TrueCrypt and XP + 7 dual boot

M

Marcus_

Member
Hi all,
I honestly don't know where to start from.
I have a netbook with XP installed. I've already managed to shrink it's partition from 150 GB to 75 GB via diskpart, so there's room for 7.
I'd like to set up a dual boot in which, at startup, I choose what os I want to run, and then TrueCrypt asks me for the correct password.
Can EasyBCD help me?

Code: 
                              -XP--->Gimme password:_ ---> Loading etc.  
                              |
Switch on ---> Which OS?:_ ---|
                              |
                              --7--->Gimme password:_ ---> Loading etc.

PS: sorry for my newbiness, it's my first post here and it's the first time I (seriously) want to set up a dual boot. And, as I far as I can see from google searches, I'm the only one on the earth thinking of this configuration.
 
Hi Marcus,

I'm pretty sure it'd actually go something like this:

Code: 
                                                      -XP ---> Loading etc.  
                                                     |
Switch on ---> --> Gimme password --> Which OS?:_ ---|
                                                     |
                                                      --7---> Loading etc.
 
I just setup TrueCrypt encryption yesterday....

TrueCrypt well allow you to setup your system in a multi-boot configuration, but it demands that 1 hard drive must contain only 1 operating system. You could try getting the dual-boot working first and than encrypt things to see if 2 OSes on the same drive would work, but apparently it isn't supported. So I think its something like this:

Switch on > Gimme Password > Which disk? > Boot OS on selected disk.

If you've got a spare hard drive and you can't get it all working on a single drive, just follow along in the system encryption wizard in TrueCrypt, and it should help you setup the multi-drive, multi-boot setup.
 
Thank you for your answers!

I actually tried a few days ago as you suggested and in fact it works without any problem: just installing XP first, then 7, so I get a nice choice screen at boot (7 or Previous Windows version), and finally encrypting the whole disk, so at switch on I'm prompted to insert the pw and then the choice screen I described before appears.

The fact is: in a similar configuration there's just one password that works for the whole disk, while I'd like to encrypt each OS with a different password. The closest thing to would be using the Hidden OS included in truecrypt, but that would mean reinstalling from scratch the XP I have now.

That's why I asked you guys if you knew or could think of an alternative method to obtain a functioning workflow as in OP... :|
 
The workflow you described is not possible without using NeoGrub to create an intermediate bootloader.
 
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