Copying boot partition for a second boot partition

[derng]

I have a Windows 2000 boot partition on a logical drive in an extended
partition. I have a copy of it after updating SP4, etc. and there are no
program installations referencing other drive letters. If I copy that entire
partition to a second logical drive and add a line for this new partition to
boot.ini I believe that the different drive letter will still need to be
accounted for in order to boot from the new partition (with the new drive
letter). Is there a preferred way to make this work? Is editing the
MountedDevices in the registry on the new partition the best way to do this?
The procedure is described here http://www.nic.fi/~point/win2copy.htm.
Instead of actually having the new partition boot from the new drive letter
it seems like this method would change which physical partition is
associated with the drive letter. In other words "H" would not be the same
thing when booted to either of these partitions. Is there another way to
edit the registry so that it would boot to the copied partition and refer to
it by the same letter "I" that partition is referred to in the first case?

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

derng

Start regedit and perform a search for "i:\winnt" and "i:\program files".
You would need to change all occurrences (there are thousands) to the
correct value for your copied installation.

It would probably be easier to just perform a new clean install.

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[I'm Dan]

I have a Windows 2000 boot partition on a logical drive in an extended
partition. I have a copy of it after updating SP4, etc. and there are no
program installations referencing other drive letters. If I copy that entire
partition to a second logical drive and add a line for this new partition to
boot.ini I believe that the different drive letter will still need to be
accounted for in order to boot from the new partition (with the new drive
letter). Is there a preferred way to make this work? Is editing the
MountedDevices in the registry on the new partition the best way to do this?
The procedure is described here http://www.nic.fi/~point/win2copy.htm.
Instead of actually having the new partition boot from the new drive letter
it seems like this method would change which physical partition is
associated with the drive letter. In other words "H" would not be the same
thing when booted to either of these partitions. Is there another way to
edit the registry so that it would boot to the copied partition and refer to
it by the same letter "I" that partition is referred to in the first case?

Smart people don't try to use boot.ini for this. You haven't said what your
goal is or how (what tools) you made the copy, but you're probably making
this more difficult than it needs to be. If you had installed 2000 as a
normal standalone C:, you could be using a third-party boot manager like
BootIt NG to clone the partition and manage multibooting. Drive letters
would be a non-issue, as both installations can go through life believing
they're the same drive letter. You can't do that with boot.ini.
Third-party boot managers are the ideal way to dualboot, especially if your
purpose is to have an easy-dump/easy-restore alternate OS installation to
test new software before committing it to your trusted OS.

 

[I'm Dan]

Norton Utilities had a registry editor that had a find/replace function but
that does not work in Windows 2000. It seems like Microsoft could have done
something other than hard code the drive letter all through the registry.
Perhaps it would have been too much to put a variable of some sort naming
the boot drive letter since the registry is made up of string values
everywhere. Even in that case a utility could have been built into the
registry editor to change the drive letter. As you say reinstalling may just
be the way to go.

Frankly, after copying the clean install to a second partition and editing
the registry remotely to change the drive letter it worked fine (and I used
Explorer to copy the partition - I don't know if that lost any security
settings on folders/files, but it booted). Having the same drive letter
pointing to different physical partitions in various boots is not that
confusing especially since I'm not changing my 'data' partition letter just
the various O/S installations. I really like having an extra installation to
use for testing, etc. With Windows 2000 and XP installable to any partition
it is a breeze. Win98 on primary partition C and everything else on logical
partitions in the extended partition (even on a second physical drive).

In response to Dan below there really is no need for a third party boot
manager if all one is using is Win98/Win2K/WinXP. It could not be any
easier. I think it is smarter to not introduce a third party tool that
starts hiding or unhiding primary partitions or changing the active
partition every time you boot. If you are not using Linux or O/S2 perhaps a
boot manager is more of a crutch than anything. I am using Partition Magic
however to split partitions and find that to be very convenient.

Dan, check out the link I referenced. I think it is excellent to know how to
change the drive letters in MountedDevices in the registry. Microsoft has a
knowledge base article showing editing the drive letters without even
deleting the keys as is done in the example here but that may be for a
slightly different scenario using regedit instead of regedt32.

Yes, I'm quite familiar with the [MountedDevices] registry key, and I
provide information about it on my website (www.goodells.net/multiboot). As
for whether it's smarter to not introduce a third-party tool, it's the
Microsoft method that introduces the greater complexity. The Microsoft
method is easy to setup initially, but can cause far more headaches down the
road. Third-party boot managers keep OS's independent from each other and
do true dualbooting, not the mixed-up, pseudo-method Microsoft uses, which
causes OS's to be intertwined together and not fully independent.

For repeatedly restoring a separate installation for testing purposes, there
is simply *nothing* easier than using a third-party boot manager and
something to clone with. I use XOSL and DriveImage, but BootIt NG is also
ideal and handles both functions. Once the boot manager is setup, you can
quickly clone part1 to part2 in minutes, and boot straight into part2
without any fiddling. Install new software to test it out, and if anything
goes wrong, you can quickly reclone part1 to part2 in minutes, and boot
straight into part2 without any fiddling.

 

[derng]

I guess my concern about third party boot managers may be unfounded but
perhaps you can shed some light. The first concern is what would happen to
the partitions if for some reason the third party boot manager was removed.
And more importantly from the days of FDISK I have had the impression that
changing the settings on the drive was something somewhat 'permanent'. I
have gotten comfortable with the idea of changing partitions using Partition
Magic but isn't it overdoing it to constantly tweak the boot record on the
physical drive changing the partitions that are hidden and/or marked active
which as I understand it is how boot managers work? By the way, your web
page looks very informative and I plan on reading that at some point.

Norton Utilities had a registry editor that had a find/replace function but
that does not work in Windows 2000. It seems like Microsoft could have done
something other than hard code the drive letter all through the registry.
Perhaps it would have been too much to put a variable of some sort naming
the boot drive letter since the registry is made up of string values
everywhere. Even in that case a utility could have been built into the
registry editor to change the drive letter. As you say reinstalling may just
be the way to go.

Frankly, after copying the clean install to a second partition and editing
the registry remotely to change the drive letter it worked fine (and I used
Explorer to copy the partition - I don't know if that lost any security
settings on folders/files, but it booted). Having the same drive letter
pointing to different physical partitions in various boots is not that
confusing especially since I'm not changing my 'data' partition letter just
the various O/S installations. I really like having an extra

installation

to
use for testing, etc. With Windows 2000 and XP installable to any partition
it is a breeze. Win98 on primary partition C and everything else on logical
partitions in the extended partition (even on a second physical drive).

In response to Dan below there really is no need for a third party boot
manager if all one is using is Win98/Win2K/WinXP. It could not be any
easier. I think it is smarter to not introduce a third party tool that
starts hiding or unhiding primary partitions or changing the active
partition every time you boot. If you are not using Linux or O/S2

perhaps

a
boot manager is more of a crutch than anything. I am using Partition Magic
however to split partitions and find that to be very convenient.

Dan, check out the link I referenced. I think it is excellent to know

how

to
change the drive letters in MountedDevices in the registry. Microsoft

has

a
knowledge base article showing editing the drive letters without even
deleting the keys as is done in the example here but that may be for a
slightly different scenario using regedit instead of regedt32.

Yes, I'm quite familiar with the [MountedDevices] registry key, and I
provide information about it on my website (www.goodells.net/multiboot). As
for whether it's smarter to not introduce a third-party tool, it's the
Microsoft method that introduces the greater complexity. The Microsoft
method is easy to setup initially, but can cause far more headaches down the
road. Third-party boot managers keep OS's independent from each other and
do true dualbooting, not the mixed-up, pseudo-method Microsoft uses, which
causes OS's to be intertwined together and not fully independent.

For repeatedly restoring a separate installation for testing purposes, there
is simply *nothing* easier than using a third-party boot manager and
something to clone with. I use XOSL and DriveImage, but BootIt NG is also
ideal and handles both functions. Once the boot manager is setup, you can
quickly clone part1 to part2 in minutes, and boot straight into part2
without any fiddling. Install new software to test it out, and if anything
goes wrong, you can quickly reclone part1 to part2 in minutes, and boot
straight into part2 without any fiddling.

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Norton Utilities had a registry editor that had a find/replace function but
that does not work in Windows 2000. It seems like Microsoft could have done
something other than hard code the drive letter all through the registry.
Perhaps it would have been too much to put a variable of some sort naming
the boot drive letter since the registry is made up of string values
everywhere. Even in that case a utility could have been built into the
registry editor to change the drive letter. As you say reinstalling may just
be the way to go.

NT4 was better in this area, it did boot with the wrong drive letter, then
you could change drive letters to what they where in the original
installation to get all applications to work. I guess that it was too
complicated to get this functionality in Win2000.

Frankly, after copying the clean install to a second partition and editing
the registry remotely to change the drive letter it worked fine (and I used
Explorer to copy the partition - I don't know if that lost any security
settings on folders/files, but it booted). Having the same drive letter
pointing to different physical partitions in various boots is not that
confusing especially since I'm not changing my 'data' partition letter just
the various O/S installations. I really like having an extra installation to
use for testing, etc. With Windows 2000 and XP installable to any partition
it is a breeze. Win98 on primary partition C and everything else on logical
partitions in the extended partition (even on a second physical drive).

If you do a google search you will find some search and replace tools, even
free ones, that can help.

I do not dual/triple boot, instead I use VM Ware. This software also has an
option to save the current state of the operating system that is running,
or restoring it to what it was when you last booted. A fantastic option to
shoot yourself in your foot, and get away with it...

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[I'm Dan]

I guess my concern about third party boot managers may be unfounded but
perhaps you can shed some light. The first concern is what would happen to
the partitions if for some reason the third party boot manager was removed.
And more importantly from the days of FDISK I have had the impression that
changing the settings on the drive was something somewhat 'permanent'. I
have gotten comfortable with the idea of changing partitions using Partition
Magic but isn't it overdoing it to constantly tweak the boot record on the
physical drive changing the partitions that are hidden and/or marked active
which as I understand it is how boot managers work? By the way, your web
page looks very informative and I plan on reading that at some point.

The boot sector is just another sector like any other on the disk -- it's
just one of many. There is no problem reading/writing to it as often as you
like. Physically, it's no different from the sectors underlying the Windows
pagefile, or any of the myriad other files that Windows writes to countless
times per session, so it's not going to wear out. (The boot sector may not
even physically be the first sector on the disk, since IDE drives have long
been capable of remapping sectors to take bad sectors out of service -- the
drive's integrated controller can just remap another sector in its place and
pretend it's the first sector.)

The operation of third-party boot managers is extremely simple. In a normal
single-boot system, the MBR (which is nothing more than a short bit of
program code) scans the partition table to identify the active boot
partition, then passes control to that partition's PBR (partition boot
record) in the first sector of the partition itself. The MBR doesn't care
(and doesn't need to know) what operating system is in that partition -- all
it does is "pass the baton" and let the PBR take over.

When a third-party boot manager is installed, it replaces the MBR with a new
MBR that diverts the boot process to a menu, giving the user a chance to
control which is the active boot partition. Once the user makes the choice,
the boot manager does nothing more than the normal MBR does -- it passes the
baton to the PBR of the partition the user selected. In effect, all you're
doing is manually designating the boot partition instead of letting it
automatically boot to a default. Installation of a third-party boot manager
makes no changes to any of the operating systems, partitions, or PBRs in
those partitions. All it does is put a menu in the middle of the MBR.

Removing a third-party boot manager involves nothing more than replacing the
MBR once again with a generic version, restoring a default action sans menu.
You don't even need to "uninstall" the boot manager -- the old "fdisk /mbr"
or "fixmbr" commands will do the same thing. At most, you may need to
reflag which partition you want to be the active boot partition and which
partitions should be hidden/unhidden, but that's nothing more than flipping
a couple bits on or off in the partition table -- a trivial task easily
accomplished by any number of utilities, including PartitionMagic.

The part about making no changes to the operating systems or partitions is
what makes third-party boot managers so much better than the
Microsoft/boot.ini technique. That characteristic is what makes it possible
to quickly replace any partition with a clone restoration and have it work
with a minimum of fuss.

 

[I'm Dan]

I am glad you mentioned the unwelcome interdependence
between dual-boot O/S's on separate partitions.
May I attract your attention to my recent post in the
microsoft.public.win2000.setup_upgrade Newsgroup:
Subject: SP3 Trespasses to Other Drive!
From: "Ben-Zion Joselson" <[email protected]>
Sent: 5/30/2003 11:49:16 AM

Please comment.

(That other thread is more than a month old, so I'll clip portions and
continue here.)

After I upgraded my "2nd Windows 2000Pro" on
rdisk(1) from SP1 to SP3, I noticed that the ntldr
and ntdetect.com files on the Main System-drive
rdisk(0) have been modified in date and in contents,
... (snipped)...
3. My Question
How can I be sure that this SP3 update and possibly
future Updates, SP's and Fixes by Microsoft will
not cause unforeseen damage to a different
Operating System that happens to reside on a
separate drive in my computer?

The answer is you can't. Since you installed your "2nd Windows" using the
Microsoft method, it is now intertwined with your "1st Windows". The boot
process for "2nd..." now goes through the "1st..." partition to get to the
"2nd...". In Microsoft-speak, both OS's use the same "system drive" even
though they use different "boot drives". The "system files" (those files in
drive 1 that are common to both OS's) must support both OS's, so there's
nothing you can do about it. This intertwining is described in the
"Multibooting Principles" section of my webpage at
www.goodells.net/multiboot. This would not have happened if you had used a
real boot manager when you installed "2nd Windows".

 

[derng]

I've seen VMWare and it does look slick. Frankly for what I am doing the
Microsoft boot loader is good enough but I will investigate boot loaders
with all the info that Dan had provided. Now that I know that changing the
boot drive letter is pretty much out of the question I won't worry about
that. Setting up Windows clean allows one to install the latest drivers,
etc. and if you have the SP and IE updates on a CD-ROM there is not that
much downloading of updates involved. Using the method of editing the drive
letter described in the first post on this thread is fine too but it just
takes some getting used to having any given letter refer to different
partitions depending on which O/S is booted. For the time being I prefer
knowing that drive K is drive K no matter how the computer is booted. As far
as recovering from botched partitions restoring from a Ghost image works
fine for that and the image can be copied at any point after updates,
program installs, etc.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I agree.

I did a clone of Win 2000 back in Jan 2002.

Using a registry editor, there were 10s of thousands of changes that had to
be made to the registry.

And there are ooodles of changes that need to be made to files, e.g., for
HElp, install/uninstall, configuration.

I was lucky and was fairly successful, but periodically, I encounter
something I missed.

It was an interesting exercise, but I doubt that I'd do it again.
Better to install from scratch.

 

[Sid Herbage]

I think the way to do this is *not* to try to use the Win2K boot
manager.

You should be able to set up one win2K partition with all the updates
and any drivers needed (plus perhaps some standard utilities such as
winzip or whatever) then use Partition Magic to clone it. At that
point you have two identical partitions, one active, one hidden. Then
you install Bootmagic (or similar boot manager) to switch between the
partitions.

Since each partition, when active, always calls itself the c-drive, or
at least the same drive letter, (the other partition being hidden)
there should be no need to change any references at all. Each
partition is run independently of the other.

(In principle, you could even unhide the alternative partition having
it act as sort of a data drive for the first. Since you haven't booted
from it you aren't using it's registry. However, I think that would be
extremely risky .... It's generally not recommended and I wouldn't do
it).

Funnily enough, I'm just in the process of setting up such a
configuration now. I've had two win2K partitions on the same drive
before (and two win98's in addition). This is the first time I've
actually cloned to get the second partition but it's no different, in
principle, to setting up two partitions separately using a boot
manager. The main thing is not to try to manage the boot via boot.ini

 

[Sid Herbage]

Thanks, Alan (and Dan) .... yes, I'm running into these problems right
now.

On an empty first drive, I created a (Primary, FAT32) partition and
installed win2K there. I cloned that partition. I then edited the
boot.ini for each partition so that (in theory) each knows *only*
about it's own partition (i.e one boot.ini refers to partition(1) and
there is no line for partition(2). Vice-versa for the other boot.ini).

I installed Boot Magic to manage the partitions, hide the unwanted
one, and make each partition boot as a c-drive (considering the
changes I made to the boot.ini's).

Unfortunately, notwithstanding what I did to the boot.ini's, the
system still boots with the first partition being the c-drive and the
second partition being (in my case) the k-drive (I have a second hard
drive with multiple data partitions on it). It seems that win2K
detects and enumerates the alternative partition even though it is
hidden and also not referenced in the boot.ini. (Wonder why that would
be considered "useful").

I presume the Disk Management Tools won't let me remove the c-drive
and rename k to c (haven't tried) in each case.

So I can see the sense in your approach, Alan, creating a separate
boot partition. Couple of questions:

1. I presume this boot partition can be quite small ... can you
recommend a size? (What is the minimum partition size anyway?)

2. Do you think it would be feasible to keep my current partitions,
create a new partition(1) at the front of the drive and copy a set of
boot files to it from one of the existing partitions? What files would
I have to copy?

3. How would I ensure that my current system partition always shows up
as D? (right now, my second drive is getting enumerated next after the
first partition on the first drive). I can see major problems if the
system partition isn't next after the boot partition.

Incidentally, I don't actually follow the comment about cloning to
*both* primary and logical partitions in your first paragraph.

 

[Sid Herbage]

I made my 'common C' drive a primary at the beginning of HDD#1. I used
50MB, but that's really overkill; just leave enough room to install some
DOS edit/recovery utilities you can access using a Win98SE boot floppy.

Where will each win2K system try to put its paging file ... not the
boot drive?

I used PartitionMagic to hide ALL primary and logical partitions on all
4 hard drives, EXCEPT the for the 50MB primary at the beginning of HDD#1
I planned to be the common C drive, and two logical drives which were
intended as D (System) and E (data - contains drivers&utilities) drives.

Hmmm ... I don't have that option. I need all the (5) partitions on my
2nd HD as workspace from either Win2K system so I can't hide them.
This means that the system will show up as drive-K in each case which
make me very nervous (e.g. if I change the partitioning on the second
drive, the whole system falls apart). Bummer.
Maybe I'll have to make do with just one win2K partition.

 

[I'm Dan]

Thanks, Alan (and Dan) .... yes, I'm running into these problems
right now.

On an empty first drive, I created a (Primary, FAT32) partition
and installed win2K there. I cloned that partition. I then edited
the boot.ini for each partition so that (in theory) each knows
*only* about it's own partition (i.e one boot.ini refers to
partition(1) and there is no line for partition(2). Vice-versa for
the other boot.ini).

I installed Boot Magic to manage the partitions, hide the
unwanted one, and make each partition boot as a c-drive
(considering the changes I made to the boot.ini's).

Unfortunately, notwithstanding what I did to the boot.ini's,
the system still boots with the first partition being the c-drive
and the second partition being (in my case) the k-drive
(I have a second hard drive with multiple data partitions
on it). It seems that win2K detects and enumerates the
alternative partition even though it is hidden and also not
referenced in the boot.ini. (Wonder why that would
be considered "useful").

Since Alan's setup uses a common boot partition and multiple system
partitions, he apparantly is using the Microsoft boot loader. That is *not*
compatible with BootMagic. See the "Multibooting Principles" page on my
website at www.goodells.net/multiboot for an explanation of why the
Microsoft bootloader is not compatible with real boot managers. (Before the
Microsoft apologists jump in here with corrections, let's acknowledge that
Microsoft reverses these definitions -- in Microsoft-speak, Alan is using a
common "system" partition and multiple "boot" partitions. I prefer the same
definition Alan uses, which is more logical.) I think the Microsoft method
of multibooting is horrid, so refrain from providing advice on how to try to
clean up its mess.

Sid, your assumption that editing "the boot.ini for each partition so that
(in theory) each knows *only* about it's own partition" is wrong. Did you
read my Notes section at www.goodells.net/multiboot? After you have the
first Win2K installation completed, run regedit and navigate to the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\MountedDevices] key. Delete all entries under
this key. Now do your cloning from a DOS boot. When the OS is booted
again, it will scan the system and regenerate the entries in the
[MountedDevices] key, so you must do the cloning from DOS to make sure the
key is still blank.

Here is why the [MountedDevices] key is crucial. Win2K generates a unique
signature for each partition and associates drive letters to those
signatures. The sig for partition 1 will be different than the sig for the
clone's partition. Your original Win2K had already associated the letter C:
with sig1, and that fact was recorded in the registry -- the same registry
that you cloned to part2. Now, when you booted part2, the registry already
knew C: went with sig1, and lo and behold, there's still a partition in the
system with the same sig1 (even though it may be hidden, Win2K knows it's
there), so it calls that C: and the new partition gets another drive
letter -- in your case, K:. The solution is to force Win2K to "forget" that
C: goes with sig1 by deleting the registry key. Clone the partition with
the registry key clear. When you then try to boot part2, the new Win2K will
regenerate the partition signatures and build new drive letter associations.
If part1 is hidden, it won't get a drive letter and part2 will be allocated
C:, just as you want.

Note that with WinXP, clearing the [MountedDevices] key is usually enough.
Win2K seems to be more fragile, though -- perhaps due to the paging file
still trying to use the other partition. I'm usually able to get it to fix
itself by booting into safe mode, which allows Win2K to fix the registry key
and paging file, then rebooting into normal mode. If that doesn't work, try
moving the paging file to a neutral partition before making the clone.

 

[Alan S.]

That's the reason I've been looking at Acronis OS Selector: it has a
nice trick wherein it can drop in a customized Boot.ini file after the
desired system selection is made from the Acronis menu. The customized
Boot.ini only has a single active line -- one that matches the selected
system [configuration]; this means that a second menu selection - using
the Microsoft boot loader process - is skipped.

Alan S.

 

[Sid Herbage]

Sid, your assumption that editing "the boot.ini for each partition so that
(in theory) each knows *only* about it's own partition" is wrong. Did you
read my Notes section at www.goodells.net/multiboot? After you have the
first Win2K installation completed, run regedit and navigate to the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\MountedDevices] key. Delete all entries under
this key. Now do your cloning from a DOS boot. When the OS is booted
again, it will scan the system and regenerate the entries in the
[MountedDevices] key, so you must do the cloning from DOS to make sure the
key is still blank.

Yes, I did read it Dan .... unfortunately with my own preconceived
ideas (which turned out to be wrong) which blinded me to what was
really being said. I've learned a lot since then from my (failed)
attempts and from you and Alan.

What you say about the registry key makes alot of sense and I should
be able to try it over the next couple of days.

Thanks, guys.

 

[Sid Herbage]

Sid, your assumption that editing "the boot.ini for each partition so that
(in theory) each knows *only* about it's own partition" is wrong. Did you
read my Notes section at www.goodells.net/multiboot? After you have the
first Win2K installation completed, run regedit and navigate to the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\MountedDevices] key. Delete all entries under
this key. Now do your cloning from a DOS boot. When the OS is booted
again, it will scan the system and regenerate the entries in the
[MountedDevices] key, so you must do the cloning from DOS to make sure the
key is still blank.

Here is why the [MountedDevices] key is crucial. Win2K generates a unique
signature for each partition and associates drive letters to those
signatures. The sig for partition 1 will be different than the sig for the
clone's partition. Your original Win2K had already associated the letter C:
with sig1, and that fact was recorded in the registry -- the same registry
that you cloned to part2. Now, when you booted part2, the registry already
knew C: went with sig1, and lo and behold, there's still a partition in the
system with the same sig1 (even though it may be hidden, Win2K knows it's
there), so it calls that C: and the new partition gets another drive
letter -- in your case, K:. The solution is to force Win2K to "forget" that
C: goes with sig1 by deleting the registry key. Clone the partition with
the registry key clear. When you then try to boot part2, the new Win2K will
regenerate the partition signatures and build new drive letter associations.
If part1 is hidden, it won't get a drive letter and part2 will be allocated
C:, just as you want.

Note that with WinXP, clearing the [MountedDevices] key is usually enough.
Win2K seems to be more fragile, though -- perhaps due to the paging file
still trying to use the other partition. I'm usually able to get it to fix
itself by booting into safe mode, which allows Win2K to fix the registry key
and paging file, then rebooting into normal mode. If that doesn't work, try
moving the paging file to a neutral partition before making the clone.

Thanks to this, Dan I've now got two win2K partitions which will each
boot separately as the c-drive with the alternative partition being
invisible in each case. Not only that, I'm managing it via BootMagic.

For the record this is what I did:

1. First drive empty, second drive had multiple data partitions.

2. Create 15G FAT32 partition on first drive (partition-1) and install
win2K. Do the necessary to bring this up to baseline (windows update,
install drivers, virus scanner, basic utilities etc) including all
necessary reboots.

3. Point the page file to a partition on the second drive. Reboot

4. Clear the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\MountedDevices key.

5. Reboot to dos version of Partition Magic. Copy the win2k partition
(copy is partition-2). Change the partion label on the copy (it gets
*very* confusing otherwise). Set partition-1 active.

6. Boot to partition-1 then reboot to Partition Magic (DOS)

7. Set partition-2 active, then reboot to partition-2.


(At this point, win2K starts in each case with *both* partitions shown
in the windows boot manager. As long as you choose the partition
corresponding to the one set active in PM, all is well and the
relevant partition will show up as the c-drive, the other partition
being hidden. However, choosing the opposite partition will result in
both partitions showing up, with partition-2 being assigned a later
drive letter whether or not it is the boot drive. Moreover, rebooting
and selecting the correct, appropriate partition from the windows boot
manager didn't seem to necessarily correct this situation)

For this reason, I re-performed steps 1 to 5 then:

8. Boot to partition-1, edit boot.ini so that only the partition-1
entries are there.

9. Reboot to PM (DOS) set partition-2 active.

10. Reboot to partition-2, edit boot.ini so that only the partition-2
entries are there.

(At this point I can make the required partition active in PM, then
reboot and the appropriate partition boots automatically - without the
windows boot manager - and shows up as the c-drive. The other
partition is not visible).

This is exactly where I wanted to be .... except for the hassle of
loading PM to change the active partition each time. So,
notwithstanding the warnings about the incompatibility of BootMagic
(at this stage I considered the whole setup as experimental anyway):

11. Boot partition-1 and install BootMagic. Configure it for the two
partitions.

12. Reboot and test on both partitions .... everything works fine and
appears to be stable.

Dan, Alan, I'd appreciate any comments you have on the above if you
think I'm kidding myself somewhere or can see any dangers. In
particular I'd like to find out more about the reported
incompatibility of BootMagic since it appears to be working for me. It
may be that it's incompatible in a respect that I haven't rubbed up
against (yet).

What would you think were the posibilities of adding a win-98
partition on the first drive to this setup?

 

[I'm Dan]

Thanks to this, Dan I've now got two win2K partitions which will each
boot separately as the c-drive with the alternative partition being
invisible in each case. Not only that, I'm managing it via BootMagic.

For the record this is what I did:

...(long procedure snipped)...

(At this point I can make the required partition active in PM, then
reboot and the appropriate partition boots automatically - without the
windows boot manager - and shows up as the c-drive. The other
partition is not visible).

This is exactly where I wanted to be .... except for the hassle of
loading PM to change the active partition each time. So,
notwithstanding the warnings about the incompatibility of BootMagic
(at this stage I considered the whole setup as experimental anyway):

11. Boot partition-1 and install BootMagic. Configure it for the two
partitions.

12. Reboot and test on both partitions .... everything works fine and
appears to be stable.

Dan, Alan, I'd appreciate any comments you have on the above if you
think I'm kidding myself somewhere or can see any dangers. In
particular I'd like to find out more about the reported
incompatibility of BootMagic since it appears to be working for me. It
may be that it's incompatible in a respect that I haven't rubbed up
against (yet).

What would you think were the posibilities of adding a win-98
partition on the first drive to this setup?

Sid, everything should be fine. This is the way BootMagic is intended to
work. When I said BM was incompatible, I meant incompatible with the
Microsoft dualboot loader -- you cannot setup a dualboot initially using the
Microsoft dualboot method and then try to install BM instead. The two
dualboot methods are incompatible. (It's not just BM -- the Microsoft
method is incompatible with *everything* else.) In order to use BM (or any
other third-party boot manager), you must setup your OS's as single-boot sta
ndalone versions, then let your boot manager (BM, in your case) control the
multibooting instead of letting Microsoft control it (via boot.ini). That's
exactly what you've done -- you've installed part-1 as a standalone OS, then
cloned it to part-2, at which point you have two standalone OS's.

Adding Win98 is possible, though it would have been easier if you had
thought about that earlier. Win98 will not natively install to a partition
above the 8GB boundary, so you need to either install it to another
partition that's within the 8GB boundary and then move it (with PM or
other), or you have to slide your Win2K partitions to make room at the front
of the disk for Win98. It can be done, but either way involves a couple
"gotchas" to beware of. This is covered in detail on my website.