XP Pro tower has
    a 15Gig C: for OS and software, and a 60 Gig D: for Data. C: has never
    exceeded about 60% of capacity and ocassionally I let My Documents
    become fairly bloated before backing up and deleting.

    You are likely seeing a System Restore issue. The default setting for 'sys
    restore' is to allocate 15% of your C: drive space for restore points. May
    I suggest that you turn off system restore, thereby eliminating some 3.5 Gig
    of superfluous clog, and reboot the system. Return to System restore,
    reactivate, and create a new restore point. Defragment the drive and
    schedule a disk check, reboot and let the check run at startup. Then,
    set system restore preferences to use only about 5% of your C: for
    saved points.

    > cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    Sure you can expand C:. Combine it with D:. (I recommend Partition Magic 8).
    When you do this, everything that was on the drive letter D: can be saved on
    the new, larger C: within it's own newly created file folder.

    However, I see no reason that the physical size of C: should be any issue
    at all for XP given your explanation. If the OS and necessary plug-ins is all
    you have installed on your C: drive, you should have some 50% free space.

    You could then actually split off a piece of your current E: (future D in order
    to hold your programs if you felt the need.

    How about RAM? You may have a page file issue. A perfectly clean install
    of XP will require some 140 meg of ram just to keep the system open. If
    you have any software oriented processes that startup with the boot and
    run in the background, you could actually be exceeding your available ram
    just to keep the system up and running. BS software like messenger
    services, music sharing or downloading services (Limewire, Bear, etc.)
    will eat your ram for lunch resulting in constant use of the page file and
    dramatically slowing your PC.

    > Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista Ultimate
    > on that disc.
    Please research this carefully before committing.

    > 2 questions,-
    > 1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    > 2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista installed
    > Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    > Thanks
    Too many possible answers.....

    Do an advanced Google Groups search on this group using your choice
    of questions. You will find lots of resources for dual boot set-ups, and
    literally thousands of posts that are serious heartbreakers regarding trying
    to dual boot *anything* with Vista. The only solution seems to be running
    "Virtual PC" and loading the desired OS inside of VISTA. Vista doesn't seem
    to play very nicely with anything else.

    I usually recommend installing a removable drive bay and loading the drive
    with the OS you desire to use at the time. A second DATA drive can always
    remain in place for both OSes.

    I believe you simply have some optimization issues and some registry
    bloat. And though I know you're ready to take the Vista plunge, I also
    think you should read some of the posting history on the MS Vista
    news groups before you open up a can of worms that will give you far
    more headache than taking the time to optimize your XP box. If you
    are extremely comfortable with XP, you will not be easily impressed
    by the Vista OS.

    Vista has a proprietary partitioning system, it's own odd-ball boot record,
    and eats XP restore points for lunch if on the same drive, just to mention
    a few things. If you install as an upgrade, your XP license is permanently
    removed. There are a mountain of issues (not insurmountable, however)
    with Windows Vista, period. On a personal note, I've been through two
    versions of Vista Home, now -Basic and Premium- using them for my
    own familiarization and optimization experiments, before giving both of
    them away with new computer builds for clients.

    Cheers,

    DM



    --
    David Morgan (MAMS)
    Morgan Audio Media Service
    http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com
    Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
    _____________________________
    http://www.januarysound.com














      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  3. #3


    R. C. White Guest

    Re: TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

    Hi, Brahman.

    See the responses to your identical post in the OTHER newsgroup.

    On those rare occasions when you MUST post the same message to multiple NGs,
    please crosspost, rather than multi-post.

    That is, put all the NG addresses into a single message. That way, the
    message will appear in all the groups, and all the responses will be in a
    single coherent thread, rather than several disjointed discussions. Each
    responder can see the other comments and not duplicate what has already been
    said. The payoff for you is that you won't have to visit each of those NGs
    to get all the responses.

    Also, it's rarely necessary to post the same question six minutes later.

    RC
    --
    R. C. White, CPA
    San Marcos, TX
    rc@xxxxxx
    Microsoft Windows MVP
    (Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

    "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message
    news:23093938-6852-475A-B0A1-1FDA3B8C866D@xxxxxx

    > Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    > created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a third
    > 70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    > Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    > cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    > Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista Ultimate
    > on that disc.
    > 2 questions,-
    > 1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    > 2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista installed
    > Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    > Thanks

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  4. #4


    Brahman Guest

    Re: TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

    Thanks R.C. White - this was my first post and I apologize for the dual post
    issue you raise - I actually had second thoughts on the appropriate group. I
    have a Intel D975XBX board, Intel 930, 2Gb OCZ and 2 Sumsung HD16JJ
    configured as Intel Raid 0 which I put together summer 06 with idea of
    adopting the new OS standard after the first SP which was just released. I
    run Office 03,Visual Studio 05, SQL Server 05 etc but discovered that 64
    compatible has Architecture X32. I reviewed the Intel Search (board/OS). It
    seems that available downloads limit Vista versions on my board. I wonder if
    the D975XBX2 is only necessary to support Aero.

    You are running Vista Ultimate 64. What board and processor are you using?
    When I assembled the system I thought I had expasion capabilty to run Vista
    Ultimate 64 and 64 applications by a simple processor update - but it looks
    like I was uninformed.



    "R. C. White" wrote:

    > Hi, Brahman.
    >
    > See the responses to your identical post in the OTHER newsgroup.
    >
    > On those rare occasions when you MUST post the same message to multiple NGs,
    > please crosspost, rather than multi-post.
    >
    > That is, put all the NG addresses into a single message. That way, the
    > message will appear in all the groups, and all the responses will be in a
    > single coherent thread, rather than several disjointed discussions. Each
    > responder can see the other comments and not duplicate what has already been
    > said. The payoff for you is that you won't have to visit each of those NGs
    > to get all the responses.
    >
    > Also, it's rarely necessary to post the same question six minutes later.
    >
    > RC
    > --
    > R. C. White, CPA
    > San Marcos, TX
    > rc@xxxxxx
    > Microsoft Windows MVP
    > (Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)
    >
    > "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message
    > news:23093938-6852-475A-B0A1-1FDA3B8C866D@xxxxxx

    > > Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    > > created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a third
    > > 70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    > > Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    > > cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    > > Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista Ultimate
    > > on that disc.
    > > 2 questions,-
    > > 1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    > > 2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista installed
    > > Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    > > Thanks
    >

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  5. #5


    Brahman Guest

    Re: TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

    David thanks for the reply.
    My C:\ partition15gb has 14gb after moving Documents and Settings to the
    Data partition and after running disc cleaup and using compression. I cannot
    run a proper defragmentation with 7% free space. I am running Office, Visual
    Studio, SQL Server etc installed on partition D;\ but these still add links
    etc in C:\

    I appreciate your suggestion about Restore. I will try.

    I assembled an Antec case an PS, Intel D975XBX, 930, OCZ 2Gb, dual Samsung
    HD160JJ system summer 06 and loaded XP Pro and applications.

    Computer Management/Disk Management/Help/How To/Manage basic disk
    volumes/extend basic volumes - states "You cannot extend the current system
    or boot partitions"

    This seems to force me to do a new install of XP Pro- reformat then change
    partitions to create a much larger System partition ( My documents and
    setting alone are greater than 5Gb)
    Since this means reinstalling all my applications I thought I might as well
    install Vista since I will have to sooner or later.

    I also appreciate your dual boot suggestions.
    (In the distant past when NT was going through many revisions I had 4 or 5
    OS configurations loaded on a HP and DEC workstations and used the boot .ini
    file to manage them in a DOS partition. After installing XP Pro there was no
    need for backup OS's)
    I have never run "Virtual PC". From your comments it sound like I would have
    to do a new installation of XP. Is there a good reference?

    I was hoping to install Vista on the new HD and have it isolated from the XP
    installation and the Vista drivers would be installed on the new disc.
    This would allow me to keep working with XP and applications and gradually
    migrate to Vista ( after running your Restore solution for XP).
    I do not know how to control which OS will boot?
    I spend my time now on my applications so I am not up to speed on OS issues.
    Does Vista have a boot file and is it compatable with the XP boot?
    Thanks for yur help.


    "David Morgan (MAMS)" wrote:

    >
    > "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:23093938-6852-475A-B0A1-1FDA3B8C866D@xxxxxx
    >
    > I'm not MS certified, so take my observations with a grain of salt.
    >

    > > Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    > > created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a third
    > > 70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    >
    > Sounds fairly optimal... although I've never had issues with installing
    > programs on C: with Windows XP (or Pro). There was a time when
    > 98SE and 2K were used for running high powered graphics rendering
    > and CPU intensive audio programs, that often a recommendation to
    > install software on a separate partition was a short-term remedy for
    > some issues. Personally, I never encountered those issues. If C:
    > were ever corrupted, the software would still require reinstallation,
    > thus the dedicated programs drive was fairly meaningless unless
    > you had full program installs resting there with no hard copies on CD.
    >

    > > Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    >
    > I don't buy this at all. You have other 'issues'. I run XP Pro on three laptops,
    > doing serious graphics on one and audio on the other two. Both C: drives
    > are 8 Gig and all data resides on another drive(s). My XP Pro tower has
    > a 15Gig C: for OS and software, and a 60 Gig D: for Data. C: has never
    > exceeded about 60% of capacity and ocassionally I let My Documents
    > become fairly bloated before backing up and deleting.
    >
    > You are likely seeing a System Restore issue. The default setting for 'sys
    > restore' is to allocate 15% of your C: drive space for restore points. May
    > I suggest that you turn off system restore, thereby eliminating some 3.5 Gig
    > of superfluous clog, and reboot the system. Return to System restore,
    > reactivate, and create a new restore point. Defragment the drive and
    > schedule a disk check, reboot and let the check run at startup. Then,
    > set system restore preferences to use only about 5% of your C: for
    > saved points.
    >

    > > cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    >
    > Sure you can expand C:. Combine it with D:. (I recommend Partition Magic 8).
    > When you do this, everything that was on the drive letter D: can be saved on
    > the new, larger C: within it's own newly created file folder.
    >
    > However, I see no reason that the physical size of C: should be any issue
    > at all for XP given your explanation. If the OS and necessary plug-ins is all
    > you have installed on your C: drive, you should have some 50% free space.
    >
    > You could then actually split off a piece of your current E: (future D in order
    > to hold your programs if you felt the need.
    >
    > How about RAM? You may have a page file issue. A perfectly clean install
    > of XP will require some 140 meg of ram just to keep the system open. If
    > you have any software oriented processes that startup with the boot and
    > run in the background, you could actually be exceeding your available ram
    > just to keep the system up and running. BS software like messenger
    > services, music sharing or downloading services (Limewire, Bear, etc.)
    > will eat your ram for lunch resulting in constant use of the page file and
    > dramatically slowing your PC.
    >

    > > Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista Ultimate
    > > on that disc.
    >
    > Please research this carefully before committing.
    >

    > > 2 questions,-
    > > 1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    > > 2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista installed
    > > Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    > > Thanks
    >
    > Too many possible answers.....
    >
    > Do an advanced Google Groups search on this group using your choice
    > of questions. You will find lots of resources for dual boot set-ups, and
    > literally thousands of posts that are serious heartbreakers regarding trying
    > to dual boot *anything* with Vista. The only solution seems to be running
    > "Virtual PC" and loading the desired OS inside of VISTA. Vista doesn't seem
    > to play very nicely with anything else.
    >
    > I usually recommend installing a removable drive bay and loading the drive
    > with the OS you desire to use at the time. A second DATA drive can always
    > remain in place for both OSes.
    >
    > I believe you simply have some optimization issues and some registry
    > bloat. And though I know you're ready to take the Vista plunge, I also
    > think you should read some of the posting history on the MS Vista
    > news groups before you open up a can of worms that will give you far
    > more headache than taking the time to optimize your XP box. If you
    > are extremely comfortable with XP, you will not be easily impressed
    > by the Vista OS.
    >
    > Vista has a proprietary partitioning system, it's own odd-ball boot record,
    > and eats XP restore points for lunch if on the same drive, just to mention
    > a few things. If you install as an upgrade, your XP license is permanently
    > removed. There are a mountain of issues (not insurmountable, however)
    > with Windows Vista, period. On a personal note, I've been through two
    > versions of Vista Home, now -Basic and Premium- using them for my
    > own familiarization and optimization experiments, before giving both of
    > them away with new computer builds for clients.
    >
    > Cheers,
    >
    > DM
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > David Morgan (MAMS)
    > Morgan Audio Media Service
    > http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com
    > Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
    > _____________________________
    > http://www.januarysound.com
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  6. #6


    R. C. White Guest

    Re: TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

    Hi, Brahman.

    After reading this latest post and the one in the other sub-thread, it's
    obvious that you have a lot more dual-booting experience than I realized.
    ;^}

    I'm a one-man one-computer kind of guy, so I don't get to see many
    motherboards and CPUs. My last 3 rigs have been EPoX mobos and AMD CPUs.
    To celebrate the RTM of Vista I got an EPoX MF570sli (AM2 socket) and AMD
    Athlon 64 X2 5000+ with 2 GB OCZ PC-6400 RAM (and added another 2 GB last
    week) with an ATI X1600 Pro graphics card. As the model number suggests,
    this mobo uses the nVidia nForce 570 chipset. After some hard-drive trauma
    in 2006, I ended up with 4 SATA II HDDs. The first 2 are Maxtor 120 & 200
    GB; the 3rd & 4th are identical 300 GB Seagates as my first RAID, a RAID 1
    mirror. Now that the Vista beta has ended, I don't need so many partitions
    and I have more disk space than I need, but it's nice to have all that elbow
    room.

    Early in the Vista beta, I installed it into 10 GB logical drives, but later
    betas got bigger and I had to use 15 GB and then 20 GB. My Vista Ultimate
    x64 RTM started out at 20 GB, but it grew in spite of my efforts to put the
    page file, WM (and WLM) message store, most of my photos and other data, and
    a lot of other stuff somewhere else. After my latest shuffling, my Drive C:
    (second volume on the second HD) is now 60 GB; about 18 GB of it is still
    free.

    In your other post you said:

    > Computer Management/Disk Management/Help/How To/Manage basic disk
    volumes/extend basic volumes - states "You cannot extend the current system
    or boot partitions"

    Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) has been one of my favorite utilities ever
    since it appeared in Win2K nearly 8 years ago. It got better in WinXP and
    still more capable in Vista. Now it will shrink volumes, and expand them,
    even into non-contiguous free space except for system and boot volumes. It
    DID extend my Drive C: into contiguous free space. WinXP can't shrink and
    expand volumes. But the DiskPart.exe shell (run in a Command Prompt window)
    can do that, and some other jobs that DM cannot, in both XP and Vista. For
    example, DM insists on creating the first 3 partitions as primary
    partitions, then creates the 4th one as a logical drive in an
    automatically-created extended partition. To get my favorite pattern of a
    single primary followed by an extended partition covering the rest of the
    drive, I had to use DiskPart.

    > Does Vista have a boot file and is it compatable with the XP boot?
    Vista uses a new startup system called BCD (Boot Configuration Data), which
    I won't try to explain in detail here. To dual-boot Vista/WinXP, you still
    need the WinXP startup files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini) in the
    System Partition. BCD ignores those files unless you choose "Previous
    operating system" from the opening menu, in which case it forgets about
    Vista, steps out of the way, loads the WinXP files and presents the familiar
    Boot.ini menu. That's why I agreed with dzomlija's suggestion to not create
    a true dual-boot, but to put only Vista on your new HD and leave WinXP on
    the old one, installed as the second HD, and switch the BIOS to boot from
    the second HD when you want to run WinXP.

    Another thing that's different in Vista Setup is assignment of drive
    letters. If you boot from the Vista DVD to run Setup, it will assign the
    letter C: to its boot volume, which may not be the same as the System
    Partition - which will then have to get a different letter, probably D:.
    These letters apply only during the Vista session, of course, and probably
    will not be the same as during a WinXP session. If you want consistent
    letters, you have to boot into WinXP and run Vista Setup from inside WinXP -
    which may not be feasible in your situation - so that Vista Setup can see
    and "inherit" the letters that WinXP has assigned.

    There's lots more, but this post is already too long, so I'll stop here.

    RC
    --
    R. C. White, CPA
    San Marcos, TX
    rc@xxxxxx
    Microsoft Windows MVP
    (Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

    "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message
    news:C409C9FF-353D-48ED-8E43-79A30356C784@xxxxxx

    > Thanks R.C. White - this was my first post and I apologize for the dual
    > post
    > issue you raise - I actually had second thoughts on the appropriate group.
    > I
    > have a Intel D975XBX board, Intel 930, 2Gb OCZ and 2 Sumsung HD16JJ
    > configured as Intel Raid 0 which I put together summer 06 with idea of
    > adopting the new OS standard after the first SP which was just released. I
    > run Office 03,Visual Studio 05, SQL Server 05 etc but discovered that 64
    > compatible has Architecture X32. I reviewed the Intel Search (board/OS).
    > It
    > seems that available downloads limit Vista versions on my board. I wonder
    > if
    > the D975XBX2 is only necessary to support Aero.
    >
    > You are running Vista Ultimate 64. What board and processor are you using?
    > When I assembled the system I thought I had expasion capabilty to run
    > Vista
    > Ultimate 64 and 64 applications by a simple processor update - but it
    > looks
    > like I was uninformed.
    >
    >
    >
    > "R. C. White" wrote:
    >

    >> Hi, Brahman.
    >>
    >> See the responses to your identical post in the OTHER newsgroup.
    >>
    >> On those rare occasions when you MUST post the same message to multiple
    >> NGs,
    >> please crosspost, rather than multi-post.
    >>
    >> That is, put all the NG addresses into a single message. That way, the
    >> message will appear in all the groups, and all the responses will be in a
    >> single coherent thread, rather than several disjointed discussions. Each
    >> responder can see the other comments and not duplicate what has already
    >> been
    >> said. The payoff for you is that you won't have to visit each of those
    >> NGs
    >> to get all the responses.
    >>
    >> Also, it's rarely necessary to post the same question six minutes later.
    >>
    >> RC
    >>
    >> "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message
    >> news:23093938-6852-475A-B0A1-1FDA3B8C866D@xxxxxx

    >> > Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    >> > created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a
    >> > third
    >> > 70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    >> > Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    >> > cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    >> > Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista
    >> > Ultimate
    >> > on that disc.
    >> > 2 questions,-
    >> > 1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    >> > 2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista
    >> > installed
    >> > Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    >> > Thanks

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  7. #7


    Brahman Guest

    Re: TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

    RC
    Thanks - there is a lot there.
    I need time to let it sink in.
    You have cast some light on the Way.

    "R. C. White" wrote:

    > Hi, Brahman.
    >
    > After reading this latest post and the one in the other sub-thread, it's
    > obvious that you have a lot more dual-booting experience than I realized.
    > ;^}
    >
    > I'm a one-man one-computer kind of guy, so I don't get to see many
    > motherboards and CPUs. My last 3 rigs have been EPoX mobos and AMD CPUs.
    > To celebrate the RTM of Vista I got an EPoX MF570sli (AM2 socket) and AMD
    > Athlon 64 X2 5000+ with 2 GB OCZ PC-6400 RAM (and added another 2 GB last
    > week) with an ATI X1600 Pro graphics card. As the model number suggests,
    > this mobo uses the nVidia nForce 570 chipset. After some hard-drive trauma
    > in 2006, I ended up with 4 SATA II HDDs. The first 2 are Maxtor 120 & 200
    > GB; the 3rd & 4th are identical 300 GB Seagates as my first RAID, a RAID 1
    > mirror. Now that the Vista beta has ended, I don't need so many partitions
    > and I have more disk space than I need, but it's nice to have all that elbow
    > room.
    >
    > Early in the Vista beta, I installed it into 10 GB logical drives, but later
    > betas got bigger and I had to use 15 GB and then 20 GB. My Vista Ultimate
    > x64 RTM started out at 20 GB, but it grew in spite of my efforts to put the
    > page file, WM (and WLM) message store, most of my photos and other data, and
    > a lot of other stuff somewhere else. After my latest shuffling, my Drive C:
    > (second volume on the second HD) is now 60 GB; about 18 GB of it is still
    > free.
    >
    > In your other post you said:
    >

    > > Computer Management/Disk Management/Help/How To/Manage basic disk
    > volumes/extend basic volumes - states "You cannot extend the current system
    > or boot partitions"
    >
    > Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) has been one of my favorite utilities ever
    > since it appeared in Win2K nearly 8 years ago. It got better in WinXP and
    > still more capable in Vista. Now it will shrink volumes, and expand them,
    > even into non-contiguous free space except for system and boot volumes. It
    > DID extend my Drive C: into contiguous free space. WinXP can't shrink and
    > expand volumes. But the DiskPart.exe shell (run in a Command Prompt window)
    > can do that, and some other jobs that DM cannot, in both XP and Vista. For
    > example, DM insists on creating the first 3 partitions as primary
    > partitions, then creates the 4th one as a logical drive in an
    > automatically-created extended partition. To get my favorite pattern of a
    > single primary followed by an extended partition covering the rest of the
    > drive, I had to use DiskPart.
    >

    > > Does Vista have a boot file and is it compatable with the XP boot?
    >
    > Vista uses a new startup system called BCD (Boot Configuration Data), which
    > I won't try to explain in detail here. To dual-boot Vista/WinXP, you still
    > need the WinXP startup files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini) in the
    > System Partition. BCD ignores those files unless you choose "Previous
    > operating system" from the opening menu, in which case it forgets about
    > Vista, steps out of the way, loads the WinXP files and presents the familiar
    > Boot.ini menu. That's why I agreed with dzomlija's suggestion to not create
    > a true dual-boot, but to put only Vista on your new HD and leave WinXP on
    > the old one, installed as the second HD, and switch the BIOS to boot from
    > the second HD when you want to run WinXP.
    >
    > Another thing that's different in Vista Setup is assignment of drive
    > letters. If you boot from the Vista DVD to run Setup, it will assign the
    > letter C: to its boot volume, which may not be the same as the System
    > Partition - which will then have to get a different letter, probably D:.
    > These letters apply only during the Vista session, of course, and probably
    > will not be the same as during a WinXP session. If you want consistent
    > letters, you have to boot into WinXP and run Vista Setup from inside WinXP -
    > which may not be feasible in your situation - so that Vista Setup can see
    > and "inherit" the letters that WinXP has assigned.
    >
    > There's lots more, but this post is already too long, so I'll stop here.
    >
    > RC
    > --
    > R. C. White, CPA
    > San Marcos, TX
    > rc@xxxxxx
    > Microsoft Windows MVP
    > (Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)
    >
    > "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message
    > news:C409C9FF-353D-48ED-8E43-79A30356C784@xxxxxx

    > > Thanks R.C. White - this was my first post and I apologize for the dual
    > > post
    > > issue you raise - I actually had second thoughts on the appropriate group.
    > > I
    > > have a Intel D975XBX board, Intel 930, 2Gb OCZ and 2 Sumsung HD16JJ
    > > configured as Intel Raid 0 which I put together summer 06 with idea of
    > > adopting the new OS standard after the first SP which was just released. I
    > > run Office 03,Visual Studio 05, SQL Server 05 etc but discovered that 64
    > > compatible has Architecture X32. I reviewed the Intel Search (board/OS).
    > > It
    > > seems that available downloads limit Vista versions on my board. I wonder
    > > if
    > > the D975XBX2 is only necessary to support Aero.
    > >
    > > You are running Vista Ultimate 64. What board and processor are you using?
    > > When I assembled the system I thought I had expasion capabilty to run
    > > Vista
    > > Ultimate 64 and 64 applications by a simple processor update - but it
    > > looks
    > > like I was uninformed.
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > "R. C. White" wrote:
    > >

    > >> Hi, Brahman.
    > >>
    > >> See the responses to your identical post in the OTHER newsgroup.
    > >>
    > >> On those rare occasions when you MUST post the same message to multiple
    > >> NGs,
    > >> please crosspost, rather than multi-post.
    > >>
    > >> That is, put all the NG addresses into a single message. That way, the
    > >> message will appear in all the groups, and all the responses will be in a
    > >> single coherent thread, rather than several disjointed discussions. Each
    > >> responder can see the other comments and not duplicate what has already
    > >> been
    > >> said. The payoff for you is that you won't have to visit each of those
    > >> NGs
    > >> to get all the responses.
    > >>
    > >> Also, it's rarely necessary to post the same question six minutes later.
    > >>
    > >> RC
    > >>
    > >> "Brahman" <Brahman@xxxxxx> wrote in message
    > >> news:23093938-6852-475A-B0A1-1FDA3B8C866D@xxxxxx
    > >> > Have XP Pro installed on a Raid 0 pair of samsug hd.During installation
    > >> > created a partitions of 15gb C:\ System, f 40gb D:\ Programs and a
    > >> > third
    > >> > 70gb E:\ Data unassigned 140gb.
    > >> > Because the C:\ has turned out to be too small and causes XP problems -
    > >> > cannot expand C:\, therefore not practical to conduct a upgrade.
    > >> > Plan to install a new Sumsung 1Tb ( faster) Hd and install Vista
    > >> > Ultimate
    > >> > on that disc.
    > >> > 2 questions,-
    > >> > 1.0 The pros and cons of partitioning the new HD i.e. F:\ G:\?
    > >> > 2.0 Any problems associated with keeping Xp installed with Vista
    > >> > installed
    > >> > Under NT could mod boot .init - does Vista have an equilvant?
    > >> > Thanks
    >

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

TWO OS/ Partitions other than C:\

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