Multiple XP Installs and Server 2008 all hidden from each other

S

sh04ndo

Member
Ive done a lot of searching and I cant quite find an answer to my problem. I hope someone can help.

I will try my best to describe my situation;

I am working on creating a PC that is to be used as a test centre machine and a training machine. This will then be replicated around 10 other machines.

I have 3 XP installs (these all contain different test centre setups and must be kept separate, hence the reason for 3 installs!)
Each of these had originally been installed on different machines and I have ghosted them into the 3 separate partitions on the same hard disk on the machine I am working on.

I then installed Windows Server 2008 so I can use Hyper-v to deliver training.

I can boot into each machine, however in each I can see the drives for all the other partitions. This causes problems;
when I boot into the 1st XP partition it appears as drive C
when I boot into the 2nd XP partition it appears as drive D. The first install partition has stayed as C
when I boot into the 3rd XP partition it appears as drive E. The 1st and 2nd partitions are C and D.

Now obviously as each install was originally installed from a C drive, this is causing lots of problems.

Is there a way of hiding each of the other XP partitions?

I have used HnS to hide the Server 2008 from the others, and this does its job, but the need i have is to hide the Xp partitions that arent booted.

Thanks for any pointers anyone can give me.
 
You can change the drive letters back to c: on each without hiding them from one another. Interested?
 
That would be good, yes I'm interested. Ideal situation would be to hide the xp partitions from each other, they have no need to see each other.

Thanks
Iain
 
HnS uses Grub4Dos as the boot manager ( with a custom GUI to create the grub/menu.lst for you)
Though the GUI only has the function of hiding Vista/7/2k8 from XP's destructive tendencies, there is nothing to stop you customizing the menu.lst manually for your own puposes.
See
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3596
for an example, not of what you want to do specifically, but of how you can modify the limited intentions of HnS to your own ends.
 
Terry thanks for your reply. I made modifications to the menu.lst as you suggested and now each os boots and the other partitions are hidden. I have included it at the end of this message.

Now my only problem is;
- When I boot 0,0 (Prometric2007) which is xp this comes up as C:\ - no problem

- When I boot 0,1 (PearsonVUE) which is also xp this comes up as D:\ which is a problem as it was orginally installed as a C:\ and Ive taken an image of it and placed it inside a partition

-When I boot 0,2 (Prometric2010) which is also xp this comes up as E:\ again this is a problem as the originial image was installed as c:\

-When I boot 0,3 which is Server 2008 this comes up as C:\ - no problem


Is there any way I can make the 2nd and 3rd XP partitions boot up as C as their native drive?

# NeoSmart Technologies' Vista Hide 'n Seek Beta
# DO NOT MODIFY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

timeout 30
default 0
splashimage=
foreground 000000
background ffffff

title Microsoft Windows Server 2008
find --unhide /Vista.G.HnS
find --hide /XP.H.HnS
find --hide /XP.D.HnS
find --hide /XP.C.HnS
find --set-root /BOOTMGR.HNS
makeactive
chainloader /BOOTMGR.HNS
boot

title Windows XP [Prometric 2010 (H:\)]
find --hide /Vista.G.HnS
find --hide /XP.D.HnS
find --hide /XP.C.HnS
find --unhide /XP.H.HnS
find --remap-root /XP.H.HnS
find --set-root /XP.H.HnS
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot

title Windows XP [PearsonVUE (D:\)]
find --hide /Vista.G.HnS
find --hide /XP.C.HnS
find --hide /XP.H.HnS
find --unhide /XP.D.HnS
find --remap-root /XP.D.HnS
find --set-root /XP.D.HnS
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot

title Windows XP [Prometric 2007 (C:\)]
find --hide /Vista.G.HnS
find --hide /XP.D.HnS
find --hide /XP.H.HnS
find --unhide /XP.C.HnS
find --remap-root /XP.C.HnS
find --set-root /XP.C.HnS
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot

# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!
 
There are problems with clones, quite separate from any dual-booting issue.
Vista/7 accidental letter changes can be fixed in situ because the boot gets far enough to let regedit run, where this hack fixes the problem.
XP is more complex because it can't get far enough to self-fix an accidental change.
Read this site about the problems of cloning XP and how to avoid them.
 
Thanks again for your help Terry. I used a fix that got me to do a fixmbr using a Win98 boot disk. That mucked things up so that I couldnt see the server image. Obviously the fixmbr didnt see or couldnt understand the server partition.

However I solved that by running the server boot disk and getting to command prompt and fixing the MBR from there.

I then re-installed HnS and now everything is hidden from everything else and everything appears as C

Happy days.

Thanks for all your help Terry, its much appreciated.

Iain
 
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