Partitioning for multiple distros/OSs?

[thully]

Hello,

I have 1 6GB Windows Me partition, a 3GB NTFS partition, and 4GB room for alternative OSs at the end. I could resize the partitions if it would help, and I have PartitionMagic.

I want to be able to test new distributions or possibly OSs like BeOS/FreeBSD/QNX without disturbing a Mandrake 7.2 install. What is the best way to do this?

[ph34r]

VMmware? Assuming you have at least 96mb of ram, and don't mind giving your guest os "only" 32mb or so, it should work fine. If you have more memory, great, just keep atleast 64mb for the host os when you create your virtual machine.

[thully]

VMWare is too expensive (even though I am considered a student/hobbyist, it still costs $99!. I was wondering if there is a solution using partitions that makes this easier. To make one point clear, I haven't installed Mandrake yet, I am planning to.

[This message has been edited by thully (edited 21 November 2000).]

[r1ccard0]

Well, I would recommend that if you are going to test lots of new systems to build a relatively cheap machine, the new AMD durons can be picked up for under 100$ for a 600MHZ.

I would get a motherboard that supports lots of h/d and build from there..... it's a pain to rebuild the bootsector et al, when you are re-installing new o/s'es...

If you just want one machine, I would purchase a cheap second drive, a huge one, and build from there...... just be careful and note down which versions you want to own which partitions!