Why install 3 times: multiboot 3 cloned XP systems from ONE full install

[mickrose]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick

 

[ByTor]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

You're walking in to a mine field......period! Cloning a primary
installed OS to logicals will not ever work properly(IMHO)....Unless
someone else knows a successful fix manipulating and changing the
boot.ini file, I'd be happy to hear it........

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Yes I do, but it is the best way..........Why? I have 4 OS's on 1
Primary IDE drive, all Primary partitions......and will not have any of
the complicated scenarios you are describing.....The order: Win2K,
WinXP, WinXP, Win2k........
In this scenario though I do have other physical drives to store data as
only 4 primary pt's are allowed on one drive at a time.
Install clean on all 4 and image and save each one......The important
part is to use a 3rd party boot manager to hide each independent OS
installed and all your drive letter assignments will all be C and will
successfully hide each OS that is not booted to at the time..........If
you are not interested in this way than that's fine I'm expressing my
opinion from my own experience...........If you have PartitionMagic and
am interested I can tell you how I setup my system......If not, good
luck..........

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick

What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.

 

[ByTor]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick

What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.

Does XOSL actually modify the original installed OS's ini once it's
cloned to a different position to the new correct "partition" position??
I have never had success cloning an OS(except win98) from any position
and try to move it around........
Example: 4 primary PT's on one drive.....Position order: 1,2,3,4.....
If I tried to restore an image of position 4 to 1 it never works......Or
not even restoring an image, just trying to move OS from 4 to 2 etc,
etc......I'm not challenging you, I **would** be curious as to how this
is done.........I have tried to change boot.ini's for the correct
positions and it never worked, always got NTLDR missing???? It will save
me the trouble of seperate installs myself......... ;0)

 

[Mercury]

Hi, I know 8GB isn't much these days, after all the first HDD bought was
5MB, but last I knew XOSL needed less that 8MB?

FYI: I ran XOSL for a while and was quite impressed with it.

http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick

What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.

 

[ByTor]

Hi, I know 8GB isn't much these days, after all the first HDD bought was
5MB, but last I knew XOSL needed less that 8MB?

FYI: I ran XOSL for a while and was quite impressed with it.

http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm

TechTV had an episode once where a guy installed 37 OS's with
XOSL......Whew! Lotta time on his hands obviously..... ;0)

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick

What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.

Does XOSL actually modify the original installed OS's ini once it's
cloned to a different position to the new correct "partition" position??
I have never had success cloning an OS(except win98) from any position
and try to move it around........
Example: 4 primary PT's on one drive.....Position order: 1,2,3,4.....
If I tried to restore an image of position 4 to 1 it never works......Or
not even restoring an image, just trying to move OS from 4 to 2 etc,
etc......I'm not challenging you, I **would** be curious as to how this
is done.........I have tried to change boot.ini's for the correct
positions and it never worked, always got NTLDR missing???? It will save
me the trouble of seperate installs myself......... ;0)

XOSL does not modify any of the OSs or their boot environments.
It simply hides all but one of the nominated partition, then passes
control to the single unhidden partition for booting. Each OS
will thus be visible as drive C:. You would usually make a
data partition too. This must be a higher partition that any of
the OS partitions, and it would be visible to all OSs.

I forgot one important item in my first reply: The OP must
adjust boot.ini for each OS so that it reflects the correct
partition number of that OS.

Don't worry about questioning or challenging what I write.
It's all part of the newsgroup peer review process. I'm usually
right but sometimes I get it spectacularly wrong!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Are you perhaps mixing up 8 MBytes with 8 GBytes? XOSL
needs 8 MBytes, as you say, which is a drop in the ocean on
an 8 GByte disk. And if the OP wants three or more OSs
then he would have at least a 40 GByte disk.

Hi, I know 8GB isn't much these days, after all the first HDD bought was
5MB, but last I knew XOSL needed less that 8MB?

FYI: I ran XOSL for a while and was quite impressed with it.

http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick

What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.

 

[ByTor]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the Template XP
system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick


What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.

Does XOSL actually modify the original installed OS's ini once it's
cloned to a different position to the new correct "partition" position??
I have never had success cloning an OS(except win98) from any position
and try to move it around........
Example: 4 primary PT's on one drive.....Position order: 1,2,3,4.....
If I tried to restore an image of position 4 to 1 it never works......Or
not even restoring an image, just trying to move OS from 4 to 2 etc,
etc......I'm not challenging you, I **would** be curious as to how this
is done.........I have tried to change boot.ini's for the correct
positions and it never worked, always got NTLDR missing???? It will save
me the trouble of seperate installs myself......... ;0)

XOSL does not modify any of the OSs or their boot environments.
It simply hides all but one of the nominated partition, then passes
control to the single unhidden partition for booting. Each OS
will thus be visible as drive C:. You would usually make a
data partition too. This must be a higher partition that any of
the OS partitions, and it would be visible to all OSs.

I've used XOSL & understand it's capability but thought I may have
missed something......But at the time I found BootMagic to suit my needs
better.....I'm just still in awe that I have never been succesfull at
modifying the boot.ini......must have missed something, it obviously
appears easy to do.....Oh well, than again that was a few years back,
sorta gave up after a few ill attempts and just decided to do it my
way....Been successfully multi-booting since.........

I forgot one important item in my first reply: The OP must
adjust boot.ini for each OS so that it reflects the correct
partition number of that OS.

Yeah, I don't think the OP woulda been a happy camper.... ;0)

Don't worry about questioning or challenging what I write.
It's all part of the newsgroup peer review process. I'm usually
right but sometimes I get it spectacularly wrong!

Usually right?? Okay.....Ego check at the door maybe?.... <;0>

Just kidding, thanks for your input...........

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Please help if you can as no thread seems to address this interesting
task:
Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Installing all 3 XP systems one by one is easy BUT really time
consuming. I guess you would agree on that.

Here is my amateur's way of doing it (It seems to be bug free but I
am not 100% positive on that yet): If you already have a bug free
method for doing that then just let me know (and don't waste your
time reading the rest of the post)
Remarks:
[ I am not confronted to "System" partition problems (XP's Disk
management terminology) because I always create on the first IDE drive,
a small and unique Primary partition holding only the boot sector,
boot.ini etc... All other partitions are created inside Extended
partitions. So drive letter problems would concern only "Boot
partition" (XP's Disk management terminology) the volume containing
the OS]
[Some non-critical details about the PC I used to (apparently) succeed
in the described task:
P4 (intel chipset)/ 2x Ide HDD/ 1x Scsi/ one primary/ rest is extended/
most 20 volumes are Fat32. One XP system is already installed ]


Now the procedure:

1) Installing and customizing a nice Windows XP SP2 system which would
become the Template.
2) disabling the swap file of this Template XP system, before I
3) clone it with Ghost (one could use another application) from another
independent XP system where I
4) use Disk Management to change the drive letter of the future target
partition to match the template's drive letter.

Summary part 1: I want to clone my perfect template XP system (logical
drive or volume) to another empty logical drive. When I boot my
Template XP sys, my "boot" drive letter is U: (It is also called
"systemdrive" terminology of the command "set" under command
prompt.)
So I need all my future target cloned XP systems to get U: as a
"boot" drive letter to avoid BIG PROBLEMS. Of course, the danger is
to work on a system which reads and writes on 2 different volumes (the
template and the clone) depending on registry inconsistencies.
Then :
5) Check my boot.ini file and add the necessary lines to be able to
boot the future system on the different volume I have chosen.
6) Then I reboot and get out of the independent XP system I just used
(it is not the template, and it is not a future cloned system)
7) I press F8, select safe mode, and then select my new
Frankenstein's cloned XP system to boot.
8) It will manage to boot because it is reading data on the

Template
XP

system (U (if I hide the Template's volume (or partition) then it
does not boot.)
9) Because I am in safe mode, I am not damaging any of the 2 systems
even if it is a bastard system at this stage.
10) Now here is the most mysterious question: If I run "set" on
command prompt, I see that 70% of paths refer to U: and 30% to another
letter X:
11) Problem 1: X: drive letter is the "Boot partition" (XP's Disk
management terminology) the volume containing my cloned XP system. How
did windows decide to use X: rather then another free letter? Why 30%
of paths are affected?
12) Problem 2: U: drive letter is still assigned to the Template XP
system.
13) With Disk management, reassign U: with another letter (not possible
if you did not disable the swap file previously like I said, because
the swap file would be now on U
14) To reassign X: to U: use regedit:
Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Right-click \DosDevices\X, and then click Rename to DosDevices\U:
----------------------------------
For details see KB223188:
How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
Article ID:223188Last Review:July 15, 2004Revision:4.1
-----------------------------------
15) Reboot, check with the "set" command if everything is ok, all
paths show U:\
16)enable a swap file
If you know a better way or can answer questions on point 11, then
please share it with me... I am wondering how does XP manage drive
letter assignment priorities, because something is happening as I boot
my clone in safe mode for the first time and tells XP to keep most
paths as U: but assign to "program files" and "systemdirectory"
(set command) letter X:

Thank you for your patience and cheers from Switzerland
Mick


What you want to do can easily be done but your method is
far too complicated and thus likely to fail. Here is a simpler
and completely modular way:

1. Install your primary WinXP OS. Make sure it is exactly
the way you want it.

2. Create an 8 GByte FAT partition at the far end of any
of your disk. It can be a primary or logical partition. Name
it "XOSL".

3. Install XOSL in this partition. It's free. When you do,
make absolutely sure that it does NOT go somewhere else.
If you let it go elswhere then you lose that partition.

4. Add WinXP to the XOSL menu. Test it.

5. Create suitable partitions for the other copies of WinXP.
They can be primary or logical partitions. Give them suitable
names.

6. Use a cloning tool (e.g. Ghost) to copy WinXP to those
other partitions.

7. Add those other OSs to the XOSL menu. Give them
suitable names.

8. Test those other OSs.

That's it, your'e done!

If any of your OSs are on a logical partition or on a drive
other than your primary master drive then you need to do
a little tweaking. Post again if this is the case.




Does XOSL actually modify the original installed OS's ini once it's
cloned to a different position to the new correct "partition" position??
I have never had success cloning an OS(except win98) from any position
and try to move it around........
Example: 4 primary PT's on one drive.....Position order: 1,2,3,4.....
If I tried to restore an image of position 4 to 1 it never works......Or
not even restoring an image, just trying to move OS from 4 to 2 etc,
etc......I'm not challenging you, I **would** be curious as to how this
is done.........I have tried to change boot.ini's for the correct
positions and it never worked, always got NTLDR missing???? It will save
me the trouble of seperate installs myself......... ;0)

XOSL does not modify any of the OSs or their boot environments.
It simply hides all but one of the nominated partition, then passes
control to the single unhidden partition for booting. Each OS
will thus be visible as drive C:. You would usually make a
data partition too. This must be a higher partition that any of
the OS partitions, and it would be visible to all OSs.

I've used XOSL & understand it's capability but thought I may have
missed something......But at the time I found BootMagic to suit my needs
better.....I'm just still in awe that I have never been succesfull at
modifying the boot.ini......must have missed something, it obviously
appears easy to do.....Oh well, than again that was a few years back,
sorta gave up after a few ill attempts and just decided to do it my
way....Been successfully multi-booting since.........

I forgot one important item in my first reply: The OP must
adjust boot.ini for each OS so that it reflects the correct
partition number of that OS.

Yeah, I don't think the OP woulda been a happy camper.... ;0)

Don't worry about questioning or challenging what I write.
It's all part of the newsgroup peer review process. I'm usually
right but sometimes I get it spectacularly wrong!

Usually right?? Okay.....Ego check at the door maybe?.... <;0>

Just kidding, thanks for your input...........

It's got nothing to do with my ego but far more with my
tendency to keep my big mouth shut unless I know what
I'm talking about. In other words: I have tried and used
all of the above.

 

[mickrose]

Thank you for your time,

ByTor, you said: « Unless someone else knows a successful fix
manipulating and changing the boot.ini file, I'd be happy to hear
it........"

The boot.ini is the least of my problems: it is very well documented
and very easy to edit once you understood the rules. I prefer using the
notepad rather than bootmagic or stuff like that...

The main problem is drive letters and registry hives, "period!"
Absolute path and relative path, I see no other limit than that.

Years ago, we used to hide partitions of win95, 98 and it was just fine
since Windows was not counting them as partitions when hidden. But NT
does.

About Xosl, bootmagic, system commander...

I don't want my OS on primary IDE partition as C: I want my OS to run
on my SCSI Hardware Raid0 extended partition. Why? Not because I like
complicated scenarios but because it has a buffered read time of 113
MB/s and average access time of 4 ms. So I want my OS on it.

What info I cannot find in the online manual (dating December 2000) of
XOSL is how it is going to solve the problem since hiding a partition
is not a solution, read http://www2.arnes.si/~fkomar/xosl.org/
Quoted:
Hiding Partitions in Windows NT or 2000

So don't hide partitions in XOSL for Windows 2000. That Operating
System wants to know everything about your partitions and if you hide
any it is confused and "restarts" all the time to reread the
preferences.

See my system as an example:

DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> detail disk
IC35L120AVVA07-0
Disk ID: F780E8AD
Type : IDE
Bus : 1
Target : 1
LUN ID : 0

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status
Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- ---------
--------
Volume 2 C C_SWAP2 FAT32 Partition 1012 MB Healthy
System
Volume 3 K TEMP2 FAT32 Partition 4479 MB Healthy
Volume 4 D DELTA SYS FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
Volume 5 E ELLIPSE FAT32 Partition 49 GB Healthy
Volume 6 F FEDERAL FAT32 Partition 40 GB Healthy
Volume 7 G GAMA FAT32 Partition 28 GB Healthy
Volume 8 H HAL FAT32 Partition 267 MB Healthy
Volume 9 I IODA FAT32 Partition 9 GB Healthy
...
Volume 10 S SWAP1 FAT32 Partition 1004 MB Healthy
Volume 11 T TEMP1 FAT32 Partition 2000 MB Healthy
Volume 12 J JASON SYS FAT32 Partition 16 GB Healthy
Volume 13 L LARRY_16GB FAT32 Partition 16 GB Healthy
Volume 14 M MISTY_34GB FAT32 Partition 34 GB Healthy
Volume 15 N NANO_45GB FAT32 Partition 26 GB Healthy
Volume 16 O ntfs volume NTFS Partition 20 GB Healthy
....
Volume 17 R GEN_SYS_R1 FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
* Volume 18 Q GAME_SYS_R2 FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
Volume 19 U MUS_SYS_R3 FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
Boot
Volume 20 P Ntfs_box_R4 NTFS Partition 26 GB Healthy



Let's say I install this good old freeware XOSL, how is it going to
make the ghost of volume number 19 become U: on volume number 18 ? I
repeat here, let's forget about NTLDR and Boot.ini this is not the
point; that is working just fine. The mystery is how does XP when it
boots, modify the registry of the new cloned system from position
Volume 18 when it expects to be on 19?

So Pegasus, yes I am in the other case you mentioned, OS not on primary
master.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thank you for your time,

ByTor, you said: « Unless someone else knows a successful fix
manipulating and changing the boot.ini file, I'd be happy to hear
it........"

The boot.ini is the least of my problems: it is very well documented
and very easy to edit once you understood the rules. I prefer using the
notepad rather than bootmagic or stuff like that...

The main problem is drive letters and registry hives, "period!"
Absolute path and relative path, I see no other limit than that.

Years ago, we used to hide partitions of win95, 98 and it was just fine
since Windows was not counting them as partitions when hidden. But NT
does.

About Xosl, bootmagic, system commander...

I don't want my OS on primary IDE partition as C: I want my OS to run
on my SCSI Hardware Raid0 extended partition. Why? Not because I like
complicated scenarios but because it has a buffered read time of 113
MB/s and average access time of 4 ms. So I want my OS on it.

What info I cannot find in the online manual (dating December 2000) of
XOSL is how it is going to solve the problem since hiding a partition
is not a solution, read http://www2.arnes.si/~fkomar/xosl.org/
Quoted:
Hiding Partitions in Windows NT or 2000

So don't hide partitions in XOSL for Windows 2000. That Operating
System wants to know everything about your partitions and if you hide
any it is confused and "restarts" all the time to reread the
preferences.

See my system as an example:

DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> detail disk
IC35L120AVVA07-0
Disk ID: F780E8AD
Type : IDE
Bus : 1
Target : 1
LUN ID : 0

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status
Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- ---------
--------
Volume 2 C C_SWAP2 FAT32 Partition 1012 MB Healthy
System
Volume 3 K TEMP2 FAT32 Partition 4479 MB Healthy
Volume 4 D DELTA SYS FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
Volume 5 E ELLIPSE FAT32 Partition 49 GB Healthy
Volume 6 F FEDERAL FAT32 Partition 40 GB Healthy
Volume 7 G GAMA FAT32 Partition 28 GB Healthy
Volume 8 H HAL FAT32 Partition 267 MB Healthy
Volume 9 I IODA FAT32 Partition 9 GB Healthy
...
Volume 10 S SWAP1 FAT32 Partition 1004 MB Healthy
Volume 11 T TEMP1 FAT32 Partition 2000 MB Healthy
Volume 12 J JASON SYS FAT32 Partition 16 GB Healthy
Volume 13 L LARRY_16GB FAT32 Partition 16 GB Healthy
Volume 14 M MISTY_34GB FAT32 Partition 34 GB Healthy
Volume 15 N NANO_45GB FAT32 Partition 26 GB Healthy
Volume 16 O ntfs volume NTFS Partition 20 GB Healthy
....
Volume 17 R GEN_SYS_R1 FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
* Volume 18 Q GAME_SYS_R2 FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
Volume 19 U MUS_SYS_R3 FAT32 Partition 20 GB Healthy
Boot
Volume 20 P Ntfs_box_R4 NTFS Partition 26 GB Healthy



Let's say I install this good old freeware XOSL, how is it going to
make the ghost of volume number 19 become U: on volume number 18 ? I
repeat here, let's forget about NTLDR and Boot.ini this is not the
point; that is working just fine. The mystery is how does XP when it
boots, modify the registry of the new cloned system from position
Volume 18 when it expects to be on 19?

So Pegasus, yes I am in the other case you mentioned, OS not on primary
master.

============================================

The point of the whole exercise is to keep the drive letter
of every OS as C:, not U: as you suggest. You achieve it
by making the current OS THE FIRST VISIBLE PARTITION.
Regardless of what some links say, this works extremely
successfully. I have several systems to prove it.

And no, XOSL does NOT modify anything on any OS.
It leaves them exactly as they are. It simply makes the
selected OS partition visible, then passes control to that
OS. Simple, effective, and extremely robust. It also
means that you can boot without XOSL, if you make
the first visible partition active.

About running some of your OSs off a disk other than
your primary master: You may have to tick a box within
XOSL to "swap disks". It's by trial and error.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Let's say I want 3 different windows XP (on 3 different volumes of
course) on my pc. But I just want to make ONE full installation once;
customize it, add basic applications (Winrar, Kerio, Wintask, Spybot,
Geforce drivers, Soundblaster drivers, etc....

Since you'll be using WinXP, why not use its built-in multi-boot
manager and just clone the original using something like Ghost
or True Image? It can put a number of OSes on a 2nd HD drive
(I've only tried primary partitions, but that would limit you to 4 OSes
per hard drive.)

I use Drive Image 7, which is virtually Ghost 9.0, to clone an
existing WinXP installation to another partition (usually on another
hard drive). Be sure to have Ghost, et. al., mark the new primary
partition "active". (I've never tried cloning to a logical drive).
After the cloning, and before the new clone is started for the 1st
time, remove the old OS by disconnecting its hard drive. Then
start the clone up, then shut it down. Re-connect the old OS and
start it up. This prevents the new clone from seeing its "parent"
when first started and from setting pointers which would make it
forever dependent on the presence of its "parent". Whther this
is necessary for clones on the same hard drive as its "parent",
I don't know. Adjust the boot.ini file to include the new clone.
("rdisk" refers to the position in the BIOS' boot sequence - starting
with "0" - and "partition" refers to the number of the target OS's
partition on its hard drive - starting with "1".) If you keep the old
OS's HD at the head of the BIOS boot order and its partition
marked "active", its boot.ini file will always be used for the multi-
boot. You can also use any of the clone OSes' boot.ini for the
multi-boot menu, but you will have to edit their boot.ini files as
well to point to the other OSes, and you will have to set the "active"
partition on the proper hard disk before you shut down (using
Disk Management), and then during start-up you'll have to adjust
the BIOS boot order to put the target OS's hard drive at the head
of the boot order.

I use this system to mainain backups that are ready to boot in
case of HD failure, and to archive my entire system and to keep
systems with specialized software available. I have 3 hard drives
with about 8 or 9 clones, and I can boot to any of them. The booted
OS calles itself "C:", and it names the others by other letter names.
The other OSes are seen as just file structures, and the files in them
can be dragged and dropped anywhere.

One caveat: Microsoft considers multiple copies of an installed
OS using one license to be a violation of its EULA - even it they are
on the same PC. On the other hand, Microsoft never catch you, and
no court has ruled on whether copying the same OS for sequential
use on the same machine to be a violation of a consumer's "fair use".
I'd just call it "archiving".

*TimDaniels*

 

[ByTor]

Thank you for your time,

Dude you freakin lost me......Sorry if I misread your first
posting......Good Luck..........

 

[ByTor]

It's got nothing to do with my ego but far more with my
tendency to keep my big mouth shut unless I know what
I'm talking about. In other words: I have tried and used
all of the above.

Ok, I'll take your word for it.....

BTW: I just tried a little expirement & was just a tad suprised.....

I have 4 OS's, all primary PT's, setup on 1 drive, all hidden from each
other using BootMagic.....I restored an image I made of Partition2-XP &
restored it to Partition4....It actually booted with no modification of
the boot.ini.....Very strange didn't think it would work.....Oh well, I
wonder if Win2k will adjust the same way.......

Thanks...............