Setting up multi-boot copies of XP on multi drives. Help.

[Old Man]

I lost two 250G Maxtors in 1 week. Totally lost format & partitions. Will
try to recover files lost later. Re-formatted Maxtor 160G and built new
OS clean install. Added standard extras like MS Office, Acrobat, Roxio Easy
CD, etc. Added two new Western Digital 300g drives. Set up each using
WD's Data Lifeguard Tools utility to see 300G partition, then set up each as
a "bootable disk", copying entire main OS partition and boot partition from
"C", Maxtor 160.

I can see all files on each from My Computer. Because I did not
consecutively install each copy of XP to each drive as a clean install from
the CD, the system does not currently offer a choice of all three as
multiple boot options on power up. The system only "sees" the first
install on "C". I recall seeing a process for XP that searches for all
installed copies of XP to facilitate creating a multi boot system. I want
to be able to load new programs to "C" to test them, then re-install good
ones later to the two alternative boot drives. I can keep "C" repaired by
using "D" and "E" as tested backups.

Please remind me of the procedure to set up all three drives with three
selectable boot options at startup, defaulting to "C" unless one of the
other drives is selected.

Thanks!
Old Man with a plan.

 

[Galen]

In Old Man had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I lost two 250G Maxtors in 1 week. Totally lost format &
partitions. Will try to recover files lost later. Re-formatted
Maxtor 160G and built new OS clean install. Added standard extras
like MS Office, Acrobat, Roxio Easy CD, etc. Added two new
Western Digital 300g drives. Set up each using WD's Data Lifeguard
Tools utility to see 300G partition, then set up each as a "bootable
disk", copying entire main OS partition and boot partition from "C",
Maxtor 160.
I can see all files on each from My Computer. Because I did not
consecutively install each copy of XP to each drive as a clean
install from the CD, the system does not currently offer a choice of
all three as multiple boot options on power up. The system only
"sees" the first install on "C". I recall seeing a process for
XP that searches for all installed copies of XP to facilitate
creating a multi boot system. I want to be able to load new
programs to "C" to test them, then re-install good ones later to the
two alternative boot drives. I can keep "C" repaired by using "D"
and "E" as tested backups.
Please remind me of the procedure to set up all three drives with
three selectable boot options at startup, defaulting to "C" unless
one of the other drives is selected.

Thanks!
Old Man with a plan.

This should get you started?

Repairing a Multi-Boot:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/repair_multi-boot.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"I am glad of all details, whether they seem to you to be relevant or
not." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[coal_brona]

Greetings,


I suppose you trying data recovery tools to see if you can bring
something back. For this purpose I suppose you using a powerful tools
set, Active@ Boot Disk, that includes a Partition Recovery utility, the
one that might help you bring lost partitions back and Uneraser,
awesome tool supposed to restore erased data. There are also others
data tools for data erasea and backup there. Give it a try.

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm