Make a proper Dual Boot

[jaclaz]

"...(or a direct Registry editing, whatever suits you)."

sorry, I thought "NoDrives Manager" was an indirect way of editing the registry you commented as an available option. I could do it myself, but I need to know exactly what entries to edit, especially after knowing that the NoDrives key is not the one you refer to.

Sure , but the Registry is "vast" .

The related keys are mentioned in the already given thread about migrate.inf (which is an indirect way of editing - actually forming - the Registry at install time):

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19663

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

The matter, JFYI, is expanded in detail here:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/firadisk/files/mounteddevices.htm

and on the old KB by MS (DO NOT EVEN THINK to change the system drive letter the way it is described here, this is in the case that it was already wrongly renamed to restore it):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/en-us

and here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/10905-change-drive-letters-to-your-liking/

(again DOES NOT apply to the drive letter the XP is booted from)

jaclaz

Edited April 23, 2013 by jaclaz

[Dogway]

I'm not qualified enough to touch that, not at least if I pretend to do the install today. There are more questions than answer if that was the case, for instance they all talk about setting or changing device letters. I think that for my needs removing letter in Disk Management would be enough. But thanks a lot for all the help.

I will reply back in a few hours with the outcome.

[Dogway]

GREAT, flawless!

All went as expected, installed XP x64, drivers, software, etc, in C:, Now I can boot with default Windows boot manager on x86 or x64, I could remove x64 letter (T:) from x86 disk management, but couldn't do the same from x64 , it says L: (my XP x86 partition) is boot partition or something of that sort.

[jaclaz]

GREAT, flawless!

Good , but not "entirely" flawless (see below):

All went as expected, installed XP x64, drivers, software, etc, in C:, Now I can boot with default Windows boot manager on x86 or x64, I could remove x64 letter (T:) from x86 disk management, but couldn't do the same from x64 , it says L: (my XP x86 partition) is boot partition or something of that sort.

Time to try adding some grub4dos "magic"

Add to the ROOT of the drive where your 32 bit system is:

1. grldr
   
2. menu.lst
   

Edit it's boot.ini adding a line to it :

C:\grldr="grub4dos"

The menu.lst should be:

timeout 30

default 0

title Windows XP 64 test

find --set-root /thisis_64_bit_part.txt

chainloader /ntldr

Copy FROM the root of the partition where you have the 32bit XP the files:

1. NTLDR
   
2. NTDETECT.COM
   
3. BOOT.INI
   

TO the partition where you have installed the XP 64 bit.

Create on this partition the file "thisis_64_bit_part.txt" (or however the file that you used in menu.lst, the name must be "univocal", i.e. a file with the same name must NOT exist on the WIn32 partition).

Try booting, then:

1. choose the "grub4dos" <- this is in the BOOT.INI in the active partition, the one where you have the 32 bit install
   
2. choose the "Windows XP 64 test" <- this is in the menu.lst
   
3. choose again "Windows <- this is in the BOOT.INI on the partition where you have the 64 bit install
   

Once (hopefully) booted you should be able to remove L: (the XP x86 partition) as it should be not anymore "boot partition".

If everything is OK, try again booting how you are doing now (choosing the X64 system in the first BOOT.INI choice) and see if everything works, report.

jaclaz

[Dogway]

GREAT, done!

I never thought things would go as smoothly.

On your third step I supposed you meant XP x64, so i got in and removed letter. Then back to x86, wiped the files and edited back boot.ini.

Thanks a lot!

edit: the boot took a bit longer than usual, and a small window rapidly popped up and faded away on the loading configuration blue screen, but it works.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Dogway

[jaclaz]

GREAT, done!

Good

Yet another happy bunny in the basket, I presume :

jaclaz

[Dogway]

jaclaz, is there a way to remove the boot loader at all. I would like to have it only at invoked, say pressing F9 or something of that sort, is that possible?

Also is this method of DUAL Boot fine for a SSD? previous SSD partition under Win7 VM?

Edit: well maybe it's unrelated or not, but I will necessarily by force be urged to install Win7 in my next PC Dual Boot. My current PC which I did this Dual Boot (XPx86/XPx64) is showing its age and doesn't deliver so I'm going to buy a new one with an SSD, and XPx64 is not compatible with these drives, add to the mix that many CG software now requires Win7 and that in contrast to XPx86 it can send natively the TRIM commands I consider it to be a necessary evil... : '(

Edited June 25, 2013 by Dogway

[jaclaz]

jaclaz, is there a way to remove the boot loader at all. I would like to have it only at invoked, say pressing F9 or something of that sort, is that possible?

No.

Meaning that *something*, *somehow* needs to "listen" to the keyboard checking if by any chance the user actually pressed the F9.

This can be set to be the least "intrusive", but you have anyway to "pass through" a "special" MBR or a bootmanager of some kind.

Also is this method of DUAL Boot fine for a SSD? previous SSD partition under Win7 VM?

Sure, why not, a SSD is hard disk like device, only faster.

Edit: well maybe it's unrelated or not, but I will necessarily by force be urged to install Win7 in my next PC Dual Boot. My current PC which I did this Dual Boot (XPx86/XPx64) is showing its age and doesn't deliver so I'm going to buy a new one with an SSD, and XPx64 is not compatible with these drives, add to the mix that many CG software now requires Win7 and that in contrast to XPx86 it can send natively the TRIM commands I consider it to be a necessary evil... : '(

No problems adding to the mix a Windows7.

jaclaz