Re: xp pro + 2003 server dual boot question

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From: Pegasus \(MVP\) (I.can_at_fly.com)
Date: 10/07/04 

Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 07:41:28 +1000

See below.

"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
news:GaydnT9W7pBhF_jcRVn-qg@comcast.com...
> "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?
A partition is the "vessel"; a drive is what you put into this vessel.
You can create an extended partition, then create several drives
inside the extended partition.

> How does the BIOS know in what partition to find the XOSL
> boot manager?
The BIOS always invokes some code that is located in the Master
Boot Record. When booting into Windows, the MBR code launches
some other code in the boot sector of the Windows partition.
When booting into XOSL, the MBR code activates XOSL (which
could be installed on a dedicated or on a shared drive).
It follows that XOSL can be deactivated by restoring the MBR
to its original value. Booting the machine with a Win98 boot
disk and executing fdisk /mbr will do it.

> Why not just use the multi-boot feature of Windows XP to
> select between the OSes?
It's a matter of taste. If you want total modularity and total
separation between the OSs then you cannot use the WinXP
boot manager.

> 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,
Selecting the boot sequence in the BIOS is, in my opinion,
a little cumbersome.

> 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?
I'm sure you can do all this with the Windows boot manager.
Remember this, however:
- OSs should be installed on different drives.
- If you install an OS on drive D: then it must always run on
   drive D:. You can never run it off drive C:.
XOSL can be made to walk around this restriction, since
you can arrange it so that every single OS runs off drive C:.

> 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*

Windows 2003 can do anything that the other versions of
Windows can do.

Everyone has his own preference of boot managers. If the
Windows-based boot manager meets your requirements
then I suggest you stick with it.

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