Please suggest best Dual Boot Software

  • Thread starter Thread starter Xaos
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Xaos

I am a musician, and am running Windows XP Media Center Edition on a
Sony Vaio desktop.

I recently purchased some software which is not compatible with Windows
XP Media Center Edition, and am forced to go the dual boot route, so
that I can install XP Home as the alternative boot.

I used to be aware of the dual boot software, but have lost touch.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, and thank you in advanced!

Seasons Greetings.....

Chaz
 
If your purchased software is not compatible with Windows XP Media Center
Edition, it will, in most likely hood, not be compatible with Windows XP
Home or Professional either.

The are all based upon the same underlying operating system.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
In
Xaos said:
I am a musician, and am running Windows XP Media Center Edition on a
Sony Vaio desktop.

I recently purchased some software which is not compatible with
Windows XP Media Center Edition, and am forced to go the dual boot
route, so that I can install XP Home as the alternative boot.

I used to be aware of the dual boot software, but have lost touch.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, and thank you in advanced!

Seasons Greetings.....

Chaz
Click to expand...

Partition Magic http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/
BootitNG http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
 
Actually the *best* is not a software solution, rather a hardware solution that revolves
around Adaptec SCSI controller and SCSI hard drives.

In this method (which I have to admit is not a cheap solution) each SCSI hard disk has its
own OS. Then using the SCSI BIOS routine you can select the SCSI ID of the drive you want
to boot from.

Thus..
SCSI ID 0 = WinXP
SCSI ID 1 = Win2K
SCSI ID 2 = Linux
SCSI ID 3 = Netware
SCSI ID 4 = SCO Unix
SCSI ID 5 = PC DOS 7.00
SCSI ID 6 = BeOS

So if you wanted to boot from SCO Unix all you would have to do is choose SCSI ID 4 as the
boot drive and it would become drive "C:" and you would boot SCO Unix.

Dave




| I am a musician, and am running Windows XP Media Center Edition on a
| Sony Vaio desktop.
|
| I recently purchased some software which is not compatible with Windows
| XP Media Center Edition, and am forced to go the dual boot route, so
| that I can install XP Home as the alternative boot.
|
| I used to be aware of the dual boot software, but have lost touch.
|
| Any suggestions would be appreciated, and thank you in advanced!
|
| Seasons Greetings.....
|
| Chaz
 
In
David H. Lipman said:
Actually the *best* is not a software solution, rather a hardware
solution that revolves around Adaptec SCSI controller and SCSI hard
drives.

In this method (which I have to admit is not a cheap solution) each
SCSI hard disk has its own OS. Then using the SCSI BIOS routine you
can select the SCSI ID of the drive you want to boot from.

Thus..
SCSI ID 0 = WinXP
SCSI ID 1 = Win2K
SCSI ID 2 = Linux
SCSI ID 3 = Netware
SCSI ID 4 = SCO Unix
SCSI ID 5 = PC DOS 7.00
SCSI ID 6 = BeOS

So if you wanted to boot from SCO Unix all you would have to do is
choose SCSI ID 4 as the boot drive and it would become drive "C:" and
you would boot SCO Unix.

Dave
Click to expand...

:) For the price of that solution, I could nearly add two other computers
and a KVM switch to get my "Dual Boot" options. 8)
 
Xaos said:
I am a musician, and am running Windows XP Media Center Edition on a
Sony Vaio desktop.

I recently purchased some software which is not compatible with Windows
XP Media Center Edition, and am forced to go the dual boot route, so
that I can install XP Home as the alternative boot.

I used to be aware of the dual boot software, but have lost touch.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, and thank you in advanced!

Seasons Greetings.....
Click to expand...

I would recommend you use something like Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

I use it to run Windows 98 to operate my old XP-incompatible scanner, to
test software, and when I need to venture into some suspect areas of the web
where I may get infected with spyware, etc.. since it offers an option exit
discarding all changes. It's a much more convenient solution than
dual-booting, each virtual OS can be hibernated so it loads in a Desktop
window with your software already running as quickly as if the software were
installed right on XP WMC.

Lee
 
actually you don't even need dual boot software as long as you have a place
for the second OS to install you can have windows dual boot no problem. you
just install as a new install with a different install location like a new
hard drive and you will be all set. Virtual PC is great and works well but
you need to install it on an OS and then the second one is virtual it takes
RAM hard drive and processor time.

I have a 3 GHZ Dell Pc with HT and 1 GB of ram at work 2 Virtual PCs. The PC
itself is running XP and I have a virtual XP and Win2k boxes. I can run one
virtual PC fine but with 2 it really bogs down.


Wayne
 
Thank you...I have VPC, but the program is speed dependant, and VPC is
not designed for fast programs. Thanks for all your help and answers, I
think I will try Norton's Partition Magic.
 
Thank you...I have VPC, but the program is speed dependant, and VPC is not
designed for fast programs. Thanks for all your help and answers, I think I
will try Norton's Partition Magic.

BootitNG is much better than Partition Magic, many more features, more
stable, not OS dependant, CHEAPER, far better support, etc etc etc etc etc
etc.....

VPC SP1 is released and allows more use of system resources during sessions.

Lee

{...}

Lee Chapelle wrote:

I am a musician, and am running Windows XP Media Center Edition on a
Sony Vaio desktop.

I recently purchased some software which is not compatible with Windows
XP Media Center Edition, and am forced to go the dual boot route, so
that I can install XP Home as the alternative boot.

I used to be aware of the dual boot software, but have lost touch.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, and thank you in advanced!

Seasons Greetings.....


I would recommend you use something like Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

I use it to run Windows 98 to operate my old XP-incompatible scanner, to
test software, and when I need to venture into some suspect areas of the web
where I may get infected with spyware, etc.. since it offers an option exit
discarding all changes. It's a much more convenient solution than
dual-booting, each virtual OS can be hibernated so it loads in a Desktop
window with your software already running as quickly as if the software were
installed right on XP WMC.

Lee
 
Xaos said:
Thank you...I have VPC, but the program is speed dependant, and VPC is
not designed for fast programs. Thanks for all your help and answers, I
think I will try Norton's Partition Magic.
Click to expand...
<snip>
I use Partition Magic for WinME and WinXP.
Make sure you :
a. Patch PM to Ver 8.01,
b. Make all the rescue disks for PM and Boot Magic,
c. Be aware that Partition Magic can be installed in each OS, but Boot
Magic can only be install in one.(per Hard Drive)
HTH
 
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