Two XP's on one PC?

T

torvalds

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 28, 2004
Messages
211
Im trying to get two installs of XP running on my pc. Ive created a primary partiton on another hard drive and Cloned my C drive over to it. Unfortunately im not getting a boot loader when I boot to let me select which OS I want. I was hoping after the clone I would have been able to choose which one I wanted. I checked my boot.ini file and it looks ok and theres a 30 second timeout.

Does anyone know why im not getting the boot loader when I boot? Maybe the idea is a bad one? If so how can I successfully have two copies of XP running on one pc?

I was going to simply install windows from the cd to my new partition but in the edn went for the clone because I cant see any difference between the two.
 
You need to go into your boot.ini file and edit it so it looks like this.


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="(windows 1)" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(windows 2)" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN


(windows 1) and (windows 2) will be the the name of your OS. And your partition numbers will be different depending on how your drive is patitioned.
 
torvalds said:
Does anyone know why im not getting the boot loader when I boot? Maybe the idea is a bad one? If so how can I successfully have two copies of XP running on one pc?

I was going to simply install windows from the cd to my new partition but in the edn went for the clone because I cant see any difference between the two.
Click to expand...

The difference between the two is the problem you're experiencing. By cloning the installation rather than installing a second XP with the Windows CD the boot loader information was not written, and your second OS installation was left without a means of booting into it.

The installation routine creates the boot info. If there's a previous installation the multi boot entries are written during the install.


Editing the boot.ini file as mentioned should correct it.
 
If you don't know which partition your new install is on, put a line into the boot.ini file for every possibility. Then reboot and keep trying until you find it, and remove the other entries.
 
I pasted the above into my boot.ini but the pc hasnt booted since. That was this morning before work and ive been working at it since I got back. Im not sure what it means but obviously my drive paths are different :) Its my own stupid fault, i shouldnt have went near it so early. I tried a bootcfg /rebuild to fix it, but to no avail. So im just gonna reformat and reinstall, its overdue anyway.

So when I get back to windows to try again I will simply install the second copy. I thought my idea was a good one but I was very wrong :D

So how best to achieve this? Just boot into windows and install a new copy on the other drive from within windows? Or what should I do?
 
Boot from the CD and install XP again, wiping the drive as you intend to. Get that working and set up.

Boot from the CD again and install the second copy of XP, and your boot menu should be configured for you.

I've written up a detailed guide here. Deleting the partition(s) and then creating a ne partition(s) in the unallocated space created is a neat way of ensuring that the drives are wiped, and it can be done from within the setup routine, as described.
 
VMWare...why bother with boot loaders and all other crap when you can run both OSs at the same time?
 
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