Partitioning And Software.

[lufbra]

Okay, I am absotootley new to the Partitioning aspect of computing, so please pardon my total ignorance of this for now. Anyhow, this past weekend I installed Windows XP, and have it set up as a partition, it is in the "D" drive, and I have Windows ME in the "C" drive.

My question is, if I have any programs installed onto the "C" drive, can they be used while using XP on the "D" drive, or do I have to install them onto XP? For example, if I have the program WS FTP installed on the "C" drive, will that work when I'm using XP, or do I have to download it again, another example would be my using MusicMatch Jukebox, would that have to be installed onto XP?

The reason for my question, I just downloaded and installed the AVG Anti Virus program (compatable with XP), onto XP, thinking I would have to do this. But once installed, and after running the updates, I ran the program, it first searched through the "C" drive, then the "D" drive for viruses, so I know that program doesn't have to be installed twice!!

TIA.

:) :) :)

Dave.

[Junky]

Hi Dave!!! :)

I guess I'll throw in here till you get someone that knows what they're doing.

I've never ran two OS's on two different partitions before, but, all programs have to be installed from within the OS so that registry entries can be made so the program can run.

If it were me, I'd keep everthing seperated, independent of each other, but what do I know. ;) Now...wasn't I helpful? :D

[ 04 February 2002: Message edited by: Junky ]

[lufbra]

LOL!!!

The fact you say to keep everything seperated is what confuses me, and that's why I was asking about this. I thought, and this may run true with your theory, that installing the AV would have to be done, but I guess not with that program!!! After running the AV, and seeing it search me "C" drive and the "D" drive. that's what prompted me to ask about the other programs!! ;)

Dave.

[sedu]

I don't know if there is a hard and fast answer to your question. Certain programs like the MS Office Suite are registry dependent and must be installed in each system. Others, like Photoshop, can be installed on one system and run from a shortcut on the other's Desktop. The only real advice I can give is to install on one system and try to access it from the other.

[smurfy]

Dave, both posts here have alluded to the main barrier here.
The Windows Registry.
Any application that requires any registry entry will only work properly if installed under each O/S.
An application that makes no registry changes (e.g DOS type or the likes of Irfanview) will run fine from each.
That's not to say the program won't run if you try from the "other" O/S but it will (more likely than not) have errors or function unpredictably.

As far as the AVG goes, you are still running it from the XP partition, even though it sees and scans the other partition, it is not actually running under WinME. I can almost guarantee that if you booted to WinME and tried to run AVG you'd fail.
When you boot to ME, do you even see the D partition and XP files?

In any of my Multi-Windows boot systems, I always hide one from the other to avoid registry conflicts.

Think of it like this:
Partitioning for a multi O/S system is a software method of having two hard drives.
The hardware method is to have a swappable HDD and you shut down say ME, swap for the other one with XP and never the twain shall meet. I believe that when you use Software to do it, you should retain that separation.

[degsy]

Yes Dave,
Keep everything seperate.
You now have two systems, think of them as two different PC's.

The only things you should share are personal documents, photo's etc.
But really, you should create another partition for Data.

C:\ = WinME & Programs installed under WinME
D:\ = XP & Programs installed unser XP
E:\ = Data. Personal Documents, Photo's, webpages etc.

The reason AGV scanned the C: drive is because it is set to do it.
The same with Scandisk & Defrag. They will still scan the C: & D: drives which ever OS you are using at the time.

[smurfy]

Yeah Degs, good point on the E: partition but poor Dave has only just got it working with 2, I didn't want to confuse the poor chicken man with a partition that had NO O/S on it all :D

[lufbra]

Oh boy, so now you are saying I should create a third partition....why do I need to do that, and how?

Well I guess I'm understanding this partition thing a little more now, and I guess I have to install all the programs I regularly use, onto the XP partition. I must say I found it odd that when I eventually manage to set up my Outlook Express account through XP, it doesn't give me my full address book, I have to retrieve them from ME manually.

Thanks for all the help here guys!!!! :)

Dave.

[Surfer]

I have small partitions (5.5 gigs) for win2k and winxp. One large partition for programs. Each programs is installed into the same directory from each OS's. No problems with any program from Adobe to Zone Alarm. Sure saves lots of disk space.

[Surfer]

But be careful with games and common folder installations.

[lufbra]

"I have small partitions (5.5 gigs) for win2k and winxp. One large partition for programs. Each programs is installed into the same directory from each OS's. No problems with any program from Adobe to Zone Alarm. Sure saves lots of disk space".

Okay, I guess I'm not fully understanding the partition concept yet...nothing new about my understanding much about computers!! :)

I have a 40 gig hard drive, now split because of the partitions for XP and ME, can I reduce these partitions?

Surfer, you say this..."One large partition for programs. Each programs is installed into the same directory from each OS's".

Does this mean that I do not need programs installed onto the partitions that have XP or ME?

Also, I have Outlook Express as my e-mail program, set up with my Mediaone (cable) ISP. I now have it set up to run with the ME partition, and on the XP partition. But I find that if I'm in one of these (XP or ME), the mail comes into the one I'm on, but on opening the other, I don't see the same mail coming in, just new mails coming in while I'm using that OS!! Is there a way of getting all mail received, in both patitions?

:)

Dave.

[Dodge]

Dave, didn't you use Partition magic for the Partitions? If so then YES you can reduce the size of the Partitions and create new ones.

I like Win/XP to be in the NTFS format that way it doesn't mess with things on my 98se system. I had problems with my AOL settings being changed. If used AOL in 98 it had to detect the modem, then when i'd go to XP I had to do the same thing. I converted XP to NTFS and problem was solved.

Like everyone else mentioned. You will have to install each program into each OS that you have due to the Registry entries each Program needs in order to Work properly or at all......

[smurfy]

Surfer, to clarify, please confirm this works in your system:

C: - Win XP
D: - Win2000
E: - Apps
then the rest (F: - Data, G: - music )
then the other drives (CD etc)

You boot to Win XP, install (for Example) MS Office to E:\Program Files\Office.
Then boot to Win2000 and install Office to E:\Program Files\Office
and Office is happy because it has it's registry entries in both O/S's?
Obviously Office install still installs it's set of needed files to Windows directory as well as the program files to E: but I can see how the drive space would be conserved.
That's great.

Dave, with regards mail programs, once you have your third partition, you can set that as the store location for the mailbox and each install of Outlook should be able to see the same set of mailboxes/address books etc. In OE 5.5 Tools>Options>Maintenance>Store Folder.

[sedu]

Make sure in the properties section of your e-mail provider that you have checked to "leave messages on server" or else the first system collecting mail will download them and when you open the other system there will be no mail to download except new mail. As for your address book, you can import it from your other Outlook program so that you don't have to do it manually.

[lufbra]

Oh boy, I'm getting a little bit confoosed here!!! :(

Some of you are saying you have OS's on seperate partitions, and programs on yet another partition, others are saying I need each program on each OS partition! I can understand the last part of this, having programs installed on each OS partition, but if it is possible to have the programs on a seperate partition, how can they be used withing the OS partitions, or don't they need to be used there?

I did set up Partition Magic, but upon doing a reformat, I lost that program, but can add it back on if need be. My XP is running under the NTFS format. As for the Outlook Express, I see no feature saying "leave messages on server"! :(

Thanks for your help here guys, as you can clearly see, I need all the help I can get!!! ;)

Dave.

[smurfy]

Dave, the application files DO NOT need to be on the same partition as the O/S (in most cases - SOME apps will insist on it or not give you the option during setup so will need to be installed to O/S partitions).

If I'm reading Surfer right you need to do the following:

Step 1: Resize your 2 partitions with Partition Magic and make a third partition for Apllications and data storage.
The only things that will be on the O/S partitions are the Windows files (and some apps that need to be there)

Step 2: Install your applications to E:\Program files intead of C:\Program files.
You need to repeat this step under each O/S for each Application.
e.g. Install MMJukeBox in ME to E:\Program Files\MusicMatch
then boot to XP and install it to the same directory. What this will do is over-write the files in E:\Program Files\MusicMatch with the same files but won't change anything in the ME partition so ME will still se MMJB installed where it expects to find it.
The exceptions to this will be when you have different versions of same program for each O/S. (i.e. XP version of AVG incompatible with ME or vice-versa) in which case you can still install them both to E:\ but to different directories e.g E:\MEProgram Files\
and E:\XPProgram Files\)

Step 3: As mentioned above, change the store folder in Outlook Express to a new folder on E: from within both O/S - that way they will share the same inbox.dbx etc. You will not then need to worry about leaving messages on mail server (this would work but it's a messy way to do it).

[lufbra]

Thanks Smurfy, I'll get this printed off, and give it a try this Thursday, my day off, when I get enough time to play around!!! :)

Dave.