Help - Replacing HD on dual boot system

[hardcodder]

Hello there,

I really hope someone can help me out with my problem. I don't know if this is the correct forum, so please forgive me if i posted in the wrong one.

I have a gigabyte kt266A mobo. 3 partitions were made on the 40gb HD (C, D, and E) with Windows 98SE installed on C: (yes, it's an old setup). Later i wanted to add another, bigger HD (160gb) and install XP on it (make it a dual boot system). The second HD was installed on the 2nd IDE channel as a master ( i work with audio so i wanted as quick transfers as possible). I also wanted 8 partitions on that 2nd HD. Programs would only be installed on the first partition of each disc, all the rest of the partitions would only contain audio files to be streamed from disk.
The technician that did the installation did not use Fdisk to create the partitions before he begun the XP installation but instead he created them while installing XP. As a result, when i boot from XP i see things the way i would expect them:

C - 1st partition of HD #1
D - 2nd partition of HD #1
E - 3rd partition of HD #1
F - dvd drive
G - dvd drive
H - 1st partition of HD #2
.
.
.
O - 8th partition of HD #2

But when i boot from win98se i got:

C - 1st partition of HD #1
D - 1st partition of HD #2
E - 2nd partition of HD #1
F - 3rd partition of HD #1
G - 2nd partition of HD #2
H - 3rd partition of HD #2
.
.
.
L - 7th partition of HD #2
M - dvd drive
N - dvd drive

First observation, win98se do not see the 8th partition of the 2nd HD (norton ghost won't, either) maybe because DOS and 98SE reach the size-limit they can read? Can anyone explain that?

Second, everything works fine. Both drives are fat32. Everything works flawlessly... Until now, that i need more space. I can either add a third HD or replace one. Do i need a PCI board to add another HD? In that case, it worries me that it might create a bottleneck since both that HD and the audio card will share the same bus.
I could be wrong, please let me know what you think.

I think it is better if i choose to replace one HD. I have ghost-image backups for the OS partitions, so i would have thought that all i need is replace the 98SE a disk and then restore image. The problem is that (as am told) if i replace the first HD with another one then it will not be a dual boot system anymore, they (technicians) told me that the new first disc will not contain any information about another OS (XP) being on the second HD.

Is that true?

If so, then would the only thing left to do be that i will need to reinstall XP on the 2nd HD?

I wouldn't want to reinstall the XP partition - i've spend too much time tweaking it to get it where it is now
But...
what if, say, I replace the 1st HD, make the same number of partitions on it, then just install win98se on it, then re-install XP (on the first partition of the 2nd disk) and when the istallation is over, i choose to RESTORE BOTH the 98se ghost-image to the 1st (new) HD and the XP ghost image to the 1st partition of the 2nd HD (where it originally was)...????
What then?
Would i end up with everything the way they are now, but with a new HD?
Should't all my programs work the way they work now?
Am i correct in my assumptions or am i simply... wrong?

If i am wrong, then the only other way to avoid re-installations would be to replace the 2nd disk with an even bigger one, make the same number of partitions (do i have to?) and then just load the XP Ghost image. THAT should work, right?
Right?!?!

Please let me know what you think. Any (and i mean ANY) kind of advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read all this.
Kind Regards.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Long post there buddy.

For win98 to see the 8th partition must be below 64gb's (someone correct me if im wrong). The easiest thing to do is get a USB hdd for aditional space. Considering your using a windows 98 machine, you cant be that conserned about speed. To speed things up get a usb2.0 card and your set. If you want to upgrade your large XP hard drive, use Norton to ghost it completly over to a new hdd. This will keep all the partition information intact so you wont have to mess with it.

If you want futher info let me know.

 

[hardcodder]

Thanks for your input.

Considering your using a windows 98 machine, you cant be that conserned about speed.

It's not a 98 machine, it's a dual boot. I run XP, with 98 being there only to give me instant access to the sound files, in case something happens to XP when i'm about to deliver a project.

If you want to upgrade your large XP hard drive, use Norton to ghost it completly over to a new hdd. This will keep all the partition information intact so you wont have to mess with it.

If i ghost it completely like you say, what size are the partitions going to be on the new HD? Just like the old one? What about the extra space on the new HD?

What if i want to have the same number of partitions but different sizes, would i have to do what i mentioned at the end of my original post? (install XP, then restore old image of 1st partition?)

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Norton ghost will duplicate all partitions and data contained within. What you will see is extra unformated space which you can format inside windowsXP under the disk management tool. However, it seems like an external HDD would be the most reliable and easy solution to your issue. As for what you mentioned about ghosting just partition 1 and recreating the others... I dont recomend it. There are complications that are hard to safely go over on a forum.

 

[hardcodder]

Where is the extra space going to appear? IS it going to be added in the last partition?

Would you care to mention some of the complications of ghosting just one partition?

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

The extra space wont appear anywhere. You must go to to disk management to format the extra space. Right click my computer -> Manage -> Diskmanagement -> your new hard drive. It will list the extra space and Unpartitioned space. Right click it and select format.


If you ghost over one partition you will have one partition and the rest of the free space will be unpartitioned and to see the space you will need to do the above.

Complicatoins will arise because of the complexity of your setup. I dont know exactly wants installed on each partition. But its a new hard drive, so try it... cant hurt.

 

[hardcodder]

Thank you very much for your reply.

To give you an idea of what i mean by using the ghost image of the 1st partition:

The HD in question (let's call it HD#2) is secondary master and contains xp pro - it is part of a dual boot system (HD#1 contains win98se). As it is now, HD#2 has 8 partitions. The 1st contains the OS and programs. All the rest of the partitions contain ONLY sound files that are used by the programs in partition 1 but ARE NOT LINKED to them - they are individual files.
The ghost image that i have is of the first partition ONLY, it is not a disk image.

So, what i was wondering if could do is this:

1) Buy a new, bigger, HD
2) replace HD#2 with it
3) install xp on it and during installation make the same number of partitions on it (or more maybe - it would'nt affect anything, would it?)
4) Once xp is installed, restart to dos, load Ghost and restore the image (of the 1st partition of the old disk) to the 1st partition of the new disk.

So, would that work? It should, shouldn't it?
Will it still be a dual boot system on startup? I think it should. I think it should work the same as if i hadn't replaced the disc, but correct me if i am wrong.

 

[hardcodder]

Any help, anyone?

 

[hardcodder]

I'd appreciate some advice...

 

[slicessoul]

Later i wanted to add another, bigger HD (160gb) and install XP on it (make it a dual boot system)

I'm afraid that your system won't support HDD larger than 137GB because your mobo doesn't support 48bit LBA.
Check this site : http://www.48bitlba.com/win98.htm

For win98 to see the 8th partition must be below 64gb's (someone correct me if im wrong).

Maximum volume to format for FAT32 is 32GB and maximum file size is 4GB.