Partition Problem

davoc

Right,
i want to dual boot win2k and win98.

My plan was to create a fat 32 partition to throw all my non executable data such as mp3s, video files, code, various documents, drivers etc onto.

then both Win 2k and Win 98 could use the files on this partition, so i wont have to move completely to 2k until im happy with it

So i went about first running a thorough scandisk followed by a defrag on my 40 gig hd which was running win 98 at the time.

some 20 hours of scanning and defraging later!!, i installed Acronis Os Selector 5, which includes a partitioning tool, onto a floppy, rebooted of the floppy and created an 8 gig partition to hold my data (bout 7.5 gig of data and 500mb for anything i forgot) with Acronis .

rebooted into windows, transfered data over to the new partition, double checked i had everything important (forgot my address book incidentally), and restarted in dos to format the 30gig partition which had win98 on it.

that went fine.

then installed win 98 on the main partition ( i hear its best to do clean installs when setting up a dual booting system ).
some of my drivers were on the 8 gig partition, so i pointed windows towards them and it installed away a few bits n bobs.

a few restarts later, i was down to my last yellow exclamation mark in system properties-devices, the modem it was, check on my 8 gig to see where driver for it was...................

EVERY FCUKING THING GONE FROM 8 GIG PARTITION!!

not everything, but most

all mp3s, drivers, music videos, not the code(ta be to f3ck) gone, but a right click properties was still saying that the space was being used.

randomly it seemed aswell, some folders were missing a few files others totally empty, some left untouched

every thing magically disappeared but is still taking up space.
wtf?

not luckily, i was down home last weekend ( coincidence i think not!!) and backed up everything on my hd to my home pc.
Thank you Brain.

so all is not lost, anyone know how to retrieve these files?

ran scandisk and it filled the 8 gig with .chk files, bout 150 of them.

help if ye can.....

ta

sinus

i created a dual 98/2000 machine last week like this

fdisk a 30 gb machine in 2 15gb partitions

setup win98 installed drivers

then set up win2000 on logic d:

rebooted

had a boot menu for 98/2000

no probs


samething happened me with partition magic 6 - lost all mp3s - so i still with fdisk anymore

Boston

im trying to follow this, but why did you format the partition with win98 on it? there wasnt any need i can think of.

Have you any disk diagnoisic tools, like the type on norton work suite or even partition magic can give valuable information.

sinus

windows 2000 loaded over a previous os (as long as win2000 isnt an upgrade) by default create a dual boot (ntdlr)

but this doesnt work if you load win98 after loading win2000

Frank Grimes

ran scandisk and it filled the 8 gig with .chk files, bout 150 of them.

That's probably where the missing data is, so don't go deleting them. As for recovering the data, I ain't too sure.

The safest way to do what you want to do is get a hold of Partition Magic. Install 98 on the entire disk, install PM, set up the NTFS partition and then the data partition, then stick 2000 onto the NTFS partition.

Boston

what are you talking about sinus

SantaHoe

Originally posted by Boston
what are you talking about sinus

<Translation>
He means that if another MS OS is installed (say windows 98), then you install a fresh Win2k ... it will give you a boot menu to ask which OS you want to load up every time you boot the PC.
Where as installing Win9x once Win2k is already installed as the default OS will not provide said boot menu.
<End Translation>

I've had no problems just dumping both OS's on the same partition, although certain programs like NetMeeting won't be at all happy sharing the same /program files/ between two OS's.

Boston

yes but why did he say it, it seems total random and obvious

davoc

For two reasons really,

1. the installation had gotten a bit buggy and was crashing quite a lot in the last few months. so i thought a clean install would help that situation.

2. also, all of my applications/games were installed on this partition and my 40 gig hd would not allow me the space to have all of my apps installed on both partitions (pretty pointless anyway). so this was a fast, easy (and probably more efficient way of getting rid of them by uninstalling everything, thus leaving the registry in a shambles) way of clearing it out.

im keeping 98 just in case some older apps and games have problems with 2000.


Anyway, last night i decided to just save what i could off the 8 gig partition that got messed up,
then formatted it,
resized the main partition to the size of the entire harddrive(still have 98 on there),
made an ntfs partition,
installed win2k on that,
quite happy now .
just hoping that i dont get a similar partition problem again.

like i said before, i have a copy of all the data that got shagged on another machine at home, so things aint too bad(unless mum's disovered the format c: command:) ).


one win 2k question now, rather than starting a new topic about it.

when i boot up after a shut down, the display settings are a bit messed up. i log on, check display properties, the color options are 2 or 16 bit, resolution options are 640 * 480 or 800 * 600.

then after a few seconds (in which i head to devices/display adapters) , i recheck the settings and they are what they should be at for my tnt2 ultra and i then set color and resolution to my preference.
i didnt actually do anything, it jst decided, "oh we'll give him him his usual display settings options back again".
its then fine for the day until its shutdown again, logging on and off does not have any effect just shutting down.

Frank Grimes

the display settings area bit messed up

In what way are they messed up?

Did you try reinstalling the drivers for the card?

WhiteWashMan

forget the dual boot and just install win2k on your main partition.
one you have a nicely installed OS you can then go about getting your data back. in fact the only thing that you dont need from the partition is the drivers.
i think after 2 years you would have heard about any glitches or serious bugs in the OS by now. the only problem i have with 2k is its apparent lack of abilty to play old dos games properly. apart from that, it kicks win98 about thye place.

Renton

Originally posted by sinus
windows 2000 loaded over a previous os (as long as win2000 isnt an upgrade) by default create a dual boot (ntdlr)

but this doesnt work if you load win98 after loading win2000

Originally posted by Boston
what are you talking about sinus

What are you talking about Boston ? Hes making perfect sense.