Thanks to all who responded to my last request regarding boot
problems, especially Jon, who solved the problem (for a while!)

Jamie - I had a look at VMware, but it wasn't free - the minimum price
was well over a grand!

Now the issue.

My aim was to have a two hard-drive PC (HD0 & HD1) with three OSs:
(Win2K, XP(normal), and XP(experimental - may get trashed).

I was satisfied with my recent setup which had 3 OSs, plus PQ Boot
manager, all on HD0.  Then the problems started

I tried to use Norton Ghost 9 to image these partitions and discovered
that it needs a primary partition of its own to run.  Hence I can only
have 2 OS, plus the extended partition.

Next I researched the later versions of Norton and Acronis and
discovered that 80% of purchasers are having unacceptable problems
with them, so I seem to be stuck with Ghost 9.

I then found that I could put one Win2K partition on my second hard
drive HD1, thus freeing a partition for Norton Ghost on the first
drive.

Partition Magic's "Install New OS" wizard unfortunately only works
with HD0. I then attempted to install from scratch a copy of Win2K on
HD1, but it wouldn't allow me to do this (can't remember why).

Next I tried cloning the HD0 Win2K partition to a new HD1 primary
partition.  I then edited the HD1 Boot.ini file to point to itself:

   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Win 2000" /fastdetect

Added it to Boot manager, but it didn't work - I always get HD0,
partition 1.

From reading all the confusing (and much outdated) stuff on the web it
seems that I can put the NT folder on HD1, but the boot stuff must
reside on HD0.  Where would this live - does it need a primary
partition.

TIA for any help

GrahamC.

Graham C wrote:
> Thanks to all who responded to my last request regarding boot
> problems, especially Jon, who solved the problem (for a while!)
> 
> Jamie - I had a look at VMware, but it wasn't free - the minimum price
> was well over a grand!
>

VMware Server is free.
<http://www.vmware.com/products/server/>

Try it out!

-- 
Adrian C

Graham C wrote:
> 
> From reading all the confusing (and much outdated) stuff on the web it
> seems that I can put the NT folder on HD1, but the boot stuff must
> reside on HD0.  Where would this live - does it need a primary
> partition.

When you install a copy of XP or 2k to a partition, it writes the MBR to 
disk 0, regardless of which drive you're installing to. ntldr and 
boot.ini are normally written to the first partition on disk 0, but I'm 
not sure what happens if this isn't accessible by NT.

If you want to boot from three different partitions on two disks, you 
should simply need to add lines to boot.ini on the first partition on 
disk 0. Something like:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP main" [flags]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP test" [flags]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Win2k" [flags]


If you're having trouble getting 2k to install to a partition on disk 1 
(I think there are installer bugs related to this), tell the BIOS to 
boot from that disk temporarily to switch the drive order. Then install 
2k, add the rdisk(1)partition(1) line to the boot.ini on the other disk 
and switch the drive order back to normal.

This is a better procedure anyway, because you don't want the 2k install 
overwriting ntldr on the XP partition.


If you're trying to use 3rd-party boot managers then I can't help you, 
but this should hopefully give you a better idea of how the process works.


-- 
John Jordan

On 11/06/2008 in message  
Graham C wrote:

>From reading all the confusing (and much outdated) stuff on the web it
>seems that I can put the NT folder on HD1, but the boot stuff must
>reside on HD0.  Where would this live - does it need a primary
>partition.

It needs to be on the first active primary partition it can see.

You could have a small primary partition as a boot partition and put 
everything else on logical drives in extended partitions.

Did you try System Commander? I used that when I had an experimental box 
with about 6 different OSs on it with great success.

-- 
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
There are 3 types of people in this world. Those who can count, and those 
who can't.

On 11 Jun 2008 16:03:18 GMT, "Jeff Gaines"
 wrote:

>On 11/06/2008 in message  
>
>
>Did you try System Commander? I used that when I had an experimental box 
>with about 6 different OSs on it with great success.

Just had a look at it, and it requires money up front.  Beacuse of all
the problems I've had with all the alternatives that's a no-no at the
moment.

GrahamC

(I thought there were 10 types of people in the world - those who
understand binary and those who don't.)

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:44:30 +0100, John Jordan 
wrote:

>
>
>If you want to boot from three different partitions on two disks, you 
>should simply need to add lines to boot.ini on the first partition on 
>disk 0. Something like:
>
>[operating systems]
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP main" [flags]
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP test" [flags]
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Win2k" [flags]
>

>
>If you're trying to use 3rd-party boot managers then I can't help you, 
>but this should hopefully give you a better idea of how the process works.

I think the problem with adding options to boot.ini is that you then
get sent to the MS boot system which works, but over-rides my 3rd
party one and leaves all bootable partitions visible which is not what
I want.

GrahamC

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:18:08 +0100, Graham C
 wrote:

>
>
>I tried to use Norton Ghost 9 to image these partitions and discovered
>that it needs a primary partition of its own to run.  Hence I can only
>have 2 OS, plus the extended partition.
>
>Next I researched the later versions of Norton and Acronis and
>discovered that 80% of purchasers are having unacceptable problems
>with them, so I seem to be stuck with Ghost 9.
>
I've just found a full-product (well almost) Acronis 8 TrueImage on a
Computer Shopper disc.  Installed it and it seems to work.  What's
more it doesn't need a primary partition to image an OS.

This means that I can now install three OSs on HD0 and kick Norton
Ghost into touch.

Interestingly I'm also running  full-product (well almost!) copies of
Partition Manager 8 and Paragon Partition Manager.  They both have
their advantages.  The former seems to contain a random error-message
generator which bursts into life on frequent occasions.  Both report
the states of the OS partitions as 'active', 'inactive', 'hidden' etc.
These states seem to bear little resemblance as to what's happening in
practice - hidden drives are often clearly visible in 'My Computer',
and the only way I can tell which partition is really active at
present is because I've set the partitions to 5, 8 and 12 gig.

I allowed myself three days to find a reliable system of booting and
cloning OS partitions.  So far it's been six weeks.  This completely 
falls in line with the basic rules of project evaluation, i.e.
'Spend a few minutes estimating how long the job will take, then
double the number, and upgrade the unit !"

Wonder if anyone is 100% conversant with this booting stuff - many of
the web sites work on, 'here is how it's supposed to work, and we'll
point you in the right direction.'

GrahamC

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:18:08 +0100, Graham C
 wrote:

>Jamie - I had a look at VMware, but it wasn't free - the minimum price
>was well over a grand!

Not the case. VMware Server, you just need to download it 
http://www.vmware.com/download/server/
and ask them for a free serial number (link near the top of the page).

	Cheers - Jaimie
-- 
...most SF writers are small blokes; they spent a lot of time grubbing
around on the floor for old SF mags, not stretching up to the top shelf
for pornography... As an aside, Douglas Adams is quite tall.
                                                     - Terry Pratchett