Dual Boot and System Drives

[dr1256dr]

Greetings.

I have searched all over the web for an answer to my question, with no luck. Maybe I am using the wrong search terms, there are a bazillion articles, posts, storys, etc about dual booting.

I need to dual boot Windows Vista and XP Pro. I got there no problem, with each OS on their own physical drive. However, when I am booted to Vista, the OS and Program Files folder etc, are in the C:\ Drive. Fine. When I boot to XP, the System drive, with the OS and Program Files folder etc is H:\.... NOT FINE. In both cases the other OS drive is visible. Everything seems to function OK. But some of the apps I use will ONLY install to C:\Program Files etc. This is NOT good. There are numerous ways to "hide" a drive in the explorer, but this does not stop either OS from accessing the drive. I have read that both OSs are smart enough to not do this, but that has not been my experience.

In short, I am just not comfortable with the other OS system drive visible, and some of my apps will not even work that way. In the past I have been able to dual boot with older OSs, the active OS drive was always C:\, with the other OS "invisible".

Am I going to have to use a third party software to accomplish this? I am fine with that, as long as it is reliable. Partition Magic/Boot Magic no longer works with Vista. Does anyone know of a third party app that will accomplish the end result I want? Or perhaps an installation method not requiring a third party app?

Thanks in advance....

Dennis

 

[linney]

What about something like this?

The IDEX Switch

http://www.industechnologies.com/

Virtual PC 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6&displaylang=en&tm

Or perhaps some better alternative software that is not coded to install where the programmer wants but coded to install where the end user determines?

 

[dr1256dr]

linney

Thanks for the suggestions. I always wondered if such a thing existed as a hardware switch to activate, deactivate drives. Now I know. Drive caddies were also suggested to me. As far as the Virtual PC solution goes, I heard some horror stories about hardware support and performance. I'm sure I could be wrong, however.

Point well take about apps that are written with hard coded install paths to C:\Program Files, or to the root, etc. None the less, I have never found an alternative application that will do what these particular apps do for me.

Anyway....I thought I would share my final solution, perhaps it will be of use to someone else. This is a combination of experimentation, and suggestions on other forums. This only works for two physical drives, not for 2 partitions on a single drive.

Disconnect one of the drives. Install Vista on the connected drive. Disconnect the drive with the Vista installation, reconnect the other drive. Install XP. I'm sure the order wouldn't matter, if there is already an installed OS on one of the drives.

After both operating systems are installed, boot the computer to the Vista drive, using the bios boot menu to select the correct disk. In my case this involved hitting the F10 key; it may be a different key with other motherboards. Most modern motherboards support this, mine is an Intel DG965WH. If this is not an option, I believe the XP drive could be disconnected for the next step. It looks as if EasyBCD would support adding the XP OS, without it being physically connected, as long as you know the path to the drive.

Once Vista is booted, download EasyBCD from

http://neosmart.net

This is a free, safe to use Vista boot loader editing tool. Follow the easy instructions to add the XP installation to the boot menu. Upon rebooting, you will have the choice of both OSs. Once booted to either OS, the active system drive will be C:\. The other system drive will still be visible, but at least it will not be C:\. For further safety, you can hide that drive using gpedit, or TweakUI.

There should be less risk to the other operating system with this setup. Maybe I am just paranoid!

Dennis

 

[Nelviticus]

In what order did you install your OS's? I installed XP first then Vista, on different partitions of the same drive. Note, Vista was installed onto unpartitioned space, i.e. to an area that hadn't been allocated a drive letter by XP. Both installations now treat the partition that they're installed on as C: and I didn't have to add XP to Vista's boot menu as this was done automatically during the installation.

Nelviticus

 

[TonHu]

Vista allways makes it's bootpartition the C: drive, and reassigns other drives sequentially numbered. Probably, drives assigned by XP (marked in their drive-parameters) keep their original assignment, didn't check that out yet.

HTH
TonHu

 

[dr1256dr]

Nelviticus

That makes perfect sense. In my case, I already had Vista installed.

 

[JAES]

I have dual disks and also use the bios to boot to the proper operating system. I also found out, the hard way, that when you switch from Vista to XP all the restore points in Vista are deleted. Vista mentioned this in one of thier help files somewhere.