Timothy Daniels said:
Ernie said:
:
:
I deployed Windows XP Home for years on different
partitions... I copied them around and changed just the
entry in the boot.ini to the according partition number.
(On the same System) Now, I am (trying) to setup a
new system. With multiple partions also, but with XP Pro.
I ended up in a confusing situation, [.......]
Is there anything different in XP Pro to setup such an
environment?
Is there any guideline for Multiple boot with XP only?
I want to use a third Party bootmanager who hides
the partition not in use. I do not want to install each
partition individually, a base installation for each partition
should be used.
You don't say what a "base installation for each partition"
means. You also don't say whether your OSes will be on
the same hard drive or on different (or several) hard drives.
When you say "multiple partitions", do you mean
"multiple OSes"?
To answer your explicit question, XP Home and XP Pro
both use ntldr as the boot manager and boot.ini as the menu
of OSes. Multi-boot is set up the same way for both OSes -
the installer will see the other OSes and add entries to the
boot.ini in the "active" primary partition on the hard drive
that is at the head of the HD Boot Order. In the case of
PATA HDs, the *default* head of the HD Boot Order is
the Master on IDE channel 0. For SATA HDs, the
*default* is the HD with the lowest channel no. Most
BIOSes give you the capability to manually change the HD
Boot Order, and the HD Boot Order will persist until you
change it or until the lithium battery power is interrupted.
For motherboards which have controllers for both PATA
and SATA HDs, consult the user manual for your BIOS to
see how to put the HD you want at the head of the HD Boot
Order.
Post back if you need more info, and include the answers
to the above questions.
*TimDaniels*
Hello Tim, any chance to have a look at the additional
information I provided? Thanks a lot!
Regards,
Sure. Where's the info?
*TimDaniels*
OK, I missed it on my RoadRunner server, but I found
your info on the Microsoft news server. You wrote:
"What I need/want is, to have on one single SCSI HD multiple
WinXP Pro installations for different purposes. I want to create
a base installation with all common applications/programs.
Then to copy them into max. 2 more partitions and then install
the additional required applications/programs.
Copying is done with Powerquest drive image."
I'm sorry, but I know virtually nothing about SCSI drives,
nor how their ARC paths appear in the boot.ini file, nor
how to clone a SCSI partition. Furthermore, I'm not sure
that Drive Image works well with WinXP. I do know
that Ghost and CasperXP (now known as simply "Casper")
can clone individual partitions and put them among other
already-existing partitions, so you might give one of those
a try. For Casper, go to
www.FSSdev.com/products/casper.
You can download a trial copy and use it for 30 days if
you want. If have no idea if it works with SCSI drives,
though.
"The First partition on this disk is a Fat and there is Powerquest
boot magic installed. With this program I can select the required
installation/partition. The other not used partitions are hidden.
This was my setup on my old system for years. Running without
problems. All what I had to do was editing boot.ini, indicating
the according partition# for each installation/partition."
OK, I will assume that the boot.ini file - at least for a
mono-boot situation - is correct. To make the boot.ini
designate a multi-boot situation, just add an entry under
the line "[control systems]" that has the partition number
of the OS which you want to boot. There should be one
entry there now that matches the entry after "default=".
Just copy that and change the value of "y" in "partition(y)".
If you have 3 OSes, there should be 3 entries after the
"[conrol systems]" line, each with a different partition no.
Since you only have one HD, nothing else in the ARC path
has to change. Give the "timeout=" a value such as "10"
to give you 10 seconds to decide on which OS to boot.
"First I started in the same manner, but, I ended up in confusing
behaviour.
Now, I have set it up without changing anything in boot.ini.
All 3 Partitions/installations Boot-up properly, but suddenly,
especially when I am about to rename/copy a file the system locks,
no mouse, no keyboard function. After a forced shutdown with
the power switch, it boots up again and runs properly for some
time.
Somehow I have the impression, that the installations mix up.
I was looking for a guideline how to setup such environment,
no success. Do you know how that can be done properly?"
You may have started up a clone for the 1st time while
its parent was visible to it. Don't do that. Clones of the
NT/2K/XP family of Windows OSes get confused when
they start up for their 1st run and see their "parent" OS.
They seem to substitute random shortcuts in their file tables
that point to their "parent's" files instead of to their own
files. You can think you're editing the clone's files just fine,
but instead, you're editing and using the "parent's" files of
the same name. Renaming and moving files causes havoc.
If the OSes will be on separate HDs, the proper procedure
is to disconnect the "parent" OS's HD (or to make the
"parent's" parition "Hidden") when starting up the clone
for the clone's 1st run.
On subsequent startups of the clone, it's OK for it to see
its "parent" OS. As for the "parent's" own startups, it's
always no problem if it sees its clone.
In your case, though, the "parent" OS is on the same HD.
You will have to use a 3rd party utility to "hide" the parent's
partition before starting up the clone. I think Boot Magic
or Partition Magic will do that. Since the "parent's"
partition will be invisible to ntldr, you may be able to use
the cloned mono-boot boot.ini file as-is (i.e. without
modification) at this point. Caution: If the clone doesn't
boot up, you'll need to re-boot with Boot Magic or Partition
Magic to un-hide the "parent" partition. So BE CAREFUL.
If the clone boots successfully, you can use the clone's
copy of Boot Magic or Partition Magic to un-hide the
"parent" OS's partition. Then add the new entry to the
"parent's" boot.ini file to make it multi-booting.
Let us know how it goes. I'd especially be interested in
seeing your current boot.ini and eventual boot.ini files to
see the effect of the SCSI drive on the ARC paths.
*TimDaniels*
Hello Tim first I want to thank you pointing to the right direction how to solve my problem. I started over from scratch, installing WinXP Pro on a separate HD again.
