Attention GEEKS

[annathepiper]

Who wants to help me out with a machine configuration problem?

My team wants to configure a box with three partitions on its hard drive, C, D, and E. The box will be dual-boot, with a backup OS on E and the test OS on C. D is for assorted necessary tools and other files.

What we need, more specifically, is to be able to install the backup OS FIRST and then be able to have a script that will clean off the C drive and stick whatever OS we want on the thing.

The problem, however, seems to be that Windows becomes convinced that the C drive is the system partition and I can't reformat the stupid thing.

Does anyone know how to make Windows believe that YES GODDAMMIT I KNOW THAT'S THE SYSTEM DRIVE NOW REFORMAT IT ALREADY?

The relevant version of Windows, BTW, is Windows Server 2003, and the box should be assumed to be AMD64.

Comments

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Dunno if FDISK works on A64 systems, but is there some way you can script activating the second partition? Since only one partition can be active at a time, then it'd be active, allowing the other one to be decked.

[annathepiper]

Well... right now I'm booting the box with a Win98 boot disk to get a command line. Fdisk seems to work just fine, it lets me completely toast the hard drive and set up empty C, D, and E partitions.

I've tried a scenario where C is partition #1 and is the primary DOS partition, and then making an extended DOS partition and making D and E be logical drives in that. Then I set the D partition to be the active one.

However, when I then rebooted to the install CD to put the backup Windows Server 2003 install on E, the Setup still insisted on formatting the C drive and treating that as the system partition.

I have not, however, tried changing which partition is active after that backup OS is installed; I don't know if that's doable.

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Should be. Why not write a batch file on that disc which'd give you a menu choice of which partition to make active with FDisk?

I'd think it'd at least be worth taking a stab at manually, especially if you're going to deck the box anyway.

Now, want to make my USB wireless NIC work under SuSE Linux? ;-)

[annathepiper]

Well, as I mentioned... this needs to be automated... so a menu isn't really useful without a default selector. But I know that is doable. Didn't have time to find out whether I can change the active partition AFTER my backup OS is installed but I am strongly suspecting the answer to this is going to be no. We'll see!

Heh. You just outgeeked me with the wireless thing though. ;)

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

I think i found the fix for that one- apparently most USB wireless cards, regardless of manufacturer name use a common chipset- so that if USB works properly, the card just needs to be configured to use the chipset driver- pretty much like using the reference drivers for a video card under Windows.

A batch file can be written to automate a reboot, so if you can get to something resembling a command prompt and work FDisk while passing the options to it, you can set the default in the batch file before the reboot, and give yourself the option to change from said default there.

Shame these partitions are on one physical drive. Seperate drives and you'd be able to use a boot loader to configure them.

How'd you get a 64-bit proc to respond to a W9x boot disk? That amazes me, but the only real interaction i've had with one of those was an Itanium which didn't have the BIOS set up properly- and pretty much needed the BIOS to be programmed with something strongly resembling Unix shell commands.

[annathepiper]

How I got a 64-bit computer to respond to a Win9x boot disk: stuck it in the drive and booted it. :) Nothing terribly impressive... I didn't even know that it might not work. This is the first time I've worked with 64-bit boxes.

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

Don't know if this would work or not since I'm not a techie, but could you physically swap the C and E drives so it thinks that E (with the backup OS) is the main C drive temporarily, then use it to format E (the real C drive)? Then once it's done and you've installed whatever stuff you need on it, swap them back again.

Like I said, I have no idea if that would work or not in practice, but it sounds good in theory.

[annathepiper]

Good theory, but unfortunately it goes against the ultimate goal of automating this configuration so tester interference is not required. Thanks though!