cuddles

One more question... since I've heard (and it's logical) that swap file performance is best when used on an entirely seperate drive, would it be possible to have all the partitions the same as they are, but not use Raid 0, and instead have the second 74GB saved for games, apps and swap file? So all OS'es would be on the first drive, with games, etc and swap on the second. Would that work? Then I could use the remaining first drive for storage as well as holding the OSes and leave the second drive just for games and swap.

Sounds good then Does having the swap file on a seperate partition improve performance or degrade it at all?

One more quick question. If I don't use the <1GB C:\ install, is there any way to keep C:\ as my main XP install and D:\ as my data partition, with the others following behind, or is there no way to do it? C:\XP D:\apps, etc E:\2000 F:\2000 G:\2003 But still install them as the above order?

Thanks so much man. I pulled this site after getting NO help on figuring this out on a few other hardware forums (can't blame them really), and was hoping for a reponse here. I probably won't get to doing all of this for a week or so, but you've definately got me off to the races. Thanks so much

Thanks man! I was just in the midst of searching the MSI forums for similar threads. I found a few, but none with solid answers, so you've helped a lot So all I need now is to make my Win2K SPnothing install slipstreamed to a Win2K SP4 install and I'm set. Do you recommend creating all those partitions in FDISK or using the Win2K install utility to set up partitions? I'm not sure that I have a bootdisk that'll let me get into FDISK anymore, since I've been on XP so long. EDIT: Ahhh, alright. I may consider that then. I just realized that I also don't know how to set up all these OS's to be chosen at startup and how to install them all properly... I guess the order should be : FDISK all partitions 2K < 1GB install on C:\ Both Win2K installs 2003 XP Guess I'm off to find out how to get all of these to work together... this is turning out to be a huge chore.

Ok, I'm not 100% clear on the actual purpose of the C:\. Everything else makes sense to me, it sounds good. It sounds insane to me (I've only ever used one drive only, and just recently started using 2 partitions), but it sounds good. Now I just have to find some way to hunt down 2K Raid drivers and get slipstreamed versions of each OS... this is going to take a while. Thank you for the suggestion on the setup, that's what I'll use. Just not clear on the reason I'd have a C:\ under 1GB on FAT16. I'm one of those people who runs no AV, no FW software and never has a virus or any issues, so I never use any sort of recovery features. Thanks for the help

I guess this is the best place to post this. I'm not a total newb to computers by any means (running an FX-53 @ 2.64 stock HSF, x800 Pro VIVO -> XT @ 575 / 590, etc etc), but when it comes to specific things regarding Windows, I'm not so great. I can get myself around, but anything far beyond registry tweaking isn't something I'm great at. So, how in the hell am I going to manage this? I figured I'd install 2K twice, then 2003, then XP. But I use dual Raptors for my drives and run Raid 0. My Raid 0 drivers that came with my mobo (S939 K8N Neo2) say 'WinXP Only' on them... so how am I going to manage this? This is what I was thinking : 10GB C:\ - Windows XP xxGB D:\ - Apps, Programs, Games, etc (for XP install only) 5GB E:\ - Windows 2000 5GB F:\ - Windows 2000 5GB G:\ - Windows 2003 Server I'm just wondering how I'll get this all set up. Assuming I somehow learn to get my XP and 2K installs slipstreamed so that I can just install easily with all drivers included (still have to go through the trouble of figuring all that out) fully tweaked, what order do I install these OS's? How do I get my Raid drivers set up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! (A quick side question (Which I can post another thread for if I need to) regarding paging files and such, how do I set all this up optimally? Paging on D? C? Share paging files on any specific partition?)