Problem with dual boot since using Partition Magic

[Mike]

Hi,
I had one hard drive partitioned into C,D, and E. There were two
instances of XP Pro installed, one on C and one on D.
I used the options in boot.ini to choose an OS on bootup.

I ran out of drive space and bought another drive. I installed it, and
used Partition Magic to resize C,D and E.

Now if I try to boot into D:/windows, the system freezes on the
windows XP logo.
I used bootcfg in System Recovery mode, and it listed my windows
installations as being on C and E.

Here's how my boot.ini file looks:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Vanilla" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Strawberry" /fastdetect


Why is partition(2) suddenly pointing at drive E instead of D, and how
can I fix the problem?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[Mike]

By the way, I had to turn my IDE drive cable around to accomodate the
new drive, so the old one is probably connected in a different way now
- don't know if that's relevant.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,
I had one hard drive partitioned into C,D, and E. There were two
instances of XP Pro installed, one on C and one on D.
I used the options in boot.ini to choose an OS on bootup.

I ran out of drive space and bought another drive. I installed it, and
used Partition Magic to resize C,D and E.

Now if I try to boot into D:/windows, the system freezes on the
windows XP logo.
I used bootcfg in System Recovery mode, and it listed my windows
installations as being on C and E.

Here's how my boot.ini file looks:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Vanilla" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Strawberry" /fastdetect


Why is partition(2) suddenly pointing at drive E instead of D, and how
can I fix the problem?

Thanks!
Mike

Windows assigns drive letters to all your primary partitions first. It
then assigns letters to your various logical drives. In your case,
things probably looked like this:

Before:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2

After:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Slave disk, primary partition
E: Master disk, logical drive 1
F: Master disk, logical drive 2

As you see, your logical drive 1 moved from D: to E:.
This is probably the cause of your problem. I recommend
you try this:

C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2
F: Slave disk, logical drive 1

In other words, don't make any primary partitions on your
new drive. Make an extended partition instead, and create
a logical drive inside it.

The orientation of your cable does not matter. The electrons
don't care which way they travel.

 

[Mike]

Windows assigns drive letters to all your primary partitions first. It

then assigns letters to your various logical drives. In your case,
things probably looked like this:

Before:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2

After:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Slave disk, primary partition
E: Master disk, logical drive 1
F: Master disk, logical drive 2

As you see, your logical drive 1 moved from D: to E:.
This is probably the cause of your problem. I recommend
you try this:

C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2
F: Slave disk, logical drive 1

In other words, don't make any primary partitions on your
new drive. Make an extended partition instead, and create
a logical drive inside it.

The orientation of your cable does not matter. The electrons
don't care which way they travel.

Nice one, that did the trick! Used Partition Magic to convert second
disk partition from primary to logical.
I used the Seagate hard drive utility to automatically format the new
disk in the first place, so that's one for others to look out for.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Pegasus (MVP)" replied:

Hi,
I had one hard drive partitioned into C,D, and E.
There were two instances of XP Pro installed,
one on C and one on D. I used the options in
boot.ini to choose an OS on bootup.

I ran out of drive space and bought another drive.
I installed it, and used Partition Magic to resize
C,D and E.

Now if I try to boot into D:/windows, the system
freezes on the windows XP logo.
I used bootcfg in System Recovery mode, and it
listed my windows installations as being on C and E.

Here's how my boot.ini file looks:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Vanilla" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Strawberry" /fastdetect


Why is partition(2) suddenly pointing at drive E
instead of D, and how can I fix the problem?

Windows assigns drive letters to all your primary
partitions first. It then assigns letters to your various
logical drives. In your case, things probably looked
like this:

Before:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2

After:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Slave disk, primary partition
E: Master disk, logical drive 1
F: Master disk, logical drive 2

As you see, your logical drive 1 moved from D: to E:.
This is probably the cause of your problem.
I recommend you try this:

C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2
F: Slave disk, logical drive 1

In other words, don't make any primary partitions on your
new drive. Make an extended partition instead, and create
a logical drive inside it.

I assume the OP wanted the 2nd drive for storage space,
not for another OS or another instance of WinXP Pro, and
by trying to "boot into D:/windows" he meant being able
use the WinXP boot manager to boot the 2nd instance of
WinXP which resides in the 2nd partition of the 1st drive.

But if he wanted to put another bootable instance of WinXP
on the 2nd drive, wouldn't it have to be in a primary partition,
too? If I am mistaken, please tell me, as I use another drive
to periodically archive bootable versions of my entire WinXP
system, and since I believe a bootable OS needs to be in
a primary partition, I am limited to only 4 OSes. Can an OS
be in a logical drive and still be bootable by the WinXP boot
manager?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Mike" exhulted:

Nice one, that did the trick! Used Partition Magic to convert second
disk partition from primary to logical.
I used the Seagate hard drive utility to automatically format the new
disk in the first place, so that's one for others to look out for.
Thanks,
Mike

Mike, was your 2nd instance of WinXP really in a logical drive
in an extended partition on the Master drive? Could you boot
it?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

"Pegasus (MVP)" replied:

Hi,
I had one hard drive partitioned into C,D, and E.
There were two instances of XP Pro installed,
one on C and one on D. I used the options in
boot.ini to choose an OS on bootup.

I ran out of drive space and bought another drive.
I installed it, and used Partition Magic to resize
C,D and E.

Now if I try to boot into D:/windows, the system
freezes on the windows XP logo.
I used bootcfg in System Recovery mode, and it
listed my windows installations as being on C and E.

Here's how my boot.ini file looks:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Vanilla" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Strawberry" /fastdetect


Why is partition(2) suddenly pointing at drive E
instead of D, and how can I fix the problem?

Windows assigns drive letters to all your primary
partitions first. It then assigns letters to your various
logical drives. In your case, things probably looked
like this:

Before:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2

After:
C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Slave disk, primary partition
E: Master disk, logical drive 1
F: Master disk, logical drive 2

As you see, your logical drive 1 moved from D: to E:.
This is probably the cause of your problem.
I recommend you try this:

C: Master disk, primary partition
D: Master disk, logical drive 1
E: Master disk, logical drive 2
F: Slave disk, logical drive 1

In other words, don't make any primary partitions on your
new drive. Make an extended partition instead, and create
a logical drive inside it.

I assume the OP wanted the 2nd drive for storage space,
not for another OS or another instance of WinXP Pro, and
by trying to "boot into D:/windows" he meant being able
use the WinXP boot manager to boot the 2nd instance of
WinXP which resides in the 2nd partition of the 1st drive.

But if he wanted to put another bootable instance of WinXP
on the 2nd drive, wouldn't it have to be in a primary partition,
too? If I am mistaken, please tell me, as I use another drive
to periodically archive bootable versions of my entire WinXP
system, and since I believe a bootable OS needs to be in
a primary partition, I am limited to only 4 OSes. Can an OS
be in a logical drive and still be bootable by the WinXP boot
manager?

*TimDaniels*

If you use the Windows boot loader then the Windows boot files
must be installed in the primary partition of your mast disk.
There is also a limit to the number of OSs you can install.

If you use a third-party boot loader such as XOSL (free!) then
these limits no longer apply. You can run any OS (Windows
or otherwise) in any partition (primary or logical) on any drive
(primary, secondary, master, slave). For support reasons I run
a system that boots into Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT,
Win2000 and WinXP. Each OS is completely independent
from all other OSs - it's a completely modular solution. There
are a few tricks to get there - post again if you require more
details.
- You are limited

 

[Timothy Daniels]

If you use the Windows boot loader then the Windows boot files
must be installed in the primary partition of your mast disk.
There is also a limit to the number of OSs you can install.

Since I want each archived system to be independently
bootable in case of primary hard disk crash, I guess I'm
stuck with just the 4 archived versions, then (if I continue
to use just the WinXP boot manager) - one in each of the
4 permissable primary partitions on the other drive.

BTW, I can boot into any of the partitions on the Slave drive,
too, as long as the "active" partition on that drive has an
appropriate boot.ini file. That is, assuming the 3rd partition
on the Slave drive is marked "active" and has a boot.ini file
that knows how many primary partitions there are on that
drive and how many there are on the Master drive, it can
designate booting of the OS residing in any primary partition
on either drive. In short, booting doesn't have to be done
from the Master drive or according to the boot.ini file on the
1st partition of that drive. To designate the Slave drive as the
boot drive, all I do is go into the BIOS and switch the positions
of the drives in the boot sequence. It may sound like a kludge,
but it's really fast and simple - and it doesn't require any
extra software.

If you use a third-party boot loader such as XOSL (free!) then
these limits no longer apply. You can run any OS (Windows
or otherwise) in any partition (primary or logical) on any drive
(primary, secondary, master, slave). For support reasons I run
a system that boots into Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT,
Win2000 and WinXP. Each OS is completely independent
from all other OSs - it's a completely modular solution. There
are a few tricks to get there - post again if you require more
details.

Thanks for the info on XOSL. It might be worth putting a copy
of it on each of the drives (and on the one on my removable tray,
too) just to be able to fit more than 4 archived systems on
each drive.

Am I right to understand that XOSL will just boot directly
into an OS on a logical drive without having to transfer it or
otherwise operate on it somehow?

And an operational question: Can Ghost and Drive Image
7.x create a suitable OS clone for XOSL on a logical drive,
or does XOSL have to somehow be involved in the copying?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the info on XOSL. It might be worth putting a copy
of it on each of the drives (and on the one on my removable tray,
too) just to be able to fit more than 4 archived systems on
each drive.

Am I right to understand that XOSL will just boot directly
into an OS on a logical drive without having to transfer it or
otherwise operate on it somehow?

The boot process under XOSL goes like this:
1. Execute the code located in the MBR.
2. Execute the code in the 7 MByte dedicated XOSL partition
(can reside anywhere).
3. Hide/unhide partitions as predetermined by the user-
modifiable menu.
4. Invoke the boot sector code in the chosen partition (which
can reside anywhere).

XOSL does NOT modify the boot environment of any of
the OSs on the disk. It only hides/unhides partitions, then
invokes the selected OS. This has the side benefit that you
can port any of your OSs to a different partition and/or
launch it independently from XOSL.

And an operational question: Can Ghost and Drive Image
7.x create a suitable OS clone for XOSL on a logical drive,
or does XOSL have to somehow be involved in the copying?

Since it is not possible to install Windows, complete with boot
files, into an logical drive, you not only can but you actually must
use an imaging tool to transfer your OS into its final partition.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Thanks, Pegasus. XOSL sounds really cool -
especially for its price!

*TimDaniels*