Setting up harddrive for multiple operating systems

[ancalimon]

I'll go and pick up my fixed A4000T in 10 days. Meanwhile I need to setup a harddrive for os 3.1, os3.9, os4.1 and possibly the best Linux variant that would work with 604e 233.

What is the best way to accomplish this and which filesystems should I use?

I want to be able to choose which os to boot without the need to choose the boot harddrive on each reboot. Is that possible?

[Vot]

No idea with the linux but i run 3.1 3.5 and 3.9 i use pfs for all three with a ffs boot vol just so if i boot from a floppy i can access a volume without putting pfs drivers on the floppy..

I use advanced boot selector on the boot partition with a minimal c , libs and devs folder and basically the start of each os script just reassigns assigns sys, c , libs, devs etc to the right os volume then executes the normal startup-sequence.

I.e partitions like

BOOT 20 MB
WB3.1
WB3.5
WB3.9
DATA

[daxb]

IMHO the best/easiest solution is to have a partition for each OS you want to boot from and set proper boot priorities. Then just use a tool like ChangeBootPri with script, botton, menu entry or something else to change it. Or just use Early-Startup.

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by daxb

IMHO the best/easiest solution is to have a partition for each OS you want to boot from and set proper boot priorities. Then just use a tool like ChangeBootPri with script, botton, menu entry or something else to change it. Or just use Early-Startup.

Anyone got a premade script for that?

So I guess I need to have a very small partition with highest priority and I need to have a script there which changes (but does not save) the boot priority of the partition I want to boot from so on next cold boot, I once again get to choose which os I want to boot from.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by ancalimon

Anyone got a premade script for that?

http://forum.hyperion-entertainment....&t=2219#p24730

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by thomas

http://forum.hyperion-entertainment....&t=2219#p24730

Thanks. I was kind of expecting this from you :P

[ancalimon]

So.. I'm now going to prepare a 500GB SATA harddrive which I'm going to use with my CStormPPC's scsi3 interface. (I need to replace the 120gb IDE hdd)

I want a small os3.1 partition for 100% compatibility (I guess 150mb should be enough). A main OS3.9 partition and the necessary partitions for OS4.1. I guess all of them should be inside the first 4096MB part of the harddrive even when using the scsi3 interface. What partition sizes do you recommend? (I'll use OS3.9 + the boingbags for partitioning the harddrive. I'll use sfs2 on 68k partitions for best compatibility with OS4.1)

Now do I need to create a very small partition (I guess 10mb would be enough?) to host thomas's script?

[thomas]

The script is not meant as a boot selector during startup. It is run from the currently running operating system and selects the partition to boot from next time. As such it can be stored on every partition which is reachable from all operating systems.

[jPV]

Originally Posted by Vot

No idea with the linux but i run 3.1 3.5 and 3.9 i use pfs for all three with a ffs boot vol just so if i boot from a floppy i can access a volume without putting pfs drivers on the floppy..

You don't need anything on floppy if you put PFS on HD's RDB. It's then accessible even if you boot from the floppy without any related files.

[Vot]

Originally Posted by jPV

You don't need anything on floppy if you put PFS on HD's RDB. It's then accessible even if you boot from the floppy without any related files.

I will have to test that out

[daxb]

You don`t need a extra small partition from where you boot into other OS versions. I don`t see any advantage doing this (if someone knows one please tell), only disadvantages. Morover see what Thomas wrote. Note: After the script was lauched there is reset needed (could be add to the script if wished). In some cases you might want to make a hard reset (cold reboot) to get rid of resident stuff. Instead of switching off the computer for some time there are software reset tools with "hard reset" option. However, if you know what you are doing it is an easy task.