Multi Boot

Mak 2.0

Mod...WAFFLES!?!?
Staff member
Okay i have a dilema. I have a good friend that is Multi Booting. He has Linux with Grub, OS X, Vista and XP SP1 all installed. Now Without just the Grub he can choose between the Linux and OS X installs. He must have the Vista DVD in to see the Vista boot. He must have the XP CD in to boot to XP.
Now here is my Question. I know that you can add entries. Is there any way with Easy BCD to be able to edit it to include the Linux, OS X and XP boots? I know that defeats the purpose of the Grub and the Acronis OS Selector that he has installed.
Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated almighty Computer Guru.
 
Just CG please, thanks :smile:

Did you see our latest post? http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/273

Simply:
Boot into Vista with the Vista DVD.
From Vista dl and run EasyBCD 1.5 (latest build, not betas).
In EasyBCD:
Go to bootloadr tab
Reinstall Vista bootloader.
Add an XP entry, a Vista entry, a Mac OS X entry, and a Linux entry from the Add/Remove programs screen.

Reboot and enjoy :smile:
 
Thanks CG. I didnt see that new post. I will direct him right to it so he can get his system back up and running. Thanks CG you are the best. :happy:
 
Your very welcome, and good luck.

Why don't you have your friend drop by? He sounds like a very talented (read: great & geeky) guy....
 
I passed on the info. I dont know if he will stop by. Most likely will.

But he said this about the EasyBCD 1.5:
I did that. that is what started my problem. it only gave me one xp and disabled the other 2. they have no way of reversing it either.

I use bootcfg /rebuild from recovery console. it had it so that I could sometime boot in mce and 64 bit. but then I ran a repair so I could boot in everytime, but now that is giving me bsod's
 
OK...
He should have said something earlier :tongueout:

OK, did he do this with EasyBCD 1.5?

Do this again, from XP or Vista, it doesn't matter, EasyBCD 1.5 can fix it.

The problem is no longer with the Vista bootloader, but boot.ini.
So long as *one* XP is working, all you have to do is open C:\boot.ini and configure it like crazy until the other drives boot - until EasyBCD 1.6 when we'll completely do away with the legacy ntldr bootloader :smile:
 
Yeah i kinda figured he was borked somehwere on there. I advised him to make images of the OS's and start over and from there we will work out the boot problem. I know he has formatted his system and working on transfering some files around so he can make his system ready for the re-installs.

Thanks for the help CG. It is much appreciated.
 
Computer Guru said:
Just CG please, thanks :smile:

Did you see our latest post? http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/273

Simply:
Boot into Vista with the Vista DVD.
From Vista dl and run EasyBCD 1.5 (latest build, not betas).
In EasyBCD:
Go to bootloadr tab
Reinstall Vista bootloader.
Add an XP entry, a Vista entry, a Mac OS X entry, and a Linux entry from the Add/Remove programs screen.

Reboot and enjoy :smile:
What is vista dl? I installed easy bcd in xp (have vista on a logical partition) and everything was working fine before easybcd. I wanted to be able to boot osx too (installed already). From easy bcd in xp in rewrote mbr after i added mac os x and now can't boot anything.
How can I fix this?
 
How do I copy anything to anything? I cannot boot into any OS. I am writing this form macosx from an external drive. OSX can't write on NTFS. :frowning:
 
Put your Vista DVD in the drive.
Boot from it.
Don't start the setup, press advanced options/startup repair
See if that does the trick.

It seems you moved your "boot" folder instead of the "NST" one.
 
i did not move the bot folder. All I did was to choose "write mbr" from easy BCD in vista. I installed easy BCD both in vista and xp. I appreciate your help so far.
Anyway after I shut down completly and restarted the puter now it worked.
BUt MAC OS X will still nt boot. I have a NST folder on the vista partition and a NST folder on the xp partition, both containing a mac mbr. when I choose mac os x in the vista boot menu, screen goes blank for a couple secs, then comes back to the vista boot menu.
The thing is the OS X partition would not boot to darwin even if I make it active. It was happening that when I only had xp and osx. Vista screwed up something. OSX boots if I put in a darwin boot disk like an external install of osx or a dvd.
 
I can boot both xp and vista. I cannot boot osx with or without vista bootloader. If I set osx partition as active and inactivate xp partition which is the first and active on the HD, all i et is HFS+ system error. However OSX partition botts fine using a system disk as I mentioned and checked it with diskutility in osx; everything's fine.
 
OK,

Just copy the NST folder to drive D: and change the drive letter for the mac entry in easybcd to d:
 
what's drive d in your acception? Drive d in my partition table only contains data, no OS, and it's a logical partition.
here the breakdown again:

C: primary XP/NTFS
D: logical data (no OS)/NTFS
F: logical/vista/ntfs that's the letter assigned to it
no letter primary OSX partition. this one is last on the hard disk.


If I look at the partitions from vista:
C: vista
D: xp
E: data/no os
That's how vista changes them

I currently have NST dir both on teh xp partition and on the vista partition. In easybcd osx is setup to be on partition F (where vista is) according to xp.
Should I run easybcd from vista only or shoudl I run it from xp only. The asssignemnt of partitions is different in each one.
Thanks
 
Btw, I appreciate a lot your help and the time you put into this. i appreciate also the fact that you made a software which you give for free. I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to name teh partitions as they are in windows or grub, so that there is no confusion when you set Oses. letters are confusing and chageable.
 
OK, here.

Whatever drive has "Boot" in the \ directory of it, copy the NST folder to there.

THEN, from EBCD, assign it the drive letter that is given it from the same OS.
As in, if you're in Vista and it's drive D:, then if you run EBCD in Vista, config it to drive E. It then converts it to hdxy format.
You have to realize that only a small percentage of users know/understand the actual hdxy (and then you have sdxy) numbering scheme, making it not feasible for most users.
 
I am sorry I don't understand your letter assignments. The "boot" folder is on xp partition and NST is on both as I mentioned (both xp and vista partition).
From vista, when I run ebcd vista is c" (obviously any booted microsoft is C). Xp partition is D:. Mac os does not have a letter and does not show up obviously.
So from EBCD in vista I set the mac os to boot from D: (teh xp partition which contains teh boot folder and the NST folder).

OsX doesn't work. :frowning:
 
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