Hidden XP partition?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Game
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Chris Game

I've just installed vista on a newly created primary partition on my
machine. I can boot to either XP or vista using the new boot loader.
However, although the vista partition is hidden from the XP system
when I boot to XP, when I boot to vista I can see the XP partition.

I thought that primary partitions were hidden if not active?

How can I hide the XP partition from the vista system ( and get the
logical drives to show the letters I want by the way)?
 
What file system is XP formatted in? If it is FAT32 then this is the reason.
A FAT32 partition cannt see an NTFS partition, but NTFS 'can' see FAT32.
Vista should automatically install as an NTFS file system, so it maybe that
your XP partition is FAT32.

On my system both XP and Vista are NTFS and both operating systems can see
the others partition.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

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of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..
 
What? This answer makes not sense. Partitions don't see each other based
on formatting.

A FAT32 XP install can see a Vista NTFS partition fine.
 
Well, you're partly right. Partitions don't see
anything until they have an os installed. Then
some os's cannot see certain other partitions.
Win95/98/ME cannot see an NTFS partition without
third party software. Linux partitions may not
be seen by different version of Windows.

But, without an os, the partition is totally blind!
 
Both his partitions have operating systems on them therefore they are not
blind.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..
 
So if Windows XP Home was installed on a FAT32 partition it would not "see"
an NTFS partition?
 
I've just installed vista on a newly created primary partition on my
machine. I can boot to either XP or vista using the new boot loader.
However, although the vista partition is hidden from the XP system
when I boot to XP, when I boot to vista I can see the XP partition.

I thought that primary partitions were hidden if not active?
Click to expand...

Not true.
How can I hide the XP partition from the vista system ( and get the
logical drives to show the letters I want by the way)?
Click to expand...

If Vista's Disk Management snap-in has the capability, remove the
drive letter from the XP partition. Then it won't show up in Windows
Explorer.
 
It's precisely for this situation that I like the way Partition Magic does
things. When it makes a partition active it by default sets the non-active
primary partitions as hidden. This way each OS has its own computer to run.

They will still show up in XP and Vista Disk Management, but as some kind of
unknown boot loader.

I'm using PQBOOT as neither Partition Magic 8 nor BootMagic are Vista
compatible, but the PQBOOT files can be copied from the cd to a folder in
Vista and the PQBOOT32.EXE run as administrator. Brings up a command window
that serves the same purpose as the PQBoot for Windows does on my other 2
partitions.
--
Dennis
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andy said:
If Vista's Disk Management snap-in has the capability, remove the
drive letter from the XP partition. Then it won't show up in
Windows Explorer.
Click to expand...

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may
happen if your volume is a system or boot volume, or has page
files."
 
Any drive or partition is visable, whether acive or not, by default. In
order to hide a drive, you need to hide it using a partition managing
software program. I use Norton's PartitonMagic. It costs about $70.00, but
is "fault-tolerant" meaning I can resize partitions without data corruption.

There are some good free ones available but most run in DOS (as in boot from
the disc). Try searching for "Ranish," GParted," or "PartitionLogic." I am
not sure if Vista's drive management tool allows you to do this, as I have
not played much with it.

And just a question, but if you have the partitions labeled, Data, WinVista,
WinXP, and so on, why do you want to change the drive letter? The operating
system assigns them when loading, so each O/S will assign a different set.
Also, if you force drive letter changes, you may have to "re-map" some stuff
or it won't work.
 
Mark said:
And just a question, but if you have the partitions labeled, Data,
WinVista, WinXP, and so on, why do you want to change the drive
letter? The operating system assigns them when loading, so each
O/S will assign a different set. Also, if you force drive letter
changes, you may have to "re-map" some stuff or it won't work.
Click to expand...

Oh the main reason was that as vista is seeing more partitions than
xp (the vista one is hidden when booting to XP) the drive letters
for the logical drives are different in the two cases which makes
network shares and backups a pain.

But I now realise from reading elsewhere that Windows won't change
the drive letter or hide the system or boot volumes AND although I
didn't realise this till very recently vista puts its boot files on
the XP partition so obviously needs to see it.
 
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