2 os in 1 partion?

[kiddieboy12]

can i make 2 os in 1 partion?

 

[lordbob75]

I highly doubt it. Unless you want to store an ISO file, and load it up with a Virtual Machine...

~Lordbob

 

[kiddieboy12]

i know that. i tried. well not really. i had nstalled files on the partion. (program files) it renemed then ...old. i amcurious if u can. any other offers?

 

[TheWiz]

No can do because the bootsectors would simply crash and burn, the closest to would be creating a seperate partition like you normally would.

Nice thought though, imaginative.

Cheers

 

[lordbob75]

Well, trying to install another Microsoft OS would crash it for sure, or overwrite it. I have to wonder about linux though...

~Lordbob

 

[kiddieboy12]

exactly

 

[lordbob75]

I don't think it would work.

~Lordbob

 

[kiddieboy12]

why not?

 

[Brink]

Two OS's cannot share the same partition. That's just how it is.

The only workaround I know of is to install one OS on the partition, then have the other OS in a VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) file that is also on the same partition. This tutorial shows you how to create the VHD file and install the other OS into the VHD file from boot onto the C: partition with the other OS.

Virtual Hard Drive VHD File - Create and Start with at Boot - Windows 7 Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[kiddieboy12]

aww. then is it possible to hack it so i can have more than 4 partion in 1 hard drive?

 

[Brink]

Having more than 4 partitions on a hard drive is not recommened since you cannot use the ones past 4 to boot and install a OS from.

Using the OS in a VHD is a good option for this if you have the space available for it that partition.

 

[Barman58]

Hello Kiddieboy,

You can have more than 4 partitions on a single drive - what you cannot have is more than 4 primary partitions.

and the good news is you do not need a primary partition to contain an OS, just for the boot sector needed to actually use it.

As you can see from the attached image I currently have 7 partitions, six in use plus a bit of spare space which may end up with server 2008 R2 beta on it soon



Mind you I don't recommend anyone else to try this but it's stable enough at the moment.

For an explanation of how it works the two Win7 installations actually share the boot sector with the Vista (system) partition as this existed prior to them being created, the un-named partitions are Linux and it's swap disk

 

[MilesAhead]

can i make 2 os in 1 partion?

Depends if you count Dos as an "OS" or not.
I seem to remember having Dos 5.x on C: with Windows9x.
You booted Dos and if you wanted to run Windows you
ran the Windows.com executable. Sort of like the old
days of Slackware where you booted Linux to a console
and if you wanted XWindows you started up the X server.

The other method is actually separate partitions but a dual boot setup
so whichever OS you boot sees itself as C: and the partition of the
non-booted OS is hidden. The scheme is rarely used nowadays
because it's unreliable. Seems like just a matter of time until booting one
OS from the other mixed up some boot file or setting and then neither
would boot correctly.

 

[Barman58]

Hi miles,

There is at least one Linux distro (maybe Ubuntu, but don't quote me ), that allows you to boot from within windows and run as an application on top of windows, just like Win9.x and DOS

 

[MilesAhead]

Hi miles,

There is at least one Linux distro (maybe Ubuntu, but don't quote me ), that allows you to boot from within windows and run as an application on top of windows, just like Win9.x and DOS

Yup, I think there were quite a few distros that would let you do that. Plus there's VMWare type stuff etc.. I did some Linux for awhile but I haven't kept up with it.

What I really wanted was a kick-ass desktop with lots of disk space and ram running VMS. I got to play around with one for a little while. It was pretty cool. The VAX assembler is very similar to 80x86. From what I've heard those systems made things easy. That's why I often say a lot of these PC problems have already been solved. Just nobody wants to get stuff that "wasn't done here" unless they have no choice.

From what I was told by someone who serviced the Dec minicomputers both hw and sw configuration, decades before "plug & play," on a Vax system, you could hook up all kinds of HD and tape systems and when all the hardware was hooked up you entered like one command... something like
SYS$SYSGEN config /all
and the computer would come up, recognize and configure all the devices correctly.

I'm not privy to how it handled HD at the low level but I know they didn't have the drive letter reassignment nightmare we are still stuck with, on those machines. I seem to remember drives had a short serial number or some alphanumeric id like D1533 or something, but the OS let you assign a user friendly alias, like MainDrive or whatever you wanted that wasn't already in use.


The thing I don't understand is why Windows doesn't steal the "boot into the OS on hd from floppy/CD" mechanism from Linux. Really handy if your boot management got hosed, just stick in the boot floppy and boot into the Linux installed on the HD. Then you had tools running to fix the boot management problem. You'd think it would have occurred to somebody by now? Go figure.

 

[kiddieboy12]

but i have only 1 hard rive. new pc have like 3 sata drives. i have a old er one. will it work?

 

[lordbob75]

How old is your PC? If it only ha IDE connecters, then I think you can only do 4 drives max. Thats 2 HDD's and 2 CD/DVDs or 4 HDDs.

If you have one with SATA connections, then you can put in as many as you have connections.

~Lordbob

 

[kiddieboy12]

my pc was made in 2006. hp a6042n

 

[lordbob75]

It should have at least two SATA ports, in addition to two IDEs and maybe even some more SATA ports. I bought a cheap (200) computer that was maybe three years old now, and it had like 5 SATA ports. So you should be able to add like 4 HDD's.

~Lordbob

 

[kiddieboy12]

do u have a [ppicture of it?