If you want to have *both* NT and 2000, beside Linux
+
+
+Notice: Recently my bosses decided to get a couple of HP Omnibook
+6000 portables, so I quickly rushed to play with new toys. It was a
+series with Pentium 3 at 1 GHz and 128 MB of RAM. There's also a hard
+disk of 30 GB, removable DVD and FDD drives, a secondary battery that
+goes to the removable drive bay (when it's empty) and NIC/modem combo
+card.
+
+
+
+
+- Well, the notebooks have come with Windows 2000 Professional
+preinstalled and I thought it might be great to reformat the disk
+and start from scratch. I think I did it again with Partition Magic
+utility by Power Quest. Actually, I have *erased* all existing
+partitions because I noticed a small one at the beginning of the
+disk, that looked to me a bit strange (well, I learned later that
+it was there for hibernation and/or diagnostics).
+
+
+- After that, I tried to repeat a procedure that I have always
+been very fond of: to make a couple of FAT partitions (cca 2037 MB)
+where my NT and/or W2k would go. Don't ask me why I use that old
+FAT format - it is just to be sure that any type of Windows setup
+will recognize such a partition and, as well, to be sure that some
+file exchange (if needed) would be possible between various operating
+systems. Beside these FAT partitions (that start, of course, from
+the beginning of the disk), I have also made several FAT partitions
+but, this time, starting from the *end* of the disk. Partition
+Magic allowes a user to do that (<-- here the guys from Power
+Quest should send me a couple of 0.01$ for this commercial of
+their product :-)).
+
+
+Well, you may ask me why somebody should make a free space somewhere
+in between. The answer is: In order to allow Linux's /boot
+partition to stay under well known 1024 cylinder limitation.
+When it comes to 1024 cyl area (actually, when you enter 1025,
+1026 ... etc), it doesn't matter what is happening there. It
+means, there you may put your Linux / (root) partition
+(regardless of its size and structure), as well as to use
+remaining space for Windows/Linux exchange zone (i.e. FAT).
+
+
+- So far - so good. So, I put NT's installation disk and
+followed the procedure (you should be aware to use a "retail" NT
+installation disk, *not* the one that came with Omnibook 6000,
+because it is supposed to "restore" an NT installation, accompanied
+with a hibernation partition. Why such a partition seems not
+to be suitable here, we'll see later.
+
+
+- After Windows NT was installed completely, it was the right
+time to insert Windows 2000 installation CD (once again, do not
+use 2000's disks that have come with the computer). So, from
+within NT running, I have installed 2000 onto the next partition
+(actually, only the first part of the installation process starts
+from under NT, but it is ok). When the process has finished, you
+have two Windozes - on your first two partitions.
+
+
+- Everything seems to be running ok, excepting the diagnostics.
+It should be activated with F10 at system boot if "restore"
+CD's were used. Btw, NT's "restoration" finishes with even bigger
+partition (cca 500 MB). And not only that: this partition seems to
+be a *primary* one. That means, you may end up with a shortage of
+primary partitions, in case you intend to install several operating
+systems. Anyway, I have decided that the diagnostics is not too much
+important to me, so there's no use of F10 at system boot anymore :-)
+
+
+- Not to forget to say, the Windows 2000's boot loader should
+offer *both* NT and 2000 boot options, if you have followed the
+mentioned procedure (case you don't want to have *both* NT and W2k
+on the system, you may skip to the next section).
+
+
+- Well, that is the time when I usually look after a Linux
+installation CD's. The first one (in case of two) should be inserted
+into the DVD (or in a CD drive) and the system has to be re-booted.
+As usual, after a second or two after switching the system on,
+Escape should be pressed one or two times, in order to
+change the "boot" device order (of course, a CD/DVD should be
+chosen here).
+
+
+- The rest of Linux installation is just as usual. Don't forget
+to make a Linux boot floppy at the end of the process (you never
+know when the boot floppy might be of help).
+
+
+- Folks, in short, that was that. If everything goes fine, the
+next system boot should take you into the Linux environment. Don't
+be surprized when you don't see your beloved Windoze(s) boot
+loader(s) anymore. You just have to look into the another great
+Linux document, called mini-HOWTO. There you'll find more detailed information
+about how
+
- If you find it easier, read some pages before and check how it
+was accomplished in the chapter "HOW TO UPGRADE WINDOWS NT TO
+WINDOWS 2000"
+
+
+
+
+If you want to have only Windows 2000 and Linux
+
+
+Notice: Well, all I have said in the previous section, resulted
+in a "multiboot" (or, better to say, "3-boot") system. When I want
+to run Linux - I have to choose its option from within LILO menu.
+When I am about to run any kind of Windoze - I have to choose Windows
+(or DOS, or whatever else) from within LILO menu. Soon after, on the
+screen appears Windows 2000 boot loader. Finally, from this point,
+either NT or 2000 may be booted. Well, for a next task, I wanted to
+install Symantec's Norton System Works onto both Microsoft environments.
+I did it successfully, but it seems that I have later entered a command
+that resulted in changing something very important in the setup. In sum,
+I have become not able to run both flavours of Windows properly. Looks
+that it was the right time to re-install all stuff :-)
+
+
+
+
+
+- Folks, this time I decided to use one of those "restore" CD's,
+that came with the notebook. I must admit that I liked to see, as
+the background, a great blue logo "HP Invent", as well as "Manufactured
+by Hewlett Packard" in My Computer's Properties (<-- here the guys
+from HP should send me a couple of 0.01$ for this commercial :-))
+
+
+- Using the "restore" CD's might help you to avoid the whole
+long NT/2000's setup procedure(s), because they replicate or, if
+you like to say, "clone" images from the CD's to the hard disk, and
+it is very fast. In addition, the hibernation/diagnostics partition
+is being made by default. Finally, a couple of HP utils and tools can
+only be "restored" from these CD's.
+
+
+- So, after a 6-7 minutes, NT (or W2k) is in its place, ready to
+work. Similarly to "retail" versions (mentioned in the previous
+section), now it is the right time to boot the system with a Linux
+installation CD.
+
+
+- The rest of Linux installation is just as usual. Don't forget
+to make a Linux boot floppy at the end of the process (you never
+know when that boot floppy might be useful).
+
+
+- Folks, that was that - in short. If everything is fine, the
+next system boot should take you into the Linux environment. Don't
+be surprized when you don't see your beloved Windoze(s) boot
+loader(s) anymore. You just have to look into the another great
+Linux document, called mini-HOWTO. There you'll find more detailed information
+about how
+
- If you find it easier, read some pages before and see how it
+was done in the chapter "HOW TO UPGRADE WINDOWS NT TO
+WINDOWS 2000"
+
+
+- You bet, the life would be much easier if there were not such
+troubles, like a "tolerance" between Windows and Linux world. Maybe
+I have made an another mistake somewhere in the cyberspace, but, as
+soon as I have finished with that Linux installation - RedHat 7.1 in
+particular (today is May 04, 2002 and I still have no newer and better
+distros here. Any donation from the readership ...?), I recognized
+that F10 at the system boot, does not open the HP diagnostics anymore.
+Actually, regardless of pressing F10, my Omnibook 6000 goes directly
+to the graphical LILO screen. *Before* installing Linux, diagnostics
+was running here without any problem.
+
+
+- FYI, after the first next boot into W2k, its Disk Management tool
+has recognized the following partitions on the disk:
+
+
+
+
+ | Size |Format | Label | Type |@
+1 | 15 MB | FAT | - | Primary |@
+2 |7.30 GB |FAT32 | HPNOTEBOOK C: | Primary |@
+3 | 52 MB | - | - | Primary |@
+4 |18.37 GB| - | - | Logical |@
+5 | 258 MB | - | - | Logical |@
+6 |1.96 GB |Free space| - | - |
+
+
+
+
+- On the other hand, Partition Magic "sees" as follows:
+
+
+
+
+ | Size in MB|Format | Label | Type |@
+1 | 14.7 | FAT | save to disk | Primary |@
+2 |7.471,4 |FAT32 | HPNOTEBOOK | Primary |@
+3 | 51.7 | ext2 | /boot | Primary |@
+4 |21.077,9 |extended | - | Primary |@
+5 |18.811,4 |ext2 | / | Logical |@
+6 | 258,4 |swap | - | Logical |@
+7 |2.008,1 |free space| - | Logical |
+
+
+
+
+- Some more explanations, related to the tables above:
+It is obvious that diagnostics partition, accompanied with
+"restored" Windows 2000, is rather small - cca 15 MB (comparing
+to the partition, that is created with "restored" Windows NT, which
+goes up to cca 500 MB). Regardless of that fact, it is a primary
+one. That means you should be aware of how many primary partitions
+you have in the system. I am not sure now, but that might be one of
+the reasons for not having diagnostic tools available anymore,
+after completing all operating system installations.
+
+
+Next, you may see that I have "shrinked" W2k's FAT32
+partition to a smaller size (cca 7.5 gig), in order to
+release enough free space for Linux.
+
+
+I would suggest you to let Linux setup procedure to transform the
+free space into Linux partitions. I mean, there's no need to prepare
+the Linux partitions manually. As you can see from the tables,
+it took cca 50 megs for the boot part, cca twice a physical RAM
+(2 x 128 = 256 megs) for swap and the rest goes for other Linux parts.
+Remaining free space was probably left after the conversions
+of various file format systems.
+
+
+- What is the result now: Linux works, Windows works too.
+There's no diagnostics anymore. The hibernation (from under
+Windows) is not tested yet. At the first sight, the 3Com
+NIC/modem combo is not fully supported under Linux. Actually,
+NIC seems to work, but the modem part is a "winmodem". Nobody
+knows if HP would do something to solve that issue. All I could
+say is to avoid HP Omnibook 6000 if modem activities are your
+primary tasks. Of course, you may spend some $$$ and buy
+another PCI mini-card with supported modem chip. Beside that, HP's
+15" screen gives you great picture with the resolution of up to
+1400 x 1050 at 16 bit colors. Interestingly, that resolution seems
+to be default under Windows 2000 and it is also easily
+adopted under Linux (RedHat 7.1). There is also somewhat "over-sensible"
+touchpad that often acts as the left mouse click. It seems to be a
+common feature for both Windows and Linux installations. It bothers
+me sometimes, but your mileage may vary.
+
+
+- The plan is to convert the FAT32 partition to the NTFS in order
+to get more reliable Windows subsystem. On the other side, Linux
+main (root) partition should be "shrinked" in order to get some
+free space. That free space will be used later for exchanging files
+between these two operating systems (probably it will be also FAT).
+
+
+
+
FURTHER INFORMATION
Copyright
-Copyright (c) 2001 by Miroslav "Misko" Skoric.
+Copyright (c) 2002 by Miroslav "Misko" Skoric.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any