How To Partition 2 Hard Drives

[Guest]

Hello Everybody,

I am new to the forum & I need some help partitioning my two hard drive.I would really appreciate any help.

I have a P III 500 , 192 MB RAM, Windows 98 2nd Edition, 40 GB Single partition one drive only system. I connect this drive to internet to download files.

I would like to add a second 40 GB drive and install two operating systems namely Win 98 and Windows XP home edition. I want to install Win XP just for learning purpose only. I am experienced with Win 98 only.

(1) I would like to partition first drive in 3 partitions and keep win 98 on it. I have 30 GB free space on it. But since it has only one partition it has a large cluster size of 32 KB. What would happen if I partition it in 3 partitions of 13.3 GB each? Would I be able to keep old files as they are or what should I do?

(2) I want to keep second drive totally hidden from first when I boot the first drive to avoid any transfer of viruses just in case if I get it from internet when I connect the first drive to internet. But if possible I would like to back up some files from the first drive to second drive.

(3) I would lke to partition second 40 GB drive in 4 partitions if possible.

(4) Can you guide me as to how many Primary and active and how many logical partition should I make on first drive?

(5) Also how many primary and active and how many logical partition should I make on second drive? In which partition should I install Win 98 & which partition should I install Win XP Home editition so that for daily work I can work with Win 98 & for learning purpose I can boot the Win XP on this second drive? I suppose Win XP uses FAT 32 file system?

Please let me make myself clear that I want to work on both drives but only one at a time with windows 98 and boot only one drive and keep second drive totally hidden when I am working on any one of them to prevent transfer of a virus in case if the drive I am working with is infected? I want to boot Win XP Home edition for learning purpose only.

I would really appreciate your kind help.

Thank You,
Sincerely,
Michael

 

[Lars_Coleman]

To add partitions to an already partitioned hard drive your going to need a third party program like partition magic from <i>PowerQuest</i> (unless you want to format and reinstall Win98).

If you want to keep the second drive totally hidden, just use it for the Windows XP drive and partition it off in NTFS partitions.

For the first drive your going to want one primary DOS partition (that's all you can create on one hard drive in Fdisk), an extended dos partition, with two logical dos drives (I partition it in 3 partitions of 13.3 GB each).

With the Windows XP hard drive you can partition it from the installation CD, Fdisk, or wait till you have XP installed. I would create one primary and one extended with three logical partitions (I would lke to partition second 40 GB drive in 4 partitions if possible).

**To tell you the truth, XP isn't a difficult OS. You may just want to look at getting rid of Windows 98 all together?

<font color=red>People and hard drives are like bandwagon fans and sports!</font color=red>