Re: XP multiple install earth to bruce hello?
From: Bruce Sanderson (bsanders_at_junk.junk)
Date: 01/31/05
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Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 23:25:06 -0800
To add to what Roger has given you:
1. with the (XP) built-in boot manager, each OS installation will have a
different drive letter for the "boot" partion.
2. in Computer Management, Disk Manager, you can "remove" the drive letters
for the partitions containing the other OS installations so that those
partitions are not "visible" to each other.
3. when the computer starts, the BIOS will read the Master Boot Record from
whichever physical drive it is configured to boot from (some BIOS versions
can only boot from the first physical disk - other BIOS versions can be
configured to boot from other physical disks).
Next, the BIOS will find the partition that is marked "Active" - usually
this is the first partition on the disk. Disk Manager will show this
partition as "System" if it is on the disk that the BIOS booted from or
"Active" on other physical disks.
Next, the BIOS will read the Partition Boot Record from the "Active"
partition (there can be only one Active partition on a physical disk at any
one time) - this had better be something that looks like an Operating System
or the BIOS will stop and display a message about no operating system found.
With Windows NT4 and later (including XP), the Partition Boot Record will
have code that reads ntldr and ntdetect.com (that contain the Boot Manager)
from the root folder of the partition, then execute them. So, to the BIOS,
the Boot Manager looks like a good OS that it is happy to start.
Next, after you select which "OS" you want to run, the Boot Manager will
read the system32\ntoskernel.exe from the partition and folder identified in
the boot.ini entry corresponding to the OS you have selected. Control is
then transferred to the code in this file, thus initiating the loading of
the OS you have selected.
Drive letters are artifacts of the operating system, not the BIOS or the
partition table on the disk. Windows "remembers" which drive letter you
have assigned (or that was assigned automatically) to a partition. Then, if
you install an additional hard drive, the existing mapping of drive letters
to partitions won't change for the existing OS installations. In general,
you can not change the drive letter for the "System" partition, nor that for
the "Boot" partition.
So, generally what happens in a multi-boot situation is:
a. the first partition you install an OS into becomes the "Active" partition
and gets the C drive letter assigned. This is where the boot loader and the
boot.ini file will be stored.
b. when you install your second OS into another partition, Windows will
assign C to the "Active" partion (the "System" partition) and another letter
(according to an algorithm embedded in Setup) to the partition you are
installing into. Setup does not allow you to specify which letter is to be
assigned to which partition (bummer!).
The point of having different partitions is to avoid problems due to
"sharing" stuff from one OS installation to another. Each OS installation
will use folders with identical names (e.g. Documents and Settings, Program
Files). If you install multiple OSs into a single partition, each OS will
use the same copy of these folders and you will most likely have nothing but
problems as each OS installation will expect to find it's own stuff in those
folders.
I strongly suggest setting aside one partition for your data files and don't
install any OS in that partition. Then,
1. you can access your data files easily from any OS installation
2. you can assign the same drive letter to your data partition for each OS
installation - assign a letter well down in the alphabet. Then, if you
decide to install a second hard drive and install OSs on it, Setup will
assign letters lower in the alphabet which will allow you to keep the same
drive letter for you data parition.
3. if you decide that one of the OS installations needs to be re-installed,
you can format that OSs partition and do a clean install without affecting
your data files
4. you can remove the drive letter from the other OS partitions so they are
"invisible" - avoids confusion and accidents
5. you can more easily backup your data files
-- Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question. "nedjinski" <nedjinski@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:25C8C3C0-C839-4CFE-8BD8-A7070EEC5560@microsoft.com... > Hi Bruce & Simon - > > You were very kind to help me out last week with my > questions about multiple installations of XP on > multiple partitions. > > So I thought I would let you know of my results. > > Once I got the concept of the correct sequence it > wasn't all that bad. > Starting with clean disks I began the first XP > installation procedure and made all the partitions I > wanted to have for the other installs and pagefiles and then installed the > first copy of XP > - > > once the first install was complete I went ahead and > formatted all the empty partitions. > > My machine looks like this: > > Three Primary partitions - One Extended Partition > > Primary Partition one - 25gb > Primary Partition two - 20gb > Primary Partition three - 20 gb > One Extended Partition with four Logical Drives - > each about five gb each to be used as pagefile > containers, the last just spare space TBD. > > So far it all seems to be working well. I haven't yet > activated XP and I assume I will have to activate all > three installs separately? I hope this doesn't raise > the red flag with MS! BTW is the activation for the OS > or is it for the System? and what would happen if I > activated the primary install and not the other two? > would they be rendered useless after 30 days? > > so back to the partitions - > > I was under the impression that the different OS's on > different partitions would be invisible to each other? > (the concept of three C: drives) But when I open > Windows Explorer I can see everything on the computer, > and it appears as though I can move files across > partitions, etc. So how separate are the installs? and > if they are "interactive" then whats the point of > separate partitions/installs in the first place? > > hope this finds it's way to you and feel free to email me directly in the > future - emathersatyahoodotcomm
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