Re: Dual Booting Windows XP

From: Jim (null_at_null.com)
Date: 04/28/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 16:29:45 -0700

RE: XOSL, the only issue I have w/ this product is that it has not been very
well supported over the past few years, last time I checked, it hadn't been
updated in several years (its not even hosting by http://www.xosl.org
anymore, its long time home). Don't get me wrong, I've used it the past, it
worked fine last time I used it (circa 2000), but this is one caveat that
would concern me.

My preference is BootIt NG ( http://www.bootitng.com ). This is very well
supported, continually updated and enhanced, has its own NGs, provides
partition management and imaging too. I was a prior user of Partition
Manager and Drive Image, which I've since replaced w/ BootIt NG (about 4
years ago). Just no need for these other tools anynore (for me anyway).

As far as the primaries issues, you have to realize that these VERY large
HDs are a relatively recent phenomenon, certainly far more recent than the
semantics that rule the DOS-based geometry of your HD. I also believe the
use of additional primaries wasn't to support multi-booting, initially, but
simply finer control over partitioning for a single OS. IOW, multi-booting
issues/concerns/limitations became what they are because these were
afterthoughts (afterall, the first time I can even recall multi-booting an
MS OS was Win 3.11 and the then-new NT 3.1 around 1993, again, well after
the all these semantics were well in place).

FYI, I have had no problems booting XP from numerous locations on the HD, as
yet, I've found no restrictions on where it can be loaded from. It seems
whatever restrictions that preceeded it w/ Win98, WinNT, etc., have been
eliminated or at least are much less stringent. I've cloned my installation
numerous times and booted w/o problems, and while I didn't test *every*
possible HD location, I have been up and down my 120GB HD considerably. So
I don't think you'll have any real issues here as far as XP. If you want to
multi-boot Win98, WinNT, etc, as well, then yes, place these near the head
of the HD, the older, the closer to the head they should be for maximum
compatibility.

One additional feature of BootIt NG I love is "unlimited primaries". This
makes it possible to have (essentially) unlimited clones of your OS! I
don't even use an extended partition (w/ logical partitions) anymore because
of this feature. You are still restricted to four primaries (or three
primaries + 1 extended partition) at *runtime*, but for definitional
purposes, the restriction is lifted, I typically have 15-20 partitions
defined on my HD at any given moment, including MS-DOS 6.22, MS-DOS 7.1,
Win98, XP, W2K, several XP snapshots (images made w/ BootItNG), several DATA
partitions, etc. And all the OS's load as C:, which avoids a ton of
problems compared to the MS boot loader (makes cloning a trival exercise).
Works great.

HTH

Jim

"Less Than 0" <glassjawslipknot@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e5ccec3.0404281329.49923334@posting.google.com...
> Alright, I have a simple problem. Well probably not so simple since i
> cant seem to figure it out. I have XP Images. I want to put more than
> one on a hard drive. I then want to be able to choose which one boots
> when i start the computer. I apply the first image. Use Partition
> Magic 7 to resize it to about 10 gigs. Then i use PM7 to create
> another primary partition. I apply the second image. Goes on great.
> But i can only boot to the first image. I have read that you have to
> have both your OS's below 8GB to be bootable so i am going to try
> this next. If it works then i suppose my problem is solved. So my
> question is, is there a way around this? What was the point of saying
> you can create 4 primary partitions, yet you cant boot from them past
> 8GB? Seems like a waste to me, especially with the size of drives now
> days. Any help would be appreciated.

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