Partitioning question

J

JustPlainFred

Member
Hello all,
I have a UEFI "Mobo" ASUS 990FX, using hard disks that are MBR in a triple boot scenario ( Using EasyBCD 2.2). The past iterations of EasyBCD (2.1.1, 2.1, etc. ) would not boot any OS on anything but the first (Active) partition of any of my hard drives. Not really sure if this is due to the UEFI BIOS or some other quirk.The "Mobo's BIOS" also only "sees" the "Active" partition as being "Bootable". Question: am i stuck with one operating system per hard drive? Is there some workaround using EasyBCD 2.2 ? I would like to place two OS's on each HD as i have done in the past with non UEFI "Mobos"... Thanks ...Regards Fred
 
You can have multiple OSs per HDD. They don't even have to be on primary partitions since XP, but if you are using a MS boot manager/loader (bootmgr for Vista/7/8) the boot files for all of the OSs have to be on a primary partition, and it must be "active" for the boot process to find it.
Since only one partition can be active at a time, you either dynamically set the active flag before shutting down one OS to make the one you want next "active" (not a very practical scenario), or you let the MS install process add boot files from any new install into the previously existing "active" "system" partition (that's what happens automatically)
That's how you get a boot menu. Then the active partition boot manager loads the boot loader (winload.exe) from one of the other (non-active) partitions.
 
Terry60 said:
You can have multiple OSs per HDD. you let the MS install process add boot files from any new install into the previously existing "active" "system" partition (that's what happens automatically)
That's how you get a boot menu. Then the active partition boot manager loads the boot loader (winload.exe) from one of the other (non-active) partitions.
Click to expand...

Hi Terry,
That's the question.. How do you let MS install boot files when you add the OS to the 2nd partition (installing from an image) And the first partition is already set to active? On my old System i could swap around any of my OS's to any partition and use EasyBCD to set them how i wanted. Each partition would then appear (at boot and within windows) as an independent HD. Guess that we are ( mostly me) not understanding my problem. Thanks ...Regards Fred
 
Install puts the boot files in the "active" partition.
If it's the first OS then the boot files will be with the OS (until W7, which will create a separate partition if left to its own devices).
Subsequent installs will see the pre-existing Installation in the active partition, and add their boot files to that partition whilst installing wherever you tell them to.
You can force completely independent installations, each with their own boot files by setting the target partition "active" just before you install to it. The new install doesn't then "see" the older one and ignores it.
 
Hi Terry,
If I'm understanding what your saying .. If i restore an Image of a OS ( previously on it's own HD ) to the 2nd partition of an existing HD that has an OS installed on the first partition ...Then i can use 2.2 to load the 2nd OS ? Or am i "missing the boat" again? Thanks ..... Regards Fred
 
Yes.
Just add an entry to the BCD on the controlling system describing the location of the other OS(s).
(provided that the cloned OS moved to its new location is actually bootable. You can't e.g. take an OS drive from one PC and just place it in another PC and expect it to work. The driver-set and the registry map of its environment will be completely alien, akin to attempting to navigate round France with a map of England, asking for directions in English)
 
Hi Terry,
Thank you for responding ... This is what i have found ... After my initial problems with Acronis and Macrium "Recovery managers" messing with booting\selecting and causing problems ... I have found that i could (after removing the recovery managers), place a ( bootable) OS on the second partition ....of a HD that had a OS on the first partition of my UEFI \ MBR setup with Easy BCD 2.2.. Onward to try to place XP on another one now.... Thank you again for your patience .... Regards Fred
 
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