Part 2: The Plan

Operating System Compatibilty File Format Table :

OS	FAT16	FAT32	NTFS	NTFSv5	Ext2
Dos6.22	Y	N	3	3	N
Win95 pre-OSR2	Y	N	3	3	N
Win95 post-OSR2	Y	Y	3	3	N
WinNT 4.0 pre-SP4	Y	3	Y	N	N
WinNT 4.0 post-SP4	Y	3	Y	Y	N
Win 2000	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Linux	Y	Y	Y/N/3	?	Y

A 3 means that the Operating System needs a third party utiltiy to be able to make it read the file system. These third party utilities can be found at SysInternals.Com. The freeware downloadable versions allow you to be able to READ the files system in question, while the commercial versions allow for READ/WRITE access. On the boot disk I provided, I have given the latest version of NTFSdos, which allows DOS6.22 to read NTFS and NTFSv5 file systems. Download the full version for use with Win95 (to be able to manipulate long file names). There is a seperate version for Win98. There is also a FAT32 program for NT 4.0. Some newer versions of Linux can read NTFS partitions (like the new Corel Linux), but I do not know what version of NTFS they can read. Other LInux installations may need a third party Kernel upgrade to be able to read NTFS. You can get one at NTFS Kernel Driver Page.

As we can see from the table, FAT16 can be seen by all, and that is why we are going to be using it for our system partition (the partition we boot off, remember?) and our shared DATA drive. FAT32 is hidden from NT4 and NTFS is hidden from Win9x, and it is for that reason why we are going to use each file system for the Boot partitions for each of the OS's. IF one OS cannot see the boot partition for another OS, it can not interfere with it.

Another thing to note is that while NT4 post-SP4 can read and write to NTFSv5 formatted drives, it can not do any low level operations on those partitions (like Chkdsk). Also, when Win2K is loaded, it automatically changes the NTFS partitions to NTFSv5 (nice, ain't it?).

So, if you install Win2K with NT4, make sure you have installed the latest service pack for NT4.

The Roadmap:

So, now that we know what our objectives are, and what tools we are going to be using, let us see have a look at the brochure for our destination. This is what your system will look like when you are done.

The first partition is a Primary FAT16 partition. The rest of the partitions are Logical Partitions inside a large Extended partition. This is because of a limitation of Win95, in that it can only see one Primary partition (Win98 no longer has this limitation), and one extended partition; therefore, this is the easiest configuration to put the system into, so that a shared DATA drive can be employed, and seen by all systems.

The second partition is the NT4 NTFS partition. Then comes the FAT32 Win98 partition, followed by a 5 Linux Ext2 partitions and one Linux Swap partition. Lastly, we have the FAT16 DATA drive, available for all systems.

The Plan:

Boot off DOS 6.22 disk, and setup the partitions on the HD
Install Mini version of DOS 6.22
Install Windows 98 SE
Install Windows NT 4.0 SP6
Setup Win98 and NT4.0 to share the same HD space for the paging file
Install Redhat Linux 6.1
Edit boot.ini file to include DOS 6.22 and Linux

One of the first rules of multi-booting is to always have the partition you are booting off as FAT16. The reason for this is simple: Should anything go wrong, or need to be changed, you are able to edit the files in this partition using a DOS boot disk. There is no need to have special utilities to deal with the latest File Systems. I even recommend having a small FAT16 system partition on large NT servers, for this exact reason.

If you look at the picture above, you will see that the system partition for our PC is rather large (I mean, who needs 200 Megs for a MINI-version of DOS6.22?!?!? ). The reason for the large system partition is because I am going to be using it as a shared area for the Virtual Memory file for both my M$ GUI operating systems. This means that the same space on the HD will be used for the Win98 and the NT4 paging file. This is NOT an optimal Performance setting; it IS an optimal Space-Saving setting. If you have a large HD, with lots of room to spare, I suggest having the paging file on an NTFS partition for NT/2000 and on a FAT32 partition for Win95/98. If you have TWO Physical HDs, then have the boot partitions on one HD, and the paging files on the other. This could speed up your system's performance greatly. Also, I suggest taking control of your Win9x's Virtual memory settings. The reason is that if you allow Win9x to control the Virtual Memory, then the paging file will fluctuate in size, as needed. Sounds great if you are pressed for HD space, but if you aren't, then all this means is the paging file will become extremely fragmented and slow your whole system up. I will be showing you how to optimize the memory settings in both Win98 and NT.

The next question you might have is why we create the NTFS partition BEFORE the FAT32 partition. Surely, if we are going to be installing Win98 before NT, we need to have the FAT32 partition before the NTFS partition? Well, we could do it that way, but it would mess around with the goal of keeping the operating systems all looking the same. The reason for this is that NT4, while it cannot read FAT32, can see that it is there. So, we are going to have to hide the FAT32 partition from ALL operating systems when we install NT. And, when we unhide it later, it will mess with the partition numbering NT uses to find the system files and that will break NT. So we have to have the NTFS partition before the FAT32 partition so that when we unhide the FAT32 partition, NT will still be able to find its system files. I will then show you how to hide the partition from NT only.