How do I make this? (2 os, windows xp, hide/unhide partitions, gag, blah=CONFUSION?

my HDD is partitioned like this:

system (c:) 10gb [for windows]
system (d:) 40gb [for applications]
system (e:) 140gb [for my stuff]

system (f:) 10gb [for windows]
system (g:) 30gb [for stuff]

system (h:) 3gb [additional emergency partition, just in case if i screw up everything, where to install another os to get to files]
————————
so i installed windows xp on (c:) and then on (f:) too, because i share my pc with mom, and my plan is to make two independent os,

where first one uses only (c:),(d:),(e:) partitions, while (f:) and (g:) partitons stays invisible and inaccessible for it
and
second one uses only (f:),(g:)partitions, while (c:),(d:),(e:) are invisible and inaccessible for it

(h:)is invisible for both of them
————————–
SO..

1. how do i make dual boot or whatever, and do i need it at all
(at system startup it allows me to chose which installed os to run anyways, but since they both are winxp it can cause mistakes),
so i’d like to use gag (graphic boot manager) but as long as i had patience and intelligence to read instructions it says either both os have to be on same partition (or was it hdd? S=) either i need to have this ibm boot manager, and since i’m n00b and have very little patience on me i’ d like to get some faster, easier to do and more n00b safe solutions (i dunno even what dos, sectors etc are so plz bare me)

2. what does hide partition option mean (partition magic 8.0)? what it does? can i unhide them when it’ s needed too?

3. how can hide partitions on one os, so that they stay visible on another one? can i do this with hide option at partition magic 8.0?

4. or basically what programs n stuff do i need to make my plan?

thnx

..and yes only 30gigs will do for mom =p


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How do I get to my HD data when the system will not boot (Pt 2)?

less than 200 MB free.

Anyway, the space on "E" we didn’t need, so I decided to make "J" bigger by taking all but 5 GB of the free space
on "E" and adding it to "J".

I used Partition Magic to move the free space at the top end of "E" to the beginning, which made it contiguous to the
top end of "J", which, as I said, was right at the 1024 cylinder boundary (Partition Magic marks the boundary).

Moving the free space went fine,no problems at all.

I then used Partition Magic to add the free space at the bottom of "E" to the top of "J", and this is where everything hit the fan.

A warning showed up in PM about crossing the 1024 cylinder boundary, but I didn’t think it applied because all I was doing
was adding free space. Naturally, I was wrong – shouldn’t have done it!!!

So, the status of the machine now is this:

(1) the space was moved

(2) the machine comes up in dual-boot mode (as it always has) and asks which OS to start

(3) DOS runs fine, but, of course, sees only the 2 GB "C" drive

(4) If I select booting WIN 2K, it starts normally, at least at first, but then asks to check each drive for errors.
If I let the drive check proceed, it checks each drive and finds no errors. Then the system pops up the blue screen
of death with some message at the top that’s too quick to read (but I did figure it out – see below…), and then
the system re-boots. It just keeps on doing this, and it does the same thing whether or not I allow the disk check
to proceed.

Question is, WHAT TO DO???? I’m ready to make the machine into a boat anchor, but I really need what’s on it. I’m not
concerned about losing applications, and I’m willing to reformat the drive and start from scratch, but we must get the data
back (mostly photos not yet backed up to CD).

(5) Booting from another device? Seems like a good idea – but it doesn’t work! Even if I enter the BIOS at power-up and change
the order of the boot devices, trying to boot from a CD drive, it will not boot! For example, if I insert the Win 2K steup disk
in the CD drive, it still boots from the hard drive. The system does boot from a 3.5" floppy, and I’vedone that several times
using Win 98 and Win ME boot floppies. But they start the system in DOS, not Windows, and it seems like there’s no where to go to
retrieve the hard disk data.


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