My Plan - Will It Work?

Tawwy

Member
Hi All!

New guy here, and so happy I found the site, the software, and the forum. I've learned a lot from the links in the sticky, and I'm feeling a lot better about what I'm going to try!

I'm dual-booting Windows XP Pro (disk 0, partition 1) and Windows 7 (disk 2, partition 3) , and periodically creating disk images of each (using Acronis True Image) and storing them on disk 3, partition 1. The idea is to gradually build up the Win7 install with software, settings, tweaks, etc, to make it my primary OS, then relegate WinXP to backup status, then eventual retirement.

In a couple of weeks, then, I'll want to transfer the Win7 install to the current XP partition (0,1) (since it's the fastest partition on the fastest drive), then re-image the XP install to the former Win7 partition (2,3).

After reading the excellent links in the mod's sigs and the stickies, I've been a little nervous about whether this would work, but after taking a peek at the beta EasyBCD, I'm a little more confident that it can be done - maybe not pretty, but doable! :joy:

What's caused me concern is that once format (0,1) to prepare for the Win7 image, I'll be without proper boot info... but I'm encouraged to see the beta... Wish the Help files were available - apparently there's a server problem?

Anyway - could some kind soul hopefully tell me I'm not off on some fool's errand and setting myself up for disaster?

Many thanks!

Terry R
 
Hey Terry,

You should go ahead with the restore as planned when you're ready. Now you are correct in saying you probably won't be able to boot the PC and if you can it'll only be in W7.

Your first step well be to get the boot working for W7. You can do this using startup repair from W7 DVD. We've got instructions for it here.

Get yourself a copy of the latest build of EasyBCD 2 from here. In W7 use Add/Remove entries to add a new XP entry and let EasyBCD autoconfigure when prompted and you should be fine.
 
Thanks for the reply!

I feel better knowing that beta version of EasyBCD is available, although the links to how to use it are broken, or the server is down...

I just realized that the current Win7 probably won't let me format the XP partition, since that's where the BCD resides, and Windows is probably smart enough to know that. Hmmmm..... I suppose I could boot with the Win7 DVD and pretend I was creating a new install and let it get far enough to do the format. (I have to format with Win7, I believe, to get the proper NTFS formatting (3.1) done on that first partition.) I found this out the hard way, by creating and formatting the partition I've got Win7 on now with Acronis Disk Director - a known issue.

Terry R
 
You can use the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0 (diagnostics / change boot drive ) to move the boot files from XP to your W7 partition.
Then change the BIOS to boot from the W7 HDD, and add an XP entry to the newly moved BCD, letting it auto-configure.
 
You can use the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0 (diagnostics / change boot drive ) to move the boot files from XP to your W7 partition.
Then change the BIOS to boot from the W7 HDD, and add an XP entry to the newly moved BCD, letting it auto-configure.
Brilliant! I had a feeling that some elegant solution was right around the corner! :smile:

Thank you so much, Terry!

I think I'll ponder this overnight and seek a little more info tomorrow, if you don't mind... (wish the documentation for the program was available somewhere.)

Terry R
 
You won't need to move boot files if you're restoring from the backups later. Remember, a disk or partition image well include not only your users files but the OS in its entirety. With Acronis boot media what you'll want to do is either prep the disk as if it was new or simply write over existing partitions on the drive with the images you've made in the recovery process. Also, you may want to validate your images before proceeding too. It won't be so fun if the images are corrupted and you've already wiped out the drive. Not sure what version you got, but with version 10 there's a media builder you can use to make bootable Acronis media if you purchased Acronis online and not at the store where the disc you would have gotten would have been bootable as well.

Addendum:

I feel better knowing that beta version of EasyBCD is available, although the links to how to use it are broken, or the server is down...

Yeah sorry about that. The links correct but unfortunately we've been having some site problems lately. I see at this time the Wiki's still down. Hopefully CG well fix it soon but its a pretty straight forward process. The only thing you need to know to get to the right page for startup repair is to select the repair option on the main page instead of install now in order to enter the recovery part.
 
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Many thanks for the good info, kairozamorro - I really appreciate it!

I'm still re-reading all the great info on the multibooters site for some deep background. I won't be doing the big switchover for another couple of weeks, so I can continue patiently educating myself... :smile:

And I will be making a contribution! What a great little piece of software... and a great support forum here, as well!!

Thanks!
 
Well, the first phase is complete - the Win7 partition is now the system partition on the second drive, with XP secondary. So easy with, uh, EasyBCD!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy ... :smile:

Sometime soon I'll image both partitions, wipe out XP and reformat in NTFS 3.1, and swap positions of the OS's. I'm going to think about how to do that and post back later for your comments.

Terry R
 
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