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Setting up a machine to dual boot two installations of XP Pro

>I am setting up a laptop to dual boot seperate installations of XP Pro.
I> have installed XP Pro to the first partition, which half of the total hard drive space
>I am installing all the basic, common stuff to this windows installation, java, adobe, adobe reader, shockwave and all windows updates.

My plan is to then make an image of this partition with acronis and then restore it back to the unformatted partition, giving me two installations of XP Pro, saving me the trouble of doing all the updates, and other comnon software installations.

There are a couple of things I'm not sure of:
1. How to get a menu, asking which installation to boot to?
is it a simple matter of editing the boot.ini on the c drive?
2.Do I need to get the MBR and another boot.ini to the second logical drive?
3. Will duplicating the initial installation of the first partition to the second partition allow  Windows to work properly on the second partition?

One thing I've considered to take care of #1 above is to start an istallation of Windows just to let it take care of the dual boot menu thing. Then just taking my image and overwriting that partition with a copy of the first partition.
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Gary Case
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that is an excellent recommendation and thanks for the post. I know the client isn't up for spending the money on this software so I think I'm still going to do it the old fashioned way.

I am however, going to purchase this software for myself, since I am going to redo my personal machine and this looks like the perfect solution for some issues I've been trying to resolve, especially the seperate partition for data.

Thanks for the post.
It's a bit "geeky" ... but it's a rock-solid partition manager, boot manger, image and restore utility.   I've used virtually all of them (Ghost, Acronis, etc.) and now ONLY use Boot-It (or the imaging-only "Image for DOS" on systems that have USB v1 ports, which Boot-It doesn't support) for virtually all partition restructuring, boot management, image and restore functions.     A very well spent $35.

ALL of the OS's in my boot menu "see" the same set of data;  and I've got my e-mail client set to keep its data on that partition;  so no matter which OS I boot to I can do my e-mail; access any of my data; etc.
I don't see why you can't do it the way you described - with a number of tools that include Acronis.
But, I must say I've never done it that way.
It won't take long to find out!

Yes, edit boot.ini for this.

No, not another boot.ini.
On the computer I'm writing this on there is:
C:\ which is a partition for MSDOS.
E:\ which is the "main" XP partition.
G:\ which iss a "mini-XP" partition.
all of them are bootable and listed in boot.ini which resides at C:\

I have another dual boot system which is Vista and Win7.  In that one, the dual boot is controlled in the BCD file which resides in  the second-installed Win7 which comes up as C: and Vista is on D: - each are on separate hard drives.  These were regular installs - so not quite the same thing as your approach.



It's very simple to set up a dual boot using BOOT.INI -- but with a typical dual boot the two OS's are on different drive letters;  and they can "see" each other ... so it's possible for one instance to cause errors in the other.    I like the total isolation that the approach I detailed above provides ... I've used it for years and wouldn't think of doing it any other way for a multiple boot system.    Of course I tend to set up far more than just two OS's on my systems.
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Ok, I had previously installed xpPro to the first partition. I did all the updates. I then did an install of xp Pro on the second partition and it's dual booting
I then did an acronis image of the entire drive so I could go back if necessary.
Now I'm ready to copy the partition of the first installation, with all the drivers and updates to the second partition. I'm unsure of a couple of the options. I've included a jpg of that screen in acronis, but basically it gives me the impression that I need to make the second partition active to boot, when currently it is an logical partition. It also says it will make registry changes necessary.
I'm wondering if i should restore it as a primary partition, or as an logical partition.
Oop, forgot the attachment
acronisRestoreOption.jpg
If it's currently a logical partition and is doing what you want, then leave that setting alone.
ok, i tried it both ways, primary and logical.
With it being primary, it booted, but when I right-clicked start and went into explore, the drive it was pulling the profiles files from was  the c drive, when it should have been under docs and settings on the E drive.
When I cloned it as active the system wouldn't boot.
I have since cloned it back to where I was with one os, then manually loaded the second os and everything is fine.
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Member_2_1988001

Interesting side effects!  Thanks for posting an update!
I think I'll try it again as a primary just to verify that the profile it put me in was the wrong one. I've finished the machine but I still have it because the owner wants me to move everything to a larger drive. After I do that I will play with the image to verify. It's possible I booted to the wrong profile. After that I'll post the results and then split the point between you lfbilancia and garycase. I can't wait to setup my machine with Boot-it Gary.
Ok, I took the image I made of the windows installation i put on the first partition (c drive) and put it on the second partition (e drive) I was able to boot, but when booting tothe windows installation on the e drive, then right clicking, select explore, I was put into the user profile on the c drive.. This didn't happen when I did a fresh install to both partitions. Anyway, thanks for the help guys.
Epilog - the registry (and other places too) still point to the C: drive for the path to certain programs.   You can use Start | Setup | Computer management | disk management to change the drive letters on the partitions.   Also, if you use Partition Magic to change drive letters, it will prompt you to let it search for references to drive letters and change them.  Either route travel with caution!

I'll bet this whole endeavor was a learning experience for you!  Pass the lessons along to others!

The beauty of using Boot-It is the complete isolation between the different OS boots  ==> there is NO interplay between the OS's;  they all think they've on "C:"  (and they are -- it's just a different "C:" than the others use);  and you can have as many OS's as you have disk space to put them.
I like the boot-it idea. I have purchased a 2TB drive and am going to set my existing pc up so that it boots xp, 7 and vista