Infrastructure Software

I have an ABIT mobo with VIA chipset and a Sempron 2500 CPU, and WD 120 GB SATA drive. Not top of the line, but I'm on a budget. I have the SATA partitioned for multibooting, and I use XOSL multibooter. I have 3 OS's already, and several other partitions for backup. I was planning on installing Solaris on another extended partition. Kinda slow... kinda slow... hard to see the text on the monitor. Oh, the unofficial installation instructions says I should already have the partition set up, and recommends I use Ranish Partition Manager. Ranish is my favorite PM, so I quit the install, reboot to DOS, and set up a partition with Ranish. Hmmm. Solaris isn't a file type. What to do, what to do. Later in the installation instructions, it talks about the installer partioning the hard drive, so maybe I don't have to do it here. I'l leave this partition as FAT32, maybe Solaris will convert it, or I can use it for another backup, or data, or another OS. I exit and reboot to the install. Kinda slow, kind slow... now I don't see the dark text at all. Hmmm, reboot, restart. I get past the first few screens, but then it's just blank. I kick out the disk and reboot to .... nothing. now it won't boot to the hard drive. I reboot from floppy, the hard drive isn't there. Hmmm. Back to Ranish. The first partition (FreeDOS) has no data files in it, and is the wrong size, extending into the second partition space. The second partition isn't there, and there is unused space between the first and third partitions. Exit Ranish and go into PTS Disk Editor. Luckily I wrote down the hex code for the partition table, so I fix it back the way it should be. What was Solaris doing overwriting my MBR and partition table? I hadn't gotten to that point in the install yet to set up a new partition. Reboot, still nothing. Restore the MBR (I saved that too, plus the 62 sectors following). Reboot. Still nothing. Oh yeah, my FAT from partition 1 is gone, and who knows what else. What was Solaris doing overwriting that partition? Back to Ranish. Set partition 2 (Windows 2000) as my boot partition. Reboot. Phew! At least that comes up. I'm not too happy with Solaris trashing my MBR, partition table, and first partition. Yeah, yeah yeah, it won't be too hard to restore it. I'll assume my Linux is still working, although I haven't tried it yet. I think I'll wait to install Solaris until after I have a new, clean disk, and I'll be sure to disconnect this one until after the install is complete. Sorry Sun, your once-solid reputation has bounced down a few steps on this one.