Wanna Set Up a Dual Boot between XP / 98 / ME / 95 /dos to run ZC? Read on, brother.
So you've got the 'I got the new zc and the new windows but zc wont run / the sound sucks / the mouse sucks / or something else / blues? well, read on my friend.
Please dont be turned off by the fact that this is my first post, as I actually have a lot of personal experience with partitioning and setting up computers.
You should print off this -guide- since you will be doing some dos crap and therefore wont have access to the wonderful word of multi-tasking.
-what you need-
one 3.5" floppy disk
your windows Me/9x or Dos CDs/disks
possibly your windows xp cd
*this guide is based on the the assumption that you are running Windows Xp (home or pro, it doesn't matter) on a system with ONE hard disk, on which there is ONE partition, which is using up the whole disk, if you arent sure what your setup is, its probably okay, but if you want to run a quick check, just open my computer and make sure you only have ONE local disk (c:) if everything checks out, your good to go*
The first step you'll want to take when setting up partitions, as always, is backing up your precious, precious quests (or any other precious stuff, dont blame me if you lose it.)
Now, before we get going, were going to want to make sure you have enough hard drive space free for a new partition, you sould have as much empty space as you want PLUS about 500mb more so XP doesnt bug you about your drive being full. Youll also probably want to run Disk Defragmentor (programs>accessories>system tools) so none of your data is lost when you shrink your current partition.
Next you will want to aquire a good partitioning program, either:
1: I hear good things about Powerquest PartitionMagic, but I'm too poor to buy it.
2: I recommend Ranish Partition Manager ( www.ranish.com ) and dowload the 2.40.00 version since it is the one I will be talking about. Or, you can just click this link:
http://users2.ev1.net/~mranish/part/part.zip
Now, extract that and run part.exe in winxp to create a bootable 'part' disk.
select 'copy part.exe and update boot sector on a:' and hit enter
now it says 'wich os would you like to boot in addition to PM?' (when it says pm it means partition manager) so choose 9x since it doesnt work with xp anyway.
next it will ask you if you want to boot from the disk if the control key is pressed or if none of the shift keys is pressed, I recommend when none of the shift keys is pressed so that when you put the disk in the drive, it will automatically load part when the system boots up.
When its done and the program is closed reset your computer with the new partition manager disk in the floppy drive.
When the part screen there should be a listing that says 'Windows Fat32' (if you installed windows xp onto a fat 32 partition, you can resize it otherwise, if it says 'Windows NTFS' youll have to delete that partition by highlighting the 'windows ntfs' section and pressing the delete key. *This Will DELETE Your Current Windows XP Installation You Will Have To Install It Again* Then, create a new one by pressing enter on the -now- unpartitioned space and choosing fat32. you can just do quick format for now, since windows xp will format it again anyhow.
Now, the meat and potatoes:
You will notice that toward the top of the screen there are two sets of titles one looks like this:
Starting
Cyl Head Sect
And the other like this:
Ending
Cyl Head Sect
You will want to highlight the number in the column of
Ending > Cyl that is in the row of your partition.
Now, hold down the minus key on this number and watch as the 'unpartitioned space' in the row below it increases in size.
If your going to use your new partition JUST for ZC, youll want it to have at least 500mb (listed as 500,000kb way over on the right of your screen) mb for 9x, and about 1gb (1,000,000kb) for Me.
Don't be alarmed when your partition turns red, just highlight it and press enter, and change the red number so that its EXACTLY the same as the number below it (maximum size)
Now, highlight the 'unpartitioned space' you just made and hit enter to partition it and choose fat 32 for 98 or Me and fat 16 for 95 or dos. Format it (quick format works fine)
Now, highlight your origional winxp partition and press the H key until it says 'hidden windows fat32' and then highlight your new partition and press the B key untill there is and arrow on the left pointing at it.
Now, press F2 to save and eject the disk, put in your win9x boot disk / cd and smack tha ctrl-alt-del down.
After you've set up your 9x or Me its time to put the old 'Part' floppy back in and reset the computer
Now, just hit h and b on your xp partition and reset. you should boot into it with no problems (fingers crossed) and then you can copy all your zc files and quests to your brand new local disk (d:) and your done!
Oh, and if you dont like having two local disks showing when in winxp just hide the other partition when you boot into it (xp)!
Just remember to hide the xp partition when you boot into your old os or else it wont work right.
Thats It! E-mail Me.
