Using NeoGrub to hide Vista partition from XP

okay--I'm in Ubuntu right now and I've just tried unhide (hd0,0), (hd0,1), (hd1,0), and (hd1,1). Hopefully one of those is a hit for the first partition!!!

Now to reboot!
 
Bingo! Back in Vista. Again, many thanks.

Now, how to avoid this next time around:

Do I need a separate NeoGrub for Vista that unhides hd0,0 or

will an unhide command AFTER the boot command in NeoGrub config. unhide the Vista parition on XP shutdown????
 
*Whew!

OK, well congrats are in order I guess :smile:

Unfortunately, we haven't yet found a way to implement a second NeoGrub which would bypass the Vista bootloader, so for now what you're going to have to do is this:

Vista Bootloader:
.....Boot Vista
.....NeoGrub
..........Boot Windows (Hide Vista)
..........Unhide Vista

So when you want to boot XP, you would go
Root | NeoGrub | Boot XP

And when you want to boot Vista, you would do
Root | NeoGrub | Unhide Vista
Root | Boot Vista

Note that the first Vista step only needs to be done if the drive is already hidden.

To do this, just add a second section within the same NeoGrub file that has:

Code: 
title Unhide Vista
unhide (hd0,1) #The Vista drive
chainloader +1
boot

So your entire menu.lst for NeoGrub:

Code: 
default 0
timeout 5

title: Boot XP, Hide Vista
hide (hd0,1) #The Vista drive
find --set-root /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr

title: Unhide Vista
unhide (hd0,1) #The Vista drive
chainloader +1

(note that there is no need for `boot` if you're using menus - it will auto-call `boot` at the end of each menu section)

(note that this uses an easier way than manually typing the XP drive)
 
I've saved the config. twice now and the menu items don't appear in the actual boot menu at run time.

Here's what I've put it exactly:

Code: 
default 0
timeout 5

title: Boot XP, Hide Vista
hide (hd0,0) #The Vista drive
find --set-root /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr

title: Unhide Vista
unhide (hd0,0) #The Vista drive
chainloader +1


?????

That is--there's no sign of NeoGrub at all in the boot menu at run time--just Vista and Windows w/o any grub code attached to them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So near and yet so far!

:huh:

Still not there!

Once I remembered that one has to remove and reinstall NeoGrub to get changes to the configuration script to take effect, I had no problem getting the NeoGrub entry to appear and do something at run time--not, of course, what we wanted!

I used pause-break to watch how grub was responding to the script. First it grumbles verbosely about the drive having unrecognized partition types and suggests, of all things, formatting with FDisk! It then roles through the hide-Vista line and the chainload ntldr line and promises that it will boot ntldf from drive 0x80, partition 0x0. Finally it sweeps right through the whole unhide Vista line in one continuous, very rapid sweep. In short, not a hint of menu-like behavior!

So we're not quite there yet although we're probably very close. I just don't know this particular scripting language so I'm really in your hands. As well, I'm out of time to tinker with this for now.

Hope we can get it working soon though!!!

Thanks again!
 
That doesn't sound right.. You shouldn't have to remove and reinstall GRUB for the configuration to take place. The only time you need to do that is when you upgrade to 1.61, provided you don't go back to using 1.6.... Could you be using 1.61 in Vista and 1.6 in XP (or vice versa)?

:scared::scared::scared:

How could I be so stupid!
Remove the colon from "title:" so that it says "title"

Code: 
default 0
timeout 5

title Boot XP, Hide Vista
hide (hd0,0) #The Vista drive
find --set-root /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr

title Unhide Vista
unhide (hd0,0) #The Vista drive
chainloader +1
 
Tried that yesterday but will try again

Actually that difference between this and the original code caught my eye late yesterday afternoon and I tried removing the colons but it didn't seem to matter. I'll try again though when I have some time.

Cheers!
 
Still no luck

Curiousity got the best of me and I took a couple of minutes from my work to reboot.

Same thing--even without the colons all the text in the config file flies by with no sign of menu-like behaviour.

And yes, the only way I can get changes to show up at run time is by uninstalling and reinstalling NeoGrub.

????????
 
Seems there is something wrong with your NeoGrub.
Uninstall NeoGrub (Add/Remove -> NeoGrub -> Remove) and then remove any NeoGrub entries left (Add/Remove -> Delete)
Delete C:\NeoGrub (if it exists)
Delete C:\NST if it exists

Install NeoGrub anew, and use the config file on the previous page? Make sure you're running the newest build (I uploaded a new one yesterday).
 
I just got home and did exactly as you suggested (with the exception that there was no C:\NeoGrub directory--incidentally C:\NST was empty) but no joy. Still the same thing, complaints about file format, then quick whirl through entire script!

??????
 
File

Here it is, I think!

I copied it to a txt file this time. Hope it worked.
 

Attachments

  • menu - Copy.txt
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Well, I was going to look for hidden bytes (UTF-8 BOM Marks) that might cause that problem - but it seems you still have the colons in there!
 
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