Re: Dual Booting Windows XP

From: Jim (null_at_null.com)
Date: 04/29/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 19:16:11 -0700

"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in message
news:uBH2W3XLEHA.2704@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> XOSL is a free product and is therefore not supported. However,
> it has its own highly responsive newsgroup.
>
> About its updates (or otherwise): XOSL seems to offer all the
> facilities you could want for a boot manager, beating many
> other products by a long shot, so why update it?
>
> About BootIT: Can it boot into a WinXP installation that
> resides in a logical drive, complete with its boot files?
> XOSL can!

I don't know in all cases (I did do this w/ Win98 one time, long ago), but I
don't care either, because it's irrelevant. With the use of unlimited
primaries, the issue is, for all intents and purposes, moot.

The reason people use logical partitions for OSs is precisely because they
don't have a feature like unlimited primaries. They exhaust their
primaries, and then have to resort to the extended partition
to "stretch" the multi-boot capabilities of the system. But by using
unlimited primaries, you can now leave your *data* to the extended
partition, as it was intended to be. By using the extended partition for
OSs, you introduce several complexities, the worst being the possibility of
drive letter assignments changing underneath you as you manipulate your
partitions.

> What about if the WinXP installation resides
> on the secondary slave drive?
>

Yes. If necessary, it logically switches the HD IDs (which I presume is
what XOSL does).

But here too, BootIt NG makes this feature almost moot (not totally, but
close). I don't really care that XOSL can boot the slave, since I don't
need the slave in most instances for this purpose anyway. As before, the
need for this feature was driven by the limitation of primary partitions.
The only real value of the slave at this point is w/ older OS's with severe
limitations on where they can boot from (e.g., 4GB, 8GB, etc.). This can
still push you into multiple HDs, but XP doesn't seem to suffer from theses
limitation, so the need has lessened considerably as of late. And since you
should be keeping your data on separate partitions anyway (preferably
logical partitions only), the typical OS doesn't really need all that much
space, esp. the older ones. It's the *data* that typically pushes up the
partition size, not the OS. So if you keep the older OSs at the head of the
HD, keep the OS separated from the DATA (thereby minimizing OS primary
size), keep data on logical partitions, and use unlimited primaries, the
slave issue virtually disappears (for OS installation).

BootIt NG (in my opinion) is superior because it works differently than
XOSL, Boot Magic, or most other boot managers. It manages the partition
table, NOT the partition IDs, something first time users doesn't immediately
appreciate. This makes it far more flexible and powerful, and obviates the
need for these other features you described.

But if you or the OP want to use XOSL, fine, I have no quams other than
support. NG support has its place/value, but its not very comforting to
know that if/when a bug is found or enhancement is needed, there's no one to
update and publish changes. You're not claiming XOSL is perfect, are you?!
If all
everyone can do is commiserate over some problem/issue, but no way to
address it in source and published executables, well, as I said initially,
this would concern me. But to each his own.

Jim

>
> "Jim" <null@null.com> wrote in message news:M7Xjc.952$ph.144@fed1read07...
> > 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.
> >
> >
>
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Dual Booting Windows XP
    ... XOSL is a free product and is therefore not supported. ... facilities you could want for a boot manager, ... I was a prior user of Partition ... > use of additional primaries wasn't to support multi-booting, initially, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)
  • Re: Dual Booting Windows XP
    ... I was a prior user of Partition ... As far as the primaries issues, you have to realize that these VERY large ... use of additional primaries wasn't to support multi-booting, initially, but ... problems compared to the MS boot loader. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)
  • Re: Dual Boot Config (Technical - not licence!)
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    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Proposed enhancements to MD
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  • Re: No Help Index
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