Can XP boot if installed on a second partition after another OS?

[Vince C.]

Hi.

I've got a 250 GB SATA hard drive and I instaled another OS first. That OS
takes the first on a 80 GB (approximately) on the drive. Now I'd like to
install XP SP1 after that OS. Will XP be able to boot or should I
reorganize the partitions on my hard drive?

Thanks in advance.

Vince C.

 

[Ron Sommer]

You don't say which OS is installed.
XP can install to another partition and place its boot files on C.
Are you wanting to dual boot?

 

[Vince C.]

Le Sun, 09 Apr 2006 17:24:05 -0500, Ron Sommer a écrit :

You don't say which OS is installed.
XP can install to another partition and place its boot files on C.
Are you wanting to dual boot?

Thanks.

I didn't know the OS did matter as I read Windows XP couldn't be installed
further than cluster 1024 so I wanted to know if it was true or just a
legend. Anyway the other OS is Linux and I do want to dual boot. I know
how to dual boot between Linux and Windows as I already do that on another
machine but then Windows was installed first.

In this case Linux was installed first and I now consider installing
Windows afterwards. Though I can always move all my Linux data around I'd
like to know if it's possible without, sparing me hours and (casually)
pain .

Vince C.

 

[Malke]

Le Sun, 09 Apr 2006 17:24:05 -0500, Ron Sommer a écrit :


Thanks.

I didn't know the OS did matter as I read Windows XP couldn't be
installed further than cluster 1024 so I wanted to know if it was true
or just a legend. Anyway the other OS is Linux and I do want to dual
boot. I know how to dual boot between Linux and Windows as I already
do that on another machine but then Windows was installed first.

In this case Linux was installed first and I now consider installing
Windows afterwards. Though I can always move all my Linux data around
I'd like to know if it's possible without, sparing me hours and
(casually) pain .

Vince C.

The 1024 limitation was for older operating systems. There is no problem
installing XP on any of the hard drives in your system, and it doesn't
matter where. XP will put its boot files on what it calls the C:\ drive
so after you install it, you'll need to repair Grub or LILO. Then the
Linux bootloader will see XP and give you the choice of what OS to
boot. You will probably also have to fix fstab. Not a big deal.

Malke

 

[lonely_fairy_queen]

Hi,

There are some utilities that may help you with your task, such as
Partition Manager http://www.partition-manager.com/
It can help you in preparing your partitions to install OS, and a boot
loader is also included, so that you can select between Linux and
Windows.

Cheers,
Queen.

 

[Vince C.]

Hi,

There are some utilities that may help you with your task, such as
Partition Manager http://www.partition-manager.com/
It can help you in preparing your partitions to install OS, and a boot
loader is also included, so that you can select between Linux and
Windows.

Cheers,
Queen.

Thanks a lot to all.

As for resizing/preparing partitions I am already using a free tool - which
I also advise you - gparted, a free clone of Partition Magic. It supports
the same partitions as Partition Manager plus reiserfs, reiser4, xfs and
jfs.

It can also shrink/expand and move partitions. I've used it a couple of
times successfully. Gparted runs under Gnome but its underlying tool is
parted, also free. These tools are generally included on Live CDs such
Knoppix, Ubuntu and Gentoo.

Vince C.

 

[Vince C.]

The 1024 limitation was for older operating systems. There is no problem
installing XP on any of the hard drives in your system, and it doesn't
matter where. XP will put its boot files on what it calls the C:\ drive
so after you install it, you'll need to repair Grub or LILO.

Well I've tried installing XP on a partition I made at the end of the disk.
Now the installer tells me the following:

"To install Windows XP on the selected partition setup must copy some
startup files on disk:

disk 0 of 239367 MB with ID 0 of bus 0 on viamraid [MBR]

However that disk does not contain any partition compatible with Windows XP.

To continue installing Windows XP go back to the partition selection screen
and create a partition that is compatible with Windows XP on the above
disk.
If there is not enough free space [bla bla bla]"

Now I'd like to know what a "partition compatible with Windows XP" is
exactly! I've deleted the NTFS filesystem that I had prepared and
re-created one of the same size, right after the last Linux partition, from
setup.

An NTFS partition *is* compatible with XP, isn't it? So what the heck does
it want from me?

Should I erase my whole disk? Or the very first partition, which contains my
Linux boot files, i.e. kernel and init ram disk? (It's 75 MB.)

Thanks for any suggestion.

Vince C.

 

[Malke]

The 1024 limitation was for older operating systems. There is no
problem installing XP on any of the hard drives in your system, and
it doesn't matter where. XP will put its boot files on what it calls
the C:\ drive so after you install it, you'll need to repair Grub or
LILO.

Well I've tried installing XP on a partition I made at the end of the
disk. Now the installer tells me the following:

"To install Windows XP on the selected partition setup must copy some
startup files on disk:

disk 0 of 239367 MB with ID 0 of bus 0 on viamraid [MBR]

However that disk does not contain any partition compatible with
Windows XP.

To continue installing Windows XP go back to the partition selection
screen and create a partition that is compatible with Windows XP on
the above disk.
If there is not enough free space [bla bla bla]"

Now I'd like to know what a "partition compatible with Windows XP" is
exactly! I've deleted the NTFS filesystem that I had prepared and
re-created one of the same size, right after the last Linux partition,
from setup.

An NTFS partition *is* compatible with XP, isn't it? So what the heck
does it want from me?

Should I erase my whole disk? Or the very first partition, which
contains my Linux boot files, i.e. kernel and init ram disk? (It's 75
MB.)

Is RAID involved? SATA drives? You need to have drivers for XP available
on a floppy (or have them slipstreamed into your installation CD) if
this is the case. See this post by a fellow who had a similar problem.
It doesn't have anything to do with Linux.

http://tinyurl.com/eas44

Malke

 

[Andy]

The 1024 limitation was for older operating systems. There is no problem
installing XP on any of the hard drives in your system, and it doesn't
matter where. XP will put its boot files on what it calls the C:\ drive
so after you install it, you'll need to repair Grub or LILO.

Well I've tried installing XP on a partition I made at the end of the disk.
Now the installer tells me the following:

"To install Windows XP on the selected partition setup must copy some
startup files on disk:

disk 0 of 239367 MB with ID 0 of bus 0 on viamraid [MBR]

However that disk does not contain any partition compatible with Windows XP.

To continue installing Windows XP go back to the partition selection screen
and create a partition that is compatible with Windows XP on the above
disk.
If there is not enough free space [bla bla bla]"

Now I'd like to know what a "partition compatible with Windows XP" is
exactly! I've deleted the NTFS filesystem that I had prepared and
re-created one of the same size, right after the last Linux partition, from
setup.

What Windows setup wants is an active primary partition on what it
sees as the first disk.

An NTFS partition *is* compatible with XP, isn't it? So what the heck does
it want from me?

Should I erase my whole disk? Or the very first partition, which contains my
Linux boot files, i.e. kernel and init ram disk? (It's 75 MB.)

I'm assuming disk 0 is an IDE disk. If so, disable in BIOS setup the
IDE port that it's connected to before installing Windows, so Windows
setup cannot see it.

 

[Vince C.]

What Windows setup wants is an active primary partition on what it
sees as the first disk.

Right, following your advice I found a howto for Gentoo, which details the
steps of installing Windows after Linux:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dual-boot_when_installing_Windows_after_Gentoo

My SATA drive was configured as follows:

sda1 - Linux Boot (70MB)
sda2 - Linux Swap (2GB)
sda3 - Extended partition (the rest of the disk) with Gentoo Linux Logical
Volume Manager and the 40GB NTFS partition for Windows.

I shrunk my swap partition a little so I could get over 200MB free space
right after it. Then I created a primary NTFS primary partition, sda4, for
Windows.

Now I've successfully setup everything. I've also had to install a floppy
drive in my system and copy the Via SATA RAID driver for use with Setup but
it's Ok now. sda4 is Windows C: drive and the system is installed on a D:
drive, which is the logical partition I created at the end of the extended
partition.

I re-installed GRUB and reconfigured the bootloader now I dual boot between
Gentoo and Windows at will .

Thanks for your kind help.

Vince C.