XP install to extended partition?

[brian8010]

OK, I am trying to install XP but I am having problem. My HD has 6 partitions (2 of which are extended). I want to install XP on to one of the extended partitions which are both 20GB respectively. All my attempts so far have ended in failure.

Everything is fine until I get asked which partition I want to install XP to in setup. It reads my drive tables fine, and I can delete my target partition and then create a new one, but only as raw space, not as an NTFS filesystem (FAT32 is not an option as well). Obviously I cant install Windows without one of those 2 filesystems.

I have tried booting into my other OS and formatting the partition as NTFS but it only offers 'NTFS Volume Set.' I am thinking about trying to get some sort of DOS installation on that partition (FreeDos?) then install XP with the help of a 98 cd.... but if XP cannot even run on an extended partition it that would all be for nothing. I was also thinking of trying to work some magic through the recovery console...

Anyway I guess Im asking 2 things:

1) can XP (or any Windows) run on an extended partition

and if so...

2) how can I get the install to work correctly (ie format the drive to NTFS and then install XP)

Thanks for any help/insights you guys might have.

Brian

[todorov]

I'm currently trying to solve the same problem. I installed XP by ghosting the XP partition from anaother machine to my extended partition, but XP did not boot, because it needs to boot from a primary partition.

I tried mapping partitions to make the XP boot loader see the partition as it was primary from the grub.conf, but it did not worked.

map (hd0,0) (hd0,6)

map (hd0,6) (hd0,0)

[cjharr]

I too am having that problem. Instead of modify grub I have been trying through the Boot.ini. I can get it to install, but on reboot I just get a black screen. When I have more time, I am going to try to hide the other partitions and see if that will work. If not, I will have to dig thru my old hard drives for an old boot.ini and ntdetect.com files from a win2k install that was similarly setup. I am able to get linux installed without grub by using boot.ini (my brother-in-law showed me that a couple of years ago) after linux has been installed. But my memory is real hazy on where I have to have the 1's and 0's.

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN98="Windows 98"

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WIN2K="Microsoft Windows 2000" /fastdetect

I know the partion will be 1, 2, or 3 depending on how many partiotions you have on 1 drive. But I keep forgetting if it is disk(X) or rdisk (X) that has to be changed on a slave on the primary controller and which one has to be changed on a secondary controller. Time for playing is real limited for me , hope this can help you.

[jaclaz]

See my post in this thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=33030

and related links, particularly this one:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=25365

Windows NT based systems, including XP, can be installed to both a logical volume inside an extended partition and to a primary partition, as long as there is a bootanle active primary partition with the files listed in the posts I linked to.

See this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=34761

About the idea of "ghosting" an image to another partition it WILL NOT work, not because the partition is logical/extended, but because MANY paths in windows NT based systems are ABSOLUTE, i.e. something like C:\WINDOWS\ so the problem lies in the different LETTERING of the partition.

See this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=35329

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=23484

It can be done, but it's not straightforward at all:

http://www.petri.co.il/change_system_drive..._windows_xp.htm

http://www.dougknox.com/tips/xp_drive_letters.htm

jaclaz