Re: Want a HowTo for multibooting two or more Vista versions

Hi Rick. Thanks for your input.
The use of XOSL removes the need for each Vista installation to have its own
primary partition. Both WXP and Vista are happy to reside in logical
partitions. One of the references I posted, or a link in one of them,
showed a multiboot setup like this:
Boot option-> DOS Win98 Win2000 WinXP Alt98

Pri-1: C: hidden hidden hidden hidden
Pri-2: hidden C: hidden hidden hidden
Pri-3: hidden hidden hidden C: hidden
Log-1: hidden hidden C: hidden hidden
Log-2: hidden hidden hidden hidden C:
Log-3: D: D: D: D: D:
Log-4: E: E: E: E: E:

XOSL allows changing both the active and hidden flags on both primary and
logical partitions. It can hide and deactivate all the primary partitions
to allow booting into a logical partition where the system sees no other OS
partitions. But XOSL is pre-Vista and no longer supported, so its
instructions don't talk about getting around Vista's placing/needing its new
MBR.

This is why I'm hoping to find someone's howto explicitly for multiple Vista
installations.

I realize that Ghosting to fresh start will only work for 30 days, but
during that 30 days it might be useful to have that capability, depending on
how much work is involved in getting around Vista's need to mess with some
hard drive's MBR during reinstallation.

I don't think you are correct about use of the grace period. I notice in
the folder structure on the installation DVD that there are multiple
licensing folders for each Vista version, some with paths like:
G:\sources\license\_default\eval\business and
G:\sources\license\_default\eval\ultimate.
I have not actually read the license text in these folders, but the paths
indicate there may well be valid evaluation licenses for all versions.

Scanning the Ultimate eval license, I see things like:
Alternative Versions. The software may include more than one version, such
as 32-bit and 64-bit. You may use only one version at one time.
and:
Before you activate, you have the right to use the version of the software
installed during the installation process. Your right to use the software
after the time specified in the installation process is limited unless it is
activated.

I'n a system where all Vista installations are hidden except the one being
executed, I think I would be meeting the first of the requirements above,
and I think the software will prevent me from accidently violating the
second requirement above.

I didn't notice any words that negatively override these two passages in the
license text, but I have not studied the licenses in detail.

I don't want to use more than one evaluation version at a time, and I don't
want to exceed the evaluation period. I just want to be able to switch
'using' between the various evaluation versions quickly during the
evaluation period.

What do you think about whether this would be a violation of the licenses?

-Paul Randall

"Rick Rogers" <rick@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u98VxHR4JHA.4872@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Paul,

Since you plan on using a bootloader to hide each volume from the others,
you should follow the instructions given by it on how to install each
operating system to its own volume. As well, most bootloaders of this
nature allow you to go beyond the 4 primary limit (meaning you can create
a primary for each installation) and selectively hide them from one
another.

By the way, your proposal of ghosting to start fresh will likely not work
the way you intend as the installation is time stamped, so that if you
restore an image beyond the 30 day window, it will not function without
the insertion of a licensed product key. This means every 30 days you
would have to create a new installation of that version. Also, you should
be aware that they are not actually trial periods. The 30 day window is
there to give a user time to obtain a proper license for the chosen
installation should one not be available at the time of setup. This
doesn't mean it won't work, just that your use of the grace period is
technically not within the licensing.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Paul Randall" <paulr901@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uOZUFvN4JHA.1712@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,
My OEM Vista installation disk allows me to install any of the 8 vista
versions (Business, Business N, Enterprise, Home Basic, Home Basic N,
Home Premium, Starter, and Ultimate) and use them on a 30-day trial basis
when I don't enter a product key. I've tried this with the Ultimate
version and it seems to work, but I have not tried the others.

I have a 320 GB hard drive available and would like to install all 8
versions as a multiboot setup, so I can more easily explore the
differences between them. I think allocating 30 GB per Vista partition
and any leftover space to a common logical partition available to all
Vista versions should work fairly well. I've done some research,
(http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htmI and
http://www.multibooters.co.uk and others), and I think that I can use the
XOSL boot loader to boot Vista from primary partitions and logical
partitions, and I think that XOSL is capable of hiding all the other
Vista partitions from the one that is being booted, so that there will be
no crosstalk between the Vista versions. I'm hoping that each Vista
partition will be completely independent of the multiboot setup so that I
can start fresh in any version by restoring that one partition from a
Ghost copy. My research has found a number of very good web sites that
discuss the problems and possible work-arounds for the problems, but I
have not found a 'HowTo set it up' procedure.

I'm hoping someone will post a procedure to set up multi-booting for two
or more versions of Vista on a single hard drive or post a URL that has
that kind of procedure.

Thanks,

-Paul Randall




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