XP to Windows 7

[Anna]

Anna,

I've hit a snag. When I partition my external HD into 3 partitions, only
one (always the first) partition can contain a bootable volume. The
second
and third partitions have unique drive letters assigned but my BIOS
recognizes only the first volume drive letter in its lists of bootable
drives. I have found no way of changing the BIOS to overcome this
limitation.

When I go to XP disk management, the first volume shows up as the "primary
partition" while the second and third volumes show up as "extended
partition
logical drives". When I right click on either of these two partitions,
there is no "mark partition as active" option as there is when right
clicking the first partition. I have tried using XP, EASEUS and Casper to
partition the external HD into 3 partitions and all resulted in three
partitions in which only partition one could be used to boot. The
limitation may possibly be in the Casper cloning concept but I have read
their use notes and can't find an answer to the problem.

At this point it appears to me that I cannot have two bootable partitions
on
a single hard drive unless I go to a true dual boot configuration for W7
and
XP. At this point I am considering reverting to my "plan" B approach,
i.e.
using two separate external HDs in the Vantec enclosure. I have an extra
HD
and changing them in the enclosure is a five minute task.

If you have any other thoughts let me know.

bobster:
As I previously indicated you will use the XP Disk Management utility to
"Mark Partition as Active" depending upon which partition contains the
bootable OS (on your external HDD) that you wish to boot to. Using your
example where (presumably) you've cloned the contents of your XP OS to the
first partition on your external HDD and you've cloned the contents of your
Win7 OS to the second partition on the external HDD (the third partition on
the external HDD does not contain a bootable OS according to the info you
previously provided)...

Assuming the first partition on the external HDD has been designated as
"Active", the system will boot to that OS when your BIOS boot priority order
setting indicates a first HDD boot to the external drive.

If, on the other hand, you desire to boot to the Win7 system it will be
necessary use Disk Management as I explained above. You would right-click on
the partition listing containing the Win7 OS and from the sub-menu select
"Mark Partition as Active". The system will then boot to that OS when your
BIOS boot priority order setting indicates a first HDD boot to the external
disk.

Subsequently (after booting to your Win7 OS) when you want to boot to your
XP OS you will need to go through the same process but this time "marking"
the partition containing the XP OS as "Active".

Please understand that the BIOS boot priority relates to a specific HDD
installed in the system. Where the HDD contains multiple bootable OSs (as
you have on your external HDD) the boot will be to the "Active" partition on
that disk. Thus the need for making ("marking") that partition "Active".

You might want to refer to my previous posts in this thread in which I
further explained the above in a bit more detail with reference to your
specific situation.
Anna

 

[Anna]

bobster:
As I previously indicated you will use the XP Disk Management utility to
"Mark Partition as Active" depending upon which partition contains the
bootable OS (on your external HDD) that you wish to boot to. Using your
example where (presumably) you've cloned the contents of your XP OS to the
first partition on your external HDD and you've cloned the contents of your
Win7 OS to the second partition on the external HDD (the third partition on
the external HDD does not contain a bootable OS according to the info you
previously provided)...

Assuming the first partition on the external HDD has been designated as
"Active", the system will boot to that OS when your BIOS boot priority order
setting indicates a first HDD boot to the external drive.

If, on the other hand, you desire to boot to the Win7 system it will be
necessary use Disk Management as I explained above. You would right-click on
the partition listing containing the Win7 OS and from the sub-menu select
"Mark Partition as Active". The system will then boot to that OS when your
BIOS boot priority order setting indicates a first HDD boot to the external
disk.

Subsequently (after booting to your Win7 OS) when you want to boot to your
XP OS you will need to go through the same process but this time "marking"
the partition containing the XP OS as "Active".

Please understand that the BIOS boot priority relates to a specific HDD
installed in the system. Where the HDD contains multiple bootable OSs (as
you have on your external HDD) the boot will be to the "Active" partition on
that disk. Thus the need for making ("marking") that partition "Active".

You might want to refer to my previous posts in this thread in which I
further explained the above in a bit more detail with reference to your
specific situation.
Anna

Only primary partitions can be marked active, so if you want the
ability to boot from more than one partition on a single physical disk
drive, you have to make sure that the partitions you create are
primary, not logical within an extended partition.

bobster:
Andy is absolutely correct. I skimmed over your last post too quickly and
didn't pick up on the fact that you had created a logical drive within an
extended partition for the second partition on your external HDD. I had
assumed all along that you had created two primary partitions on your
external HDD to contain the cloned contents of the two OSs. Since you plan
to use the third partition to contain some add'l data (non-bootable) it's
immaterial in this situation whether that partition will be created as an
extended partition to contain a logical drive.

In any event...

As long as you're planning to create only three partitions on your external
HDD There is really no need for you to create one or more extended
partitions. Simply create each partition as a primary partition and be done
with it.
Anna

 

[bobster]

Anna,

Success!.

I now have 2 internal HDs, one with my XP system and the other with Windows
7. I have clones of each of these hard drives on 2 separate bootable
partitions on my Vantec mounted external HD.

The problem that fouled me up was that I was creating the partitions as
"logical" drives rather than "primary" drives. Per Andy's post, logical
drives are apparently not bootable. and the "mark partition as active"
option in XP Disk Management is grayed out. When creating partitions from
Casper or XP Disk Management, I must have missed the opportunity to select
between the "primary" or "logical" option. I used EASEUS Partition Master
5.0.1 for the final partitioning and the option for "primary" was obvious.
Setting or changing the active boot drive partition via XP Disk Management
is a cinch.

Thanks again, Anna for all the help you have given me on this problem. And
thanks to you too, Andy for identifying the primary vs. logic problem that
had me stymied. I have gained quite a bit of knowledge from this
experience.

And, BTW I can't believe how awkward Windows 7 seems compared to my highly
customized XP setup. Perhaps time and experience with 7 will change my mind.

==============================================================




bobster:
As I previously indicated you will use the XP Disk Management utility to
"Mark Partition as Active" depending upon which partition contains the
bootable OS (on your external HDD) that you wish to boot to. Using your
example where (presumably) you've cloned the contents of your XP OS to the
first partition on your external HDD and you've cloned the contents of your
Win7 OS to the second partition on the external HDD (the third partition on
the external HDD does not contain a bootable OS according to the info you
previously provided)...

Assuming the first partition on the external HDD has been designated as
"Active", the system will boot to that OS when your BIOS boot priority order
setting indicates a first HDD boot to the external drive.

If, on the other hand, you desire to boot to the Win7 system it will be
necessary use Disk Management as I explained above. You would right-click on
the partition listing containing the Win7 OS and from the sub-menu select
"Mark Partition as Active". The system will then boot to that OS when your
BIOS boot priority order setting indicates a first HDD boot to the external
disk.

Subsequently (after booting to your Win7 OS) when you want to boot to your
XP OS you will need to go through the same process but this time "marking"
the partition containing the XP OS as "Active".

Please understand that the BIOS boot priority relates to a specific HDD
installed in the system. Where the HDD contains multiple bootable OSs (as
you have on your external HDD) the boot will be to the "Active" partition on
that disk. Thus the need for making ("marking") that partition "Active".

You might want to refer to my previous posts in this thread in which I
further explained the above in a bit more detail with reference to your
specific situation.
Anna

Only primary partitions can be marked active, so if you want the
ability to boot from more than one partition on a single physical disk
drive, you have to make sure that the partitions you create are
primary, not logical within an extended partition.

bobster:
Andy is absolutely correct. I skimmed over your last post too quickly and
didn't pick up on the fact that you had created a logical drive within an
extended partition for the second partition on your external HDD. I had
assumed all along that you had created two primary partitions on your
external HDD to contain the cloned contents of the two OSs. Since you plan
to use the third partition to contain some add'l data (non-bootable) it's
immaterial in this situation whether that partition will be created as an
extended partition to contain a logical drive.

In any event...

As long as you're planning to create only three partitions on your external
HDD There is really no need for you to create one or more extended
partitions. Simply create each partition as a primary partition and be done
with it.
Anna