Dual Boot Config (Technical - not licence!)

[Steve]

I'm a fairly competent home user, but an expert.

I've always built my own systems. I've been in the habit of configuring my
Hard drive with two partitions "C:" and "D:". With the advent of XP, I've
pointed "My Documents" at D:. In principle, if I get a major problem, I
can re-install C: without upsetting the personal data on "D:".

Now I want to build a dual boot configuration using two hard drives a 250Gig
SATA II and a 160Gig PATA, both Maxtor.

Thanks to Tim D I understand what the boot.ini file needs to look like.

However, the design I have in my head looks like this:

Partition 1 - a copy of XP self contained, needs no access to any other
partition.
Partition 2 - a copy of XP, using partition 3 as "My Documents" (currently
D:")
Partition 3 - "My Documents"
Partition 4 - On line backup for Partition 3.

My plan is to put partition 1 + 3 on the 250gig SATA and 2 + 4 on the
160Gig PATA.

When I boot Partition 2, how will I know the drive letter assigned to
Partition 3? (I'm guessing it will ALWAYS be E:, but far from certain)

What rule does XP used for the assignment of drive letters? The 250Gig SATA
will be first in the drive chain.

Best Regards

Steve

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I'm a fairly competent home user, but an expert.

I've always built my own systems. I've been in the habit of configuring my
Hard drive with two partitions "C:" and "D:". With the advent of XP, I've
pointed "My Documents" at D:. In principle, if I get a major problem, I
can re-install C: without upsetting the personal data on "D:".

Now I want to build a dual boot configuration using two hard drives a 250Gig
SATA II and a 160Gig PATA, both Maxtor.

Thanks to Tim D I understand what the boot.ini file needs to look like.

However, the design I have in my head looks like this:

Partition 1 - a copy of XP self contained, needs no access to any other
partition.
Partition 2 - a copy of XP, using partition 3 as "My Documents" (currently
D:")
Partition 3 - "My Documents"
Partition 4 - On line backup for Partition 3.

My plan is to put partition 1 + 3 on the 250gig SATA and 2 + 4 on the
160Gig PATA.

When I boot Partition 2, how will I know the drive letter assigned to
Partition 3? (I'm guessing it will ALWAYS be E:, but far from certain)

What rule does XP used for the assignment of drive letters? The 250Gig SATA
will be first in the drive chain.

Best Regards

Steve

You have two options:

a) Use the WinXP boot manager. This is simple but it creates
interdependencies between your various OSs. It means that
you must always have both disks installed. If you remove one
or if you remove an OS then you're likely to run into trouble.

b) Use a proper boot manager. This requires a bit of learning
but it will let you run any number of OSs on any partition on
any disk, completely indenpendent of each other. Even better:
You can hide the various partitions from each other. Your
system drive letter will always be C: and your data drive
letter will be D:.

XOSL (http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm) is such a boot
manager and it's free. There are others that can achieve the
same thing.

Post again if you need any instructions.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I've been in the habit of configuring my
Hard drive with two partitions "C:" and "D:".
With the advent of XP, I've pointed "My Documents" at D:.
In principle, if I get a major problem, I can re-install C:
without upsetting the personal data on "D:".

Now I want to build a dual boot configuration using
two hard drives a 250Gig SATA II and a 160Gig PATA,
both Maxtor.

Thanks to Tim D I understand what the boot.ini file needs
to look like.

However, the design I have in my head looks like this:

Partition 1 - a copy of XP self contained, needs no access
to any other partition.
Partition 2 - a copy of XP, using partition 3 as

.. "My Documents" (currently "D:")

Partition 3 - "My Documents"
Partition 4 - On line backup for Partition 3.

My plan is to put partition 1 + 3 on the 250gig SATA
and 2 + 4 on the 160Gig PATA.

When I boot Partition 2, how will I know the drive letter
assigned to Partition 3? (I'm guessing it will ALWAYS
be E:, but far from certain)

What rule does XP used for the assignment of drive letters?
The 250Gig SATA will be first in the drive chain.

Pegasus is right in that by referencing another partition,
you'll create inter-partition dependencies that won't
necessarily remain valid when you change the running OS.
That is, you can't be sure under all configurations whether
the partition containing My Documents will always be named
"D:".

For multi-booting, Peg is a fan of XOSL, a 3rd party multi-
boot manager that includes a handy partition-hiding function.
With that, you have more control of the partition naming since
you can remove unneeded partitions from view. But...
XOSL is no longer maintained, there is only a small user
community for peer support, and it's another piece of
software to onclude in your system.

My solution would be to just put My Documents on
partition 2 along with the OS that references it on the
PATA drive.

For backup of My Documents, just copy it over periodically
to another partition or to another partition on another HD.
It's a simple drag 'n drop operation, and it won't be on just
one partition or on just one HD along with its OS. That
method of backup is both easy and redundant - a case
of Simple is Best.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

. "My Documents" (currently "D:")


Pegasus is right in that by referencing another partition,
you'll create inter-partition dependencies that won't
necessarily remain valid when you change the running OS.
That is, you can't be sure under all configurations whether
the partition containing My Documents will always be named
"D:".

For multi-booting, Peg is a fan of XOSL, a 3rd party multi-
boot manager that includes a handy partition-hiding function.
With that, you have more control of the partition naming since
you can remove unneeded partitions from view. But...
XOSL is no longer maintained, there is only a small user
community for peer support, and it's another piece of
software to onclude in your system.

My solution would be to just put My Documents on
partition 2 along with the OS that references it on the
PATA drive.

For backup of My Documents, just copy it over periodically
to another partition or to another partition on another HD.
It's a simple drag 'n drop operation, and it won't be on just
one partition or on just one HD along with its OS. That
method of backup is both easy and redundant - a case
of Simple is Best.

*TimDaniels*

XOSL was never really maintained or supported other than
by a small user group, presumably because it is free. If you
need a supported and maintained product then you have to
pay for it (or put up with constant nagging about upgrading
to the commercial version . . .)

 

[lurkswithin]

I personally like the BootIt NG program as my boot manager. I hav
been using it for years now and it has not only great support an
updates but a strong following among users. This program is great fo
what you have in mind plus it comes with a lot of neat little tool
for back-up/restore and disc imaging and supperior repair from othe
OS options.

All partitions may be individually maintained with their own MBRs s
if any trouble developes you can still boot from any other OS or jus
restore a backup copy of the whole drive/partition and be back up i
the shortest amount of time

You must understand that all system boots are called "C
drive regardless what the boot order but all other drives an
partitions remain "Named" as you name them.

Xp is confined to 4 partitions using its own partition program. BIN
has no limits as to the number of drives(hardware determined) o
partitions that you want. Nor is it confined to how many operatin
systems are what kind or in which order they are installed in

Free trial period before you buy with no restrictions as to useabilit
during trial
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.htm

 

[Steve]

Snipped...

My solution would be to just put My Documents on
partition 2 along with the OS that references it on the
PATA drive.

For backup of My Documents, just copy it over periodically
to another partition or to another partition on another HD.
It's a simple drag 'n drop operation, and it won't be on just
one partition or on just one HD along with its OS. That
method of backup is both easy and redundant - a case
of Simple is Best.

*TimDaniels*

Thinking about it, there is no advantage in creating the interdependency.
Thanks.

Steve

 

[Steve]

I'm a fairly competent home user, but an expert.

I've always built my own systems. I've been in the habit of configuring
my Hard drive with two partitions "C:" and "D:". With the advent of XP,
I've pointed "My Documents" at D:. In principle, if I get a major
problem, I can re-install C: without upsetting the personal data on "D:".

Thanks for the responses most helpful

Steve