Configuring multiple XP installation on multiple partitions/HDD's yet maintain the C: drive for each

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Swinney
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Chris Swinney

Hi all,



Is it possibly to create multiple Windows XP Pro installation on a single
computer to different partitions and HDD's whilst making sure that each new
installations partition is referenced as the C drive?



I'm pretty sure I managed to do this under Win NT (although my memory is a
little foggy now) by marking a partition as active then rebooting. NT would
then see the active partition as the System drive and so boot directly from
that, instead of using the Boot.ini options. However, under XP, you can mark
and ALL and ANY primary partitions as active (and there doesn't seem to be a
way to unselecting this option natively), so this does not seem to work
unless you physically remove drives (which is of course no good if you want
to install to a different partition on the same drive).



The reason I want to do this is so that I can ghost any partition to a new
drive and continue functioning correctly. The MS OEM tools that I have used
in the past I believe allow me to strip out all pertinent hardware
information from the install, but I don't think they strip out all the
installed registry entries and shortcuts that will refer to the drive letter
that the current drive happens to reside on.



Many thanks.



Chris
 
Chris Swinney said:
Hi all,



Is it possibly to create multiple Windows XP Pro installation on a single
computer to different partitions and HDD's whilst making sure that each new
installations partition is referenced as the C drive?



I'm pretty sure I managed to do this under Win NT (although my memory is a
little foggy now) by marking a partition as active then rebooting. NT would
then see the active partition as the System drive and so boot directly from
that, instead of using the Boot.ini options. However, under XP, you can mark
and ALL and ANY primary partitions as active (and there doesn't seem to be a
way to unselecting this option natively), so this does not seem to work
unless you physically remove drives (which is of course no good if you want
to install to a different partition on the same drive).



The reason I want to do this is so that I can ghost any partition to a new
drive and continue functioning correctly. The MS OEM tools that I have used
in the past I believe allow me to strip out all pertinent hardware
information from the install, but I don't think they strip out all the
installed registry entries and shortcuts that will refer to the drive letter
that the current drive happens to reside on.
Click to expand...

Yes you can do this, but you will need to install a third party Boot
Manager program such as Boot Magic (part of Symantec's Partition
Magic) or BootItNG (www.bootitng.com) and then configure it so that
the non-booting operating system partitions are hidden.

In order to install a new operating system and have it boot as drive
C: you will need to:
- Create the new partition and format it.
- Configure the boot manager to include this new partition on the boot
menu, hiding all the other bootable partitions.
- Reboot the computer and choose the new empty partition to boot from.
- When the computer halts with the "missing operating system" (or
similar prompt insert your installation CD for the new O/S and reboot
the computer. You can now install the new O/S and it will be drive C:

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
Thanks - and sorry for the long delay in replying. I got a similar answer
else where but I should have known this to be a solution as I use Partition
Majic and have used Boot Magic many, many moons ago. Of course I could also
use LiLo or similar in Linux.

I was also playing with VMware, which may also solve my problems (as well as
give many more possible uses such as developing enviroments etc) and in an
even more convienent format.

Chris
 
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