Add XP to a W2K8 & XP Dual Boot

Jake

Jake

Member
EasyBCD 1.7.2
500 GB HDD with five partitions.
Partition 1 Win XP Pro SP 3 PRI, System
Partition 2 Allocated but empty PRI
Partition 3 Server 2008
Partition 4 Archive Data
Partition 5 Active Data

EasyBCD is currently working fine with Partition 1 and 3. XP was installed first, W2K8 installed second, then EasyBCD was installed. Everything is Hunky-Dory.

Now I want to put another copy of XP (XP Test) on partition 2 (eventually it will contain Win 7 Ultimate). I am inclined to use Acronis True Image to restore an image of Partition 1 to Partition 2 and see if everything works. But being a cautious kinda guy, I’m going to ask for guidence first and shoot later.

My apologies in advance if this issue has been previously addressed, but my searches for an answer haven’t been successful.

Jake
 
OK,

1. Upgraded to the beta code, Build 80.
2. Restored my XP image to the empty partition using Acronis.
3. Opened Easy 2.0

It isn't clear to me what to do next. If I select type XP, the drive letters gray out.

Jake
 
OK,

1. Up the ante to Beta 82
2. Easy shows 3 OSs - the two original (XP Pro and W2K8) and one new XP

The two old OSs show the drive partition letter they are pointing to.
The new OS doen't indicate which partition it is pointing to.

Is there a way to confirm that all the OSs are pointing to the correct partition before I re-boot?

Easy is Easy.

Jake
 
The BCD doesn't point to XP. It points to the "system" partition (where NTLDR must be)
NTLDR reads boot.ini (also in "system") and that points to all your XP systems.
The BCD doesn't contain multiple XP entries for the reason given above. One of yours is now redundant.
EasyBCD / tools / edit legacy entries should show you the boot.ini in use, and you should see both of your XPs described there.
 
The latest build hides the option for location completely when its not needed like in this case as Terry explained. Easy knows what its doing, thats why its "easy".
 
Terry60 said:
The BCD doesn't point to XP. It points to the "system" partition (where NTLDR must be)
NTLDR reads boot.ini (also in "system") and that points to all your XP systems.
The BCD doesn't contain multiple XP entries for the reason given above. One of yours is now redundant.
EasyBCD / tools / edit legacy entries should show you the boot.ini in use, and you should see both of your XPs described there.
Click to expand...

That is a very lucid explanation and the design makes sense. However, I must be doing something wrong in the installation of the second XP system, or I need to re-boot before I see what you have described.

The Tools==>Edit Legacy Entries only shows one XP entry, the one for Partition 1, and I can confirm this by looking directly at the boot.ini file on the root of partition 1. The boot.ini file on Partition 2 appears to be identicle to the boot.ini on Partition 1 with the exception that the partition number in the default= and multi(0) lines are "2" instead of "1".

Given that I'm not seeing what you described in Tools==>Edit Legacy Entries, what do you suggest I do next? Do you recommend I re-boot and see what Easy does?

BTW, when restoring the Acronis image of a boot partition there is a choice to restore the image and/or restore the MBR. I have successfully restored many images and have never picked the option to restore the MBR. Could this have any bearing on the situation?

Jake
 
EasyBCD -> delete all your pre-Vista OS entries. Add a new XP entry, and let it autoconfigure.

Reboot to test.
 
Computer Guru said:
EasyBCD -> delete all your pre-Vista OS entries. Add a new XP entry, and let it autoconfigure. Reboot to test.
Click to expand...

I deleted the Win XP entry and left the W2K8 (server) entry. Added an XP entry, let it auto configure.

Upon re-boot I now have a main menu with W2K8 and another entry which points to two XP entrires. This is what was expected. However, these two XP entries are identical and both boot from partition C.

The Boot ini file on partition C is the same as it was prior to making these changes, the Boot.in entry on partition D: has a note that it was created by New-Smart etc, and it does contain one default= entry and two multi(0) entries that are identical. The default= and multi(0) entries all point to partition 2, which is apparently drive letter C.

If I knew the real partition number for partition D I would just edit the boot.ini file and be done with it.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Is there a way to start from scratch? Any suggestions?

Jake
 
I used Acronis True Image to image drive C and restored it to drive D. Before EasyBCD, If I wanted to boot from D I would find out the actual partition number for D and alter boot.ini on drive C so I would have the choice of booting either drive C or D, right? After installing EasyBCD I was under the belief that Wasy took care of finding the right partition numbers and setting up the Boot.ini autonatically.

Jake
 
What's happening is that you have two *exactly identical* partitions, down to the last detail including the volume serial number.

To *any* partition software (EasyBCD's BootGrabber included), they'll be the same when accessed via Windows APIs.

Addendum:

I just tested this quickly with Acronis Disk Director.

It works if you right-click the partition and "Copy" to free space.

But creating a full image of the partition and restoring it (with true image) does not work.
 
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Jake said:
I used Acronis True Image to image drive C and restored it to drive D. Before EasyBCD, If I wanted to boot from D I would find out the actual partition number for D and alter boot.ini on drive C so I would have the choice of booting either drive C or D ...
Jake
Click to expand...

Over the years I have used this technique to install multiple copies of XP on several different machines. It works for me.

Can you suggest a proceedure that would allow me to "clone" the existing XP partition to a "test" XP Partitiona and have Server 2008 also installed?

Jake

Addendum:

I will try this.

Jake
 
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