[Question] - XP related for mutil-boot prepping.

[IAintRight]

i wasn't sure where to post this because it kind of covers XP, XP x64, "XP LiveCD", and Longhorn/Vista. sorry if this is the wrong section.

anyway, i'm planning to do a mult-boot DVD of at least the following

1) XP Pro regular install

2) XP Pro unattended install

3) XP Pro LiveCD

4) XP Pro x64

5) Longhorn/Vista (still workin on gettin a current Vista)

6) a Linux OS or two (if possible, but i'll worry about it after i get the XP parts settled)

i have read flyakite's guide for creating a multi-boot DVD and the unattended guide and believe i have a good grasp on them, so that's not so much the issue.

my questions are:

1) is if there's a way to make a straight up XP LiveCD, in the sense of how most Linux ones are (the seemingly whole OS, to run from the CD as if it were fully installed)? i've done plently of searching on this and other forums, and the closest i've come up with is the UBCD guide and info on BartPE and WinPE. but from what i've seen/read, BartPE isn't quite what i want, nor is WinPE.

2) my copy of Longhorn isn't bootable, so i was wondering how to make it so? if i could rip a boot img from another windows and use it, or if someone has it or knows where i can get it.

3) what is the current version/release of Vista?

i believe that's all for now. any help would be great.

thanks in advance.

ben.

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

[Sonic]

For all vista informations, you must be a beta tester member or msdn member, if not you can't test vista, it's illegal. btw, beta 2 of vista coming soon ...

For windows xp live cd, you can use use BartPE which it creates a bootable cd of your current system (if I remember), for WinPE you must have the license to use it, like manufacturers because it's needed to "pre-install" other windows xp and it's in command line (if I remember too ^^)

edit: for x64 version of windows xp, multi boot isn't easy as windows xp 32bit ... look in forum to get some infos.

Edited January 11, 2006 by sonic

[Zxian]

First off... if your Longhorn isn't bootable, then it isn't legal. If you had the legal copy, you'd know to contact Microsoft about information regarding that. No more discussion about how to make that work, or else this topic gets closed.

As for the live XP CD, no there isn't any way of doing what you want. UBCD and BartPE are good alternatives that still stick with the windows base, but they're nothing like live Linux distros. Winternals ERD Commander is another live environment that uses Windows as its framework, but it's designed more with recovery in mind.