Perfect Multi-Boot Scenario ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter john444
  • Start date Start date
J

john444

I want to setup W95, 98, ME and XP on separate partitions (no loading
one over the other) and with a quick method to select the OS at boot
time (no re-configuration and then re-boot).

To be able to install the OS's out of order would be a bonus. Plus I
would prefer that one OS (ie. XP) does not end up as the boot drive
with another OS as the system drive. I want to get them working
entirely independently. I have Powerquest Partition Magic and all
those kind of utilities.

I have almost got there. Strangely, WinXP had to be the one below the
8GB limit but ME and 98 boot fine wherever they are on this 80gb disk.
I used a proprietary OS loader to replace the mbr. It all works fine
apart from the fact that XP "installs a new device" each time it loads
and overwrites my OS loader so that I have to re-install it again to
be able to select which OS I want to load. Plus it would be nice to
automatically hide the partitions not in use.

Did that make any sense?

Any experts out there who have worked out the ultimate technique to
set up a new machine with all the different OS's installed all running
independently and with an effective way to choose the required OS at
boot time?
 
You cannot configure a computer to multiple boot any combination of Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows Me because Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me
use the same boot file. Therefore, multiple booting Windows 95, Windows 98, and
Windows Me at the same time is not supported.


--
Nicholas

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Thanks, but you can only install 95 or 98 or ME using this technique.
| They use special folders and therefore interfere with each other
| (various other reasons). They have to be on separate partitions with
| an osloader to boot to the appropriate partition.
 
Well, actually you can. As I tried to explain, I have them all running
together fine on different partitions. This way, they all have their
own boot file. My only real problem is that XP likes to overwrite my
proprietary osloader mbr with it's own version, therefore I have to
re-install the osloader and re-boot which takes a few minutes and is a
bit of a pain.
 
Well, with all due respect, this Windows XP Deployment newsgroup
covers issues with deploying Windows XP exclusively. You might find
some better advice in the Windows XP Customize newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsxp.customize

--
Nicholas

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Well, actually you can. As I tried to explain, I have them all running
| together fine on different partitions. This way, they all have their
| own boot file. My only real problem is that XP likes to overwrite my
| proprietary osloader mbr with it's own version, therefore I have to
| re-install the osloader and re-boot which takes a few minutes and is a
| bit of a pain.
 
But wont they say the same thing ie. " this groups deals with
customizing Windows XP exclusively" :)

Anyway, thanks for trying to help.
 
I want to setup W95, 98, ME and XP on separate partitions
(no loading one over the other) and with a quick method to
select the OS at boot time (no re-configuration and then re-boot).

To be able to install the OS's out of order would be a bonus.
Plus I would prefer that one OS (ie. XP) does not end up as
the boot drive with another OS as the system drive. I want to
get them working entirely independently. I have Powerquest
Partition Magic and all those kind of utilities.

I have almost got there. Strangely, WinXP had to be the one
below the 8GB limit but ME and 98 boot fine wherever they
are on this 80gb disk. I used a proprietary OS loader to replace
the mbr. It all works fine apart from the fact that XP "installs
a new device" each time it loads and overwrites my OS loader
so that I have to re-install it again to be able to select which
OS I want to load. Plus it would be nice to automatically hide
the partitions not in use.

Did that make any sense?

Any experts out there who have worked out the ultimate
technique to set up a new machine with all the different OS's
installed all running independently and with an effective way
to choose the required OS at boot time?
Click to expand...

Perhaps it could be something specific to your boot manager -- what are
you using? That's a crucial piece of info you left out. I've
successfully setup multiboot arrangements with 4-8 OS's many times using
either XOSL or BootIt NG, and I've documented my technique at
www.goodells.net/multiboot. I can install OS's in any order (except
linux -- haven't figured out how to install that out of order yet), in
primary or logical partitions, and hide/unhide any partitions.

XP should have no trouble at all above 8GB, so that symptom would seem
to suggest the cause may be something else that you're overlooking.
When you boot XP, are any of the other OS's hidden? And if your OS
loader isn't automatically hiding partitions, have you confirmed that
your XP boot and system partitions are really one and the same?

Just out of curiosity, what kind of entries do you have in the XP
registry's [HKLM/System/MountedDevices] key? You should have a number
of "\??\Volume{...}" and "\DosDevices\..." entries. Generally, there
would be the same number of entries of both types, but are you getting
additional "\??\Volume..." entries each time you boot with your OS
loader?
 
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