boot manager for XP / Win7 (+ others)
in [Windows XP]
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From: John Smith on 5 Oct 2009 14:14 Hi, I was hoping someone could suggest a good boot manager for a dual boot system comprising XP and Win 7 (and possible Solaris / Linux in the future) I previously installed Win 7 whilst in my XP session. This polluted my XP system as it wrote Win 7 boot files to my XP partition. I don't want any of that funny business. So this time I decided to placed each OS on a separate SATA drive. Configuration is as follows: Motherboard: Abit NF7-S 2.0 SATA1: XP Pro SP3 SATA2: Windows 7 (Build 7600) At this stage I have just been physically unplugging/booting the respective HDD's. I think my motherboard/bios is too old for that F12 boot trick I've read on the forums. I also might be interested in installing Solaris (or some flavour of Linux) in the future on another partition I'll create on SATA2. I heard that the preference is a boot manager that sits in the first track of the hard drive. I also want something that executes FAST and is simple to configure. I've heard about Acronis (which I read is somewhat slow) and GAG. Does anyone have any recommendations/config advice? Any help most appreciated. JS
From: John Smith on 5 Oct 2009 14:24 > Hi, I was hoping someone could suggest a good boot manager for a dual boot > system comprising XP and Win 7 (and possible Solaris / Linux in the > future) > > I previously installed Win 7 whilst in my XP session. This polluted my XP > system as it wrote Win 7 boot files to my XP partition. I don't want any > of that funny business. So this time I decided to placed each OS on a > separate SATA drive. What I meant to say was that when I installed Win 7 this time around, I unplugged my XP HDD so it wouldn't recognise it, and just install all Win 7 stuff to SATA2.
From: Pegasus [MVP] on 5 Oct 2009 16:01 "John Smith" <someone(a)microsoft.com> wrote in message news:OIe8veeRKHA.764(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > Hi, I was hoping someone could suggest a good boot manager for a dual boot > system comprising XP and Win 7 (and possible Solaris / Linux in the > future) > > I previously installed Win 7 whilst in my XP session. This polluted my XP > system as it wrote Win 7 boot files to my XP partition. I don't want any > of that funny business. So this time I decided to placed each OS on a > separate SATA drive. > > Configuration is as follows: > > Motherboard: Abit NF7-S 2.0 > SATA1: XP Pro SP3 > SATA2: Windows 7 (Build 7600) > > At this stage I have just been physically unplugging/booting the > respective HDD's. > > I think my motherboard/bios is too old for that F12 boot trick I've read > on the forums. I also might be interested in installing Solaris (or some > flavour of Linux) in the future on another partition I'll create on SATA2. > > I heard that the preference is a boot manager that sits in the first track > of the hard drive. I also want something that executes FAST and is simple > to configure. > > I've heard about Acronis (which I read is somewhat slow) and GAG. Does > anyone have any recommendations/config advice? > > Any help most appreciated. > > JS I have used XOSL for several years. It will work with any OS and each OS can reside on any disk and on any partition (primary or logical). It's free but it requires a 15 MByte partition for itself, which can be on any disk. Note that XOSL does *not* modify the boot environment of your various OSs in any way. It simply lets you select an OS, then passes control to the chosen OS.
From: John Smith on 6 Oct 2009 05:42 Thanks everyone for the information. On recommendations, I'm now looking into XOSL and GAG as they are also commonly referred to in my readings. I think my issue is that my config is as follows: Disk1 (PATA) : Data Disk2 (SATA1) : XP Disk3 (SATA2) : Windows 7 I have noticed that by default, boot managers tend to modify the MBR on Disk1. However that is just my PATA data disk. I guess I will have to unplug the PATA drive prior to allowing a boot manager to modify any MBR. At this stage I am using Boot-US. I have it loaded on a floppy drive which is set to boot first (in BIOS). Has a simple ASCII selection screen that loads blazingly fast. I just dont want to do any writing to any MBR as I have had problems in the past. Will take on everyone's recommendations and do some reading before writing to MBR :) Cheers, JS
From: Pegasus [MVP] on 6 Oct 2009 05:56
"John Smith" <someone(a)microsoft.com> wrote in message news:O0zbSimRKHA.4504(a)TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Thanks everyone for the information. On recommendations, I'm now looking > into XOSL and GAG as they are also commonly referred to in my readings. > > I think my issue is that my config is as follows: > > Disk1 (PATA) : Data > Disk2 (SATA1) : XP > Disk3 (SATA2) : Windows 7 > > I have noticed that by default, boot managers tend to modify the MBR on > Disk1. However that is just my PATA data disk. I guess I will have to > unplug the PATA drive prior to allowing a boot manager to modify any MBR. > > At this stage I am using Boot-US. I have it loaded on a floppy drive which > is set to boot first (in BIOS). Has a simple ASCII selection screen that > loads blazingly fast. I just dont want to do any writing to any MBR as I > have had problems in the past. Will take on everyone's recommendations and > do some reading before writing to MBR :) > > Cheers, > JS Yes, XOSL puts its own code into the Master Boot Record so that it knows where to find the loader. Restoring the MBR is child's play. Here is one method: - Boot the machine with a DOS boot diskette, e.g. from www.bootdisk.com. - Type this command: fdisk /mbr That's all! And contrary to popular opinion, this works regardless of the type of partitions you have (FAT/NTFS) because the MBR is independent of the file systems. |