Xp Pro and Vista non traditional dual boot

[Jeff]

Hello,
How do I set up my computer with xp pro on C: drive and vista on D:
drive but I don't won't a traditional dual boot. I want to load vista on the
second drive just as if I only had one drive then be able to pick which one
I want with all the file systems intack on there respective drives .........
I want this because I've heard that vista loads some system files onto the
first drive and that it is hard to get xp pro back to nomoral if you delete
vista.
Also when I boot Xp Pro on C: drive I do not want to see the D: drive and
visa versa when I boot Vista D: drive I don't want to see the C: drive


side note: my two drives are sata drives

Regards,
JPBach
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Michal Kawecki]

Hello,
How do I set up my computer with xp pro on C: drive and vista
on D: drive but I don't won't a traditional dual boot. I want to load
vista on the second drive just as if I only had one drive then be able
to pick which one I want with all the file systems intack on there
respective drives .........
I want this because I've heard that vista loads some system files onto
the first drive and that it is hard to get xp pro back to nomoral if
you delete vista.

It's simply not true. Boot into Recovery Console from XP install CD and
run fixboot command. That's all.

Also when I boot Xp Pro on C: drive I do not want to see the D: drive
and visa versa when I boot Vista D: drive I don't want to see the C:
drive

So you have two possibility:
- install any bootmanager and hide those partitions (I recommend
BootItNG http://www.terabyteunlimited.com ),
- remove letters from unnecessary partitions in both systems using
diskmgmt.msc or mountvol.exe.

 

[Richard Urban]

Use a third party boot manager that allows you to hide the system that is
not being used.

Install each operating system onto a primary partition.

When booted into either system, it will show up as drive C:

The other operating system will not be seen

Any logical partitions will be seen as the same letter for both operating
systems (after a few adjustments by you)

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User

 

[Jeff]

Hello, I don't want the drives interacting with each others sytem files,
temp files or whatever so when using a boot manager and hiding the other
system will it stop it from doing this .

 

[Michal Kawecki]

Yes, but only if it can do it correctly. Like BootIt. In its
"Unlimited Partitions" operating mode it simply remove unnecessary
partitions from partition table, so those are nearly perfectly
protected.

 

[Richard Urban]

I believe that is what I said!

Install each operating system onto a primary partition.

When booted into either system, it will show up as drive C:

The other operating system will not be seen


If it can't be seen, it can not interact.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:15:08 -0400, "Richard Urban"

Install each operating system onto a primary partition.

When booted into either system, it will show up as drive C:

The other operating system will not be seen

If it can't be seen, it can not interact.

True, but there's some dirty detail there.

An OS *should* ignore any partition that has a type byte that does not
match that OS, i.e. spoofing the type byte should be enough to hide a
partition from an OS.

But recent MS OSs are badly behaved - they WILL find type-spoofed
partitions, and can indeed stuff around with them.

So you're forced to use stronger (and more brittle) methods to hide
partitions from recent Windows, such as using a non-standard partition
table structure that is alien to Windows.

That's what BING does with the "extended" partition table. The risk
is that if BING gets barfed, access to your partitions may be lost,
and things that assume standard MBR may trash your real contents.

--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -

Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!

 

[Richard Urban]

I guess that Vcom's System Commander does something similar to Bing.

If I go into Disk Management the only option available to me is "delete".
The partitions do not have a letter designation and can not be touched from
the Command Prompt that I have found.

Other than that, the DOS and Windows XP partitions are untouchable. I have
not yet found a generally used program that will even see these partitions,
except for the ones that are designed to - such as Acronis TrueImage (yes, I
can image a partition I am not booted into) and Acronis Disk Director.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User

 

[Michal Kawecki]

Exactly that was why I would recommended hiding those partitions with
BING.

BING is very reliable tool, but if we choose using it's extended
partition table, we must remember to avoid any other partitioning
program which can alter MBR content. We can also save our original MBR
to file with BING and restore it after we notice any problem with
partition access.

Anyway, even if we are somehow losing access to our partitions, then we
can simply rebuild our original partition table using information from
partition bootsectors leaved on the disk. BING has a built-in function
to do it (button Undelete).

 

[Jawade]

I believe that is what I said!

Install each operating system onto a primary partition.

When booted into either system, it will show up as drive C:

The other operating system will not be seen


If it can't be seen, it can not interact.

If an OS (XP or Vista) is installed as for example D:, it will stay
D:, even there is not a visible C:.