Files for booting computer, drive lettering

[Wai_Wai]

Info about my computer (You may skip it and read question first)

Two HDD:

- Western Digital 160GB (in primary master IDE)

- Maxtor 20GB (in secondary master IDE)

And 1 CD-RW:

- Ricoh CD-RW (in secondary slave IDE)

Drive:

C - WD (putting files to boot up my computer)

D - WD (contain new Wins XP Pro)

E - WD (for storage)

F - CD-RW

G - Maxtor (contain old Wins 98)

1. After I deleted the whole partition and wins 98 [the Maxtor one], some problems occurred

Since I have 2 HDDs, I can set one as primary drive; another, secondary.

When I set WD as the primary drive, the error message shows when booting:

- Invalid system disks. Replace the disk, and then press any key.

When I set Maxtor HDD as the primary drive, I could boot it but couldn't boot Wins XP. Instead I enter into the Wins setup program (from CD).

I guess (it is a guess! >.<) the problem is the files (for booting computer up) are locating in my Maxtor HDD. I don't want to boot from it. I would like to transfer the files to my WD HDD. How could I do?

2. Just wonder:

Does the choice of "booting from Maxtor HDD or WD HDD" have any effects/problems/benefits on computers? (eg performance, security)

3. Also I would like to change the drive order as follows:

Drive order changing:

C, D, E - the same as before

F - Maxtor (contain old Wins 98)

G - CD-RW

Does anyone know how to do?

PS: I tend not to change drive letters in Wins system tool. I'm afraid changing it will cause Wins or programs malfunction.

4. Just wonder:

Will a drive letter have any effects/problems/benefits on computers? (eg performance, security)

[GeneralMandible]

If you are going to do a lot with multiple partitions, I would recommend getting Partition Magic. Simple to use and works great. I would also recommend just going with Windows XP Pro and do what wrban suggested in the SW hangout on the partitioning. Good Luck.

[jaclaz]

Well, it's quite a delicate topic, not very easy for a newbie.

In my experience latest versions of Partition Magic are not that good.

Moreover Partition Magic has some non-standard ways to write partition tables and in certain configuration can really mess up your system.

If you want to go Commercial, I suggest you Acronis

http://www.acronis.com/products/

However if you want to learn how to manage your partitions the best tool is Ranish Partitionmanager (freeware)

http://www.ranish.com/part/

Using it together with XOSL (same page) and Bootpart (cardware)

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

you can setup a system ANY way you want to.

Another few useful tools:

Restart

http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software/index.html

Bootini C.U.

http://www.dx21.com/SOFTWARE/Dx21/ViewItem...I=2&SI=2&OID=14

(though not stated works with Xp boot.ini as well)

So answers are this:

1. You would better read all docs about Partitionmanager, Bootpart and XOSL and re-install accordingly.

2.Put the swap file on the fastest drive, see 3. below

3. In Nt4/Win2k/XP (and to a less extent in Win9x too) you can assign letters to drives from within the OS, though there are some limitations about the boot drive letter. These settings are only pertinent from within the booted OS, so you can easily find yourself with different lettering if you boot from a floppy or CD or from a second OS. I always recommend to format the hard disk so that any OS will read partitions and assign letters at least in the right ORDER.

Here is a couple good links:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=108

http://www.dougknox.com/tips/xp_drive_letters.htm and subsequent MS ones

Here is the general way I suggest to setup a system, found it some time ago on another board and sticked to it since, (adapt it to your needs):

My experience (just read winXP instead of Win2000):
NTFS is a great filesystem, but if something goes wrong, it may become a pain in the neck, even repairing it with software like Winininternals may reveal to be tricky business.
This is what I normally do when I setup a new system:
1) Make the first primary partition (C: FAT16 about 1 Gb in size
2) Make an extended partition of the rest of the drive
3) Make inside the extended partition the following volumes:
D: Fat32 about 2 Gb in size for a Win98 installation (if needed);
E: Fat32 about 700 Mb in size for Data (the size is made to be sure that everything goes on a cd without trouble);
(if you need more space for data repeat the above n times)
F: NTFS rest of the space to install Windows 2000
S: Fat32 (as it is slightly faster) for the swap file  size = 1,5 x your total memory installed, as a SWAP FILE separate from the System partition (speeds a little bit things, but most important simplifies the defrag process and, by not continuosly overwriting free space on the partition you have data on, increases probability of recovering erroneously deleted data)
4) Install Windows 2000 TWO times, the first on F:\WINNT\ with a full install, the second on C:\nt911\ with a minimal install for recovery purpose
5) install WIN98 (if needed) on D:
6) install DOS 6.22 (if needed) on C:
7) use Bootpart http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
to manage the multi-booting environment
This way I achieve a few results:
1) I can always use Bootpart to repair bootsectors
2) I have a second install of win2k for recovery purpose
3) I have all data ready to backup on a single CD
4) "Dumb" viruses will just wipe something in C: or the first n sectors of the drive, leaving data and system partitions untouched and easy recoverable

In your case putting the SWAP file on a separate DRIVE will really speed up things.

4. No, except for the (rare) case above of "dumb" malware that always look for C:\

Hope the above helps.

Jaclaz