Dual Boot Win XP Pro+ clone Win XP Partition upgrade to Vista RC2

[tommylux]

Hi There.

I'm doing some testing with Vista RC2 and I have cloned my Hard drive
using Norton Ghost so that I could eventually load a clone partition of
xp as a second partition then upgrade it to Vista RC2. I have been
sucsessfull installing vista as a new installation on the second hard
drive, but wish to clone then upgrade to test the programs in vista
without the need to re-install everything.

Cloning the hard drive was easy, but I am unsure how I can point the
boot.ini so I can choose which WinXP to load.

The boot ini looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

I have tried entering another line like:
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

Some help please?

Thanks
Tom

 

[Rock]

Hi There.

I'm doing some testing with Vista RC2 and I have cloned my Hard drive
using Norton Ghost so that I could eventually load a clone partition of
xp as a second partition then upgrade it to Vista RC2. I have been
sucsessfull installing vista as a new installation on the second hard
drive, but wish to clone then upgrade to test the programs in vista
without the need to re-install everything.

Cloning the hard drive was easy, but I am unsure how I can point the
boot.ini so I can choose which WinXP to load.

The boot ini looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

I have tried entering another line like:
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

Some help please?

If your purpose is to find out which programs run in Vista and how they run,
as opposed to how an upgrade will work for those programs, then test them in
a clean install of Vista. Some programs might have problems after an
upgrade but run fine from a clean install.

Additional information and help with the boot.ini.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000492.htm

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Putting a clone of Win2K/NT/XP on the same drive as its "parent"
OS can get tricky because you have to hide the "parent" from the
clone when the clone OS is started up for its first run. If the "parent"
OS is on a different HD, all you have to do is to disconnect the
"parent" OS's HD while the clone is started up. Upon future startups
of the clone the "parent" may be visible to it without problems. BTW,
in the boot.ini syntax, "rdisk" refers to the relative position of a HD
in the boot order just for hard drives. This hard drive boot order can
be modified by keyboard input to the BIOS at startup, but the *default*
order for PATA hard drives is:
Master on IDE ch.0,
Slave on IDE ch. 0,
Master on IDE ch. 1,
Slave on IDE ch. 1.

As for the boot files - boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com - they are used
only for the Win2K/NT/XP family of OSes. WinVista has a new
boot manager and boot scheme. If the Vista installer sees other
OSes when it's installing Vista, it will accommodate them with an
adapter that will allow booting the older OSes in a multi-boot scenario,
but booting Vista requires the new boot manager. For details on
multi-booting Vista, check out the microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
NG. But don't expect to find any experts on the subject.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rock]

For details on
multi-booting Vista, check out the microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
NG. But don't expect to find any experts on the subject.

I'm wondering how come you say this? There are quite a few knowledgeable
people frequenting the Vista newsgroups.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I'm wondering how come you say this? There are quite a few knowledgeable
people frequenting the Vista newsgroups.

Experts on the subject of directing multi-booting of Vista,
or better yet, Vista and earlier OSes? Please!!

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rock]

Experts on the subject of directing multi-booting of Vista,
or better yet, Vista and earlier OSes? Please!!

*TimDaniels*

I still don't understand your point. There is quite a bit of experience
there with dual boot XP and Vista.