boot menu CD

[mireazma]

Sorry if I've posted into wrong place but this seemed the most appropriate one.

Can you direct me please, to a place where to get help in making a boot menu CD, without installing Windows?

I want just the menu in which to select the OS I want, pretty much like PQ Boot. It would be unnecessary since boot.ini does just this, but the very feature I'm interested in is hiding certain partitions at boot time. I'll try to be as clear as I can.

This way, I would have 2 independent "virtual" physical drives. I would emulate the following situation:

I have 2 physical drives and only one is visible at a time (let's say, because of having one cable only). Each has its own OS and several partitions. I switch between them (unplug the current physical drive and plug in the other).

Let's say I have in reality one HDD. I split it into 6 partitions C, D, E, F, G and H.

I want C, D and E be visible if I boot the C:\windows and F, G and H hidden.

Likewise, F, G and H visible when I boot from F:\windows and the others hidden. Of course, F, G and H would show up after booting, with the letters C, D and E respectively.

For this I'd boot from a CD that shows a menu and manages all these. If I didn't use the CD, then no menu would show and the default partitions would show up, loading the default windows. Of course, hidden partitions would still be visible from within PQ Partition Magic or other partition utility.

Again I apologize if this isn't the right place. But I couldn't find a closer-related section and you guys, are the right men to know about this.

[jaclaz]

You can do what you wish with grub4dos, though what you want is in the "advanced usage" part of it, so it will take some time to get you familiar with the app and get the hang of it before actually attempting using it on such a delicate thing as hiding/unhiding, as a mistake may lead you to an unbootable system.

Start by reading the guide:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm

Expecially these parts:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/basics.htm

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/cli.htm

as you will need ot experiment with command line before making an actual menu entry.

You don't actually need a CD at all, but if you want to, there's no problem:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/install_cd.htm

An hypothetical couple of menu entries would be something like:

title C,D and E
unhide (hd0,0)
unhide (hd0,1)
unhide (hd0,5)
hide (hd0,2)
hide (hd0,4)
hide (hd0,6)
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr

title F,G and H

unhide (hd0,2)
unhide (hd0,4)
unhide (hd0,6)
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
hide (hd0,5)
root (hd0,2)
chainloader /ntldr

but DON'T EVEN THINK of trying them until you are familiar with the app.

boot-land is a bit "hectic" today, you may want to try accessing it later:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

take your time browsing the forum, similar setups have been discussed, here is one:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10458

and here a much more complex example:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7138

Remember, don't run, take baby steps.

jaclaz

[mireazma]

Thank you so much. So kind of you. I'll do as you said.