Firstly, I'm still new to all the technical of OS. But I'm learning. Hence I am starting to explore Unix via Solaris 10.

Today, I backed up all my files and formatted my computer.

I only have one physical hard drive of about 250GB. So unpartitioned all my exisiting drives and start my whole computer afresh.

First OS to install was Windows XP Pro. That was easy enough.

Next I installed Solaris 10. I didn't think I have much problem. Though the standard default interactive installation graphics was odd. The screen shot from the sun.com installation guide was nothing like I had. The colours were distorted when I installed.

In terms of partitioning my hard drive for the two OS. I let the windows did its partition and gave 50GB. And likewise for Solaris, again 50GB.

That is what I did. I hope I am on the right track so far.

I have some questions with using dual OS and also with using Solaris.

Firstly I would like to create a setup where on booting, windows should be the default boot after x seconds count down. I have tried to google this... All that I could understand so far is adjusting the boot.ini file. I am hesitant in doing so as I am not confident with technicality. I suppose I would like clarification on this so I know exactly what to do.

Can someone explain the file system type, I hear about NTFS and FAT32. And apparently FAT32 is compatible with most OS, how NTFS isn't compatible for Unix? I am not sure.

Having said that, how do I create different drives such that both OS can share such drive with minimal conflict in accessing and modifying the contain in it?

Lastly, it's a general question, how do I use solaris or set it up such that it has similar functionality like I do in windows?

For example, when I stick a USB key in, windows auto detects it or I can find it in Window Explorer? But I have problems accessing or finding the newly plugged in USB key?