[dba-Tech] Multi-Boot, Multi-OS, Boot Magic, etc.

What I have:

a P4 1.8Gz, 2GB RAM, and 2 HDs, one 18GB and one 80GB. I have a brand new
250 GB HD that I wish to substitute for the 18GB. The box has a pair of
burners in it, too, a CD burner that can play DVDs and a dual-layer DVD
burner. AFAIK, this prevents me from hooking up three HDs at once, unless I
temporarily disconnect one of these burners -- which is an option, if it
helps me arrive at the desired destination.

What I want:

1. an XP Pro boot with everything typical of a developer environment (which
exists currently).
2. a Linux boot using either Suse Enterprise 10 or Ubuntu.
3. (Don't laugh, even if my only reason is nostalgia) A DOS 6.22 boot, with
Clipper and Blinker and Artful.Lib and assorted other DOS-days utilities.


Suse installed very well, last time I did it. Ubuntu, much as I like it,
gave repeated problems, screwing up my MBR with grub. Suse uses the other
multi-boot, which is why I'm considering that route, even though Ubuntu is
much prettier. Suse also found the two printers that are attached to XP
boxes; that impressed me too.

Because of the grub issues, I'm thinking that the safest route is to
completely separate the Linux and XP stuff -- separate physical disks, not
just partitions. That said, I'm guessing that I would set them both up with
a primary partition. After that, the waters get very muddy for me. I have
Partition Magic 8, which includes utilities to copy partitions from one
drive to another, etc., and another utility called Boot Magic, which I have
never used.

Perhaps needless to say, the box in question is an ancillary box, definitely
not my main squeeze, so aside from wasting hours recovering from mistakes,
it won't impair my need to make a living.

How to get from here to there....

Several scenarios come to mind, but I'm a lot better with software than
hardware, so I conjecture with much trepidation.

1. Unhook one of the burners, plug in the 250GB, run the Partition Magic
utility that copies everything from one partition to another and changes all
the references that formerly pointed to x, to y, or whatever the new drive
is called. Run around a church three times counter-clockwise, and reboot.

2. Copy the contents of the 18GB drive to the 80GB drive, then replace the
18 with the 250 and start over. Once everything is copied from the 80 to the
250, run Partition Magic and format the disk and make it a Linux disk (and
perhaps also a DOS 6.22 disk -- LOL, that was back when you could only have
a 2GB partition, but it's kind of nostalgic fun to go back there once in a
while). I even have a CP/M emulator installed, although I haven't yet
succeeded in getting my copy of dBASE II over there :)

Since I have never run Boot Magic, I have no idea what it wants from me, but
before I try anything, I'd appreciate hearing from someone with experience
using it. It strikes me also that rather than risk the MBR, I could instead
set up both physical disks as primary/bootable, then when I want to switch
OSes, go into setup at the bootup and tell setup to use the other physical
disk. No doubt that would work and perhaps also be the safest place, but a
nice multi-boot menu would be nicer. One of the problems I have with
multi-boot is the vastly different descriptions of a given physical disk
that Windows and Linux use.

3. Another scenario, suggested by a colleague who is much more adept than I
on this level, is to create a series of minimally-sized partitions on one of
the disks, such that all the desired OSes reside on those partitions. Since
grub has bitten my hand several times, I am extremely reluctant to go down
this path.

Any advice, alternative scenarios, etc. most gratefully appreciated.

TIA
Arthur