Re: xp pro + 2003 server dual boot question

From: Timothy Daniels (TDaniels_at_NoSpamDot.com)
Date: 10/07/04 

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 11:29:18 -0700

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
> "jsltd" wrote:
>> I want to set-up my system to have xp pro and 2003 server
>> in a dual boot set-up. I've not done this before and wondered
>> if someone could give me an idea of how and where to start?
>> I have full versions of both OS and xp pro is currently installed.
>>
>> I've had a look around other forums and realise I need to
>> partition the drive and install server on that. How do/should
>> I partition? can I do that when setting up 2003 server install?
>> or should I use 'partition magic' or another third party method,
>> as many seem to advise? what file system should I use for
>> each partition ?
>>
>> If someone is familiar with this sort of process, please spend
>> a few minutes explaining to me, it would be very much appreciated.
>
> You have a couple of options:
>
> a) The easy way: Use a partitioning program to create an
> extra drive, then install Windows 2003 on that drive.
> Advantage: Very simple to configure.
> Drawbacks: There are some dependencies between the
> two OSs: They rely on the same boot files. Furthermore,
> Win2003 is installed on drive D: and must therefore
> always reside on drive D:. If you ever do something
> to drive C: then you might no longer be able to start
> Win2003.
>
> b) The modular way: Use a partitioning program to create
> two extra partitions: One for Win2003 and one of 10
> MBytes at the far end of the disk for your boot manager.
> I recommend XOSL. It's free, and it handles this sort of
> setup very nicely.
> Advantages: Completely modular installation. The two
> OSs are totally independent from each other, and are
> invisible to each other. Each can be run by itself,
> even without the boot manager.
> Drawback: A little more demanding to install.

What is the difference between using a partition program to
1) create an extra drive, and
2) create extra partitions?

How does the BIOS know in what partition to find the XOSL
boot manager?

Why not just use the multi-boot feature of Windows XP to
select between the OSes? I currently use WinXP's multi-boot
feature to select between different versions of that OS on the
same hard disk and on different hard disks. The BIOS
selects the hard drive according to the boot sequence that
the user has set for it in ROM, and then it starts the WinXP
boot manager on that disk (where it resides I don't know),
and the boot manager uses the boot.ini file on the partition
marked "active" to display the selection of OSes - which may
reside in any partition on any disk. Upon the user designating
the OS to boot, that OS then boots up. In summary, the
BIOS boot sequence selects the hard drive, and the boot.ini
file in the "active" partition on that hard drive is used to select
which OS boots. Couldn't this be used to select Windows 2003
Server as well? Does Windows 2003 Server have the
multi-boot feature? Would the OS with the multi-boot feature
have to be installed last?

In the above scenario, the non-booted partitions and their
file systems just appear as "local drives" on the machine,
and the contents of their file systems can still be accessed
like any other data, making it easy to pass files back and
forth between OSes by merely drag-'n-drop. I use it to archive
recent versions of my OS on a large-capacity hard drive in
a Kingwin revovable tray - 2 internal HDs for the 2 versions
of my Windows XP system, and the appropriate large
hard drive in the removable tray to act as archive medium
or as a quickly bootable backup. If the primary hard drive
fails, I can change the BIOS boot sequence to go to the
2nd hard drive - or to the removable hard drive - for more
boot instructions that will tell it which of the several OSes
to boot up from any partition on either of the 2 remaining
hard drives. Is Windows 2003 Server unable to be a part
of such a scheme?

*TimDaniels*

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