Windows Vista Multiboot Windows XP & Vista - maintain C:\ for each

Dear All of you over there !
I have succeeded in achieving a reliable dualboot Vista-XP on my HP pavilion dv 9540 with Vista installed first.
Still I have another problem and sure you could help me at it :
- Vista has C:\ as automatically assigned drive letter and seems to reserve it for its own exclusive usage.
- When installing XP it receives D:\ (or whatever other free letter) for its partition.
- I was accustomed to a multiboot W98-W2K-WXP (with PQuest BootMagic) where any of those 3 OS's automatiocally
received C:\ as drive letter at boot time (while hiding the other 2) !
- As PQuest does no longer exist (I can't stand Symantec !) I used Acronis as bootmanager but so far I couldn't manage to have Vista AND XP respectively boot into C:/ !
How can I manage to force Vista to release C:\ and free it for any other OS that has been chosen to boot on it ?

Can you help me ?

Thanks in advance !

GERARD Jacques

 

DualBoot Vista-WXP - Keep C: for both

Thanks Pete for the hint !

But I have already read a ton of articles about dualbooting Vista-XP or XP-Vista or even multibooting Vista-WXP-W2K-Linux and unfortunately the article you refer to was one of the first of all these.

The question is not How to dualboot or multiboot with Vista installed first (I have done it and it works OK but none of the other OS's boot on C: ) but how to force Vista to keep hands off the C: volume it seems to reserve for its own and sole usage !

Thanks to you and all other for helping some further.

GERARD Jacques

 

If you install without allowing the inclusion of the Microsoft bootmanager you can have all your OSes seeing themselves as the C: drive. You can then either manually configure the MS bootmanager or use a third-party one.

This is for installing Vista, but the rules are virtually the same for XP.
www.multibooters.co.uk/installing.html

 

Dear McTavish,

Thanks really for the hint and for the link where I could grasp a lot.

Could I be the only one (or simply the first one) who quite simply want to set up a normal - classic multiboot with Vista included in it just like any other OS, not less but NOT MORE !

GLou

 

Thanks again Pete for your concern about my problem !

But in fact I simply want to achieve a multiboot including Vista at the same level as any other OS of that multiboot, each one booting on C:

I am NOT willing to do it from within Vista but so far I had no other choice and it doesn't yield what I expect! I do want to be able to prevent Vista from imposing its leadership on everything !

GLou

 

Vista does not try to take over C: any more than previous Windows. If you install in the way that leaves out the MS bootmanager then you can do what you want. All my machines have multiboot with Vista and various other Windows, and every OS sees itself as the C: drive. I would advise that you don’t use the Acronis bootmanager, it is just about the worst one around.

 

Dear McTavish,

Again many thanks for your quick answer !

I must recall the following : a HP Laptop pavilion DV9540 with Vista pre-installed (an image as install/recovery partition - no install CD or DVD !!!)

With 'install in the way that leaves out the MS bootmanager' you mean if I understand correctly :
- Vista is C: and I create 2 more partitions on the drive directly after the Vista one;
- I hide the 1rst C: Vista partition;
- the following one automatically becomes C: and I install the next OS on it;
- directly after install I hide it as well;
- the following one automatically becomes C: and I install the next OS on it;
- I must here have a convenient boot manager that can take that all into account;

If Acronis one doesn't match that requirement I accept any other I expect you to be kind enough to quote to me ... as I only have the experience with PowerQuest Bootmagic that no longer exists.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
GLou

 

The main thing is to set the partition for the install as the Active one on the drive. Use Acronis Disk Director to create and format the partition, then set it as the active one on the disk, then reboot the computer from the XP CD and point the install to the new partition. You don’t actually have to hide the Vista partition, but it never hurts. If you then install another 2K or XP on a third partition in the same way, then you must hide the first XP's partition.

Once your XP is up and running you can get back into Vista by simply changing the active partition again. Best to make sure you have the Disk Director boot CD before you start, so that you can change active and hidden status of partitions without having to get into Windows to do it. You can also create and set the partitions before install from the boot CD, as sometimes there are restrictions on doing such things from inside Windows.

Either the free GAG or Boot-US bootmanagers are good. Both require manual configuring however, where as OSL2000 does it automatically, but not free.
www.boot-us.com http://gag.sourceforge.net www.osloader.com

 

Dear McTavish,

That's going to the point ! I like that way and thank you again fo it.

I am going to make images of what is on the drives of my HP pavilion - wash up and reformat every partition and reinstall everything step by step as described.

I hold you posted !
And thanks again !

GLou

 

If you are planning on doing a new install of Vista then you should check this out first. http://directedge.us/node/24 It will allow you to re-activate it without having to connect to Microsoft to do it.

 

Dear McTavish !

You can't fancy how you made me happy with that new hint of yours : being able to make a Vista 'fresh install' without an install disk (since HP didn't consider necessary to 'give' you one with the laptop your paid for) ...

My lucky day when I came across you !
Again thanks for that !

GLou

 

hi GLou,

I read all of the above, but was unable to ascertain your EXACT wishes. I just wanted to share with you what I did to set up dual boot Vista and XP on both my laptop and desktop.

My desktop came with XP and my laptop with Vista. After installing Vista on my desktop and XP on my laptop, they both dual boot just fine.

When you install XP on a Vista machine it overwrites the Vista bootcode. That is easily fixed with a free program called EasyBCD. EasyBCD is the easiest to use boot manager I have tried. You can write or rewrite bootcodes for both Vista and XP with the click of your mouse. You can arrange or rearrange boot order at will.

When I boot I get a list of choices of wish I want to boot into, Vista or XP. If I choose neither, depending on the amount of time that I set for boot options, my computer will automatically boot into the 1st OS on the list. If you want to change the order in the list, just fire up EasyBCD and do so, takes about 30 seconds.

Another great little free program that I also use is NeoSmart's iReboot. With that program when I want to reboot my computer, I can choose which OS I want to reboot into, circumventing having to wait on the OS boot list to load and choosing from that list. It just reboots automatically into which ever OS I choose.

I can use programs and files from each OS simultaneously, no matter which I boot into. Vista does not control my XP in anyway. I am not sure what difference the drive letter assignment makes, C or D, or whatever drive letter. I have never had a problem with Vista (C drive) managing or hindering my XP operations (which is D drive).

I also use Acronis to manage my hard drive. It is easy to use, and I often resize my partitions. Currently I have my hard drive setup with Vista as my primary/active partition, XP as a logical partition, and I have around 7mb of unallocated space before and after each of them. It may be unconventional, but it works great for me. I have no problems with booting or operations on either my desktop or laptop. I know most people say that logical partitions should be used mainly for data or backup, but hey this setup works great for me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it . Oh btw I use my Acronis true image for backup, it works great too.

I hope you find this info useful or helpful.

Tarheelfan001

 

Hi Tarheelfan
The aim was to have all his Windows installs see themselves as the C: drive, something that is not straight forward to achieve with the Microsoft bootmanager.

EasyBCD by the way is not a bootmanager, it is merely some add-on graphics to the tool that configures the MS bootmanager, just to make it easier than having to use the command line. So you are in fact using the MS bootmanager on both you’re machines.

There is no problem with running Windows from a logical partition and I personally prefer logicals. The 7meg between your partitions is probably because you have a mixture of old style partitions and the new Vista partitions, which use different alignment rules. That in itself is nothing to worry about, but there can be issues with mixing partition types. http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html

 

Dear McTavish,

I haven't come any further up to now in my planned attempts at forcing all my OSes to come up as C:\ in the multiboot process nor have I found out yet which bootmanager I was going to use.

But I have seen and read carefully your above answer to Tarheelfan : it seems you point there to the heart of the problem (on my laptop Vista came preinstalled and so far I simply made room and created new primary partitions to install my other OSes on - most likely did I mix the new with the old !).

Once again (and for the 3rd time at least) thanks for being that accurate since what I learned there helps a lot if not to understand at least to fancy what's really going on !

GLou

 

Hi Tarheelfan001 !
Thanks for your concern.
As McTavish quotes in his answer I am struggling to have each of my OSes come up as C:\ and so far I haven't succeeded in doing so but with your help (McTavish and yourself) I am convinced it will soon happen.
Feel free to post any other hint you might com across !

GLou

 

McTavish, thanks for the extra info and site on multibooting.

GLou, sorry to take so long in responding, I have been busy. I want to share with you what I have done since our last posts.

I now have my multiboot computer showing as C: on either boot. I have Vista with sp1, and xp with sp2 installed. I would like to claim some wonderous work, research, and effort on my part in making it coming about, but actually it was just the simple result of the following. I hope it works for you as well.

1. I did a clean install of xp, with a total reformat when prompted by the xp install. This install (partition) took up the entire hard drive. This partition was obviously a primary partition

2. I then installed and used Acronis Disk Director Suite. Then using this program I made a second partition and made it a primary partition also. I have an 80 gig hard drive on this particular computer, and made each partition about equal.

3. When using the Acronis Disk Director Suite, it prompted me to choose a drive letter for the second partition, and I think name for it also, I did neither. I did not assign a drive letter to the second partition. Obviously I used ntfs.

4. Next I installed my Vista on the unused partition. It takes forever to add the updates and sp1, but I did that also (the same with the xp updates).

5. I think you already know this, but a reminder, install xp 1st and then Vista, because if you install Vista 1st and then xp, the xp install will overwrite the Vista boot loader. Of course EasyBCD or Vistabootpro will solve that easily. But since the order in which I installed them also resulted in what you want, why not follow that order.

6. That is all I did. Now, when I boot into xp, xp is the C drive.

7. And now when I boot into Vista, it is also the C drive.

8. Interestingly, when I am in xp I cannot see the Vista drive, but when I boot into Vista it shows Vista drive as C, and it also shows the xp drive as D. I can also access the xp files when I boot into Vista, but not vice versa.

9. This setup works great for me, I hope you can get yours like this too.

Good Luck, Tarheelfan001

 

bootmanagement in double booting

To Glou ; your question is too complicated for my poor knowledge and I am aware of problems related to this question: a lot of information is given by paragon when you buy hard disk manager of course ; there a full description is given about double boot when vista is first installed and their software seems to allow changing the drive letter according to boot .but I cannot guarantee ; it's just a feeling ; if you got acronis , their tech support is known as VERY friendly so ....

 

Dear Tarheelfan001,
No problem for your 'late' responding : what matters is the lucky achievement you describe !
Thanks for it and I'll give it a try myself and exactly in that order.
I hold you (and all others interested) posted.

GLou