Simple Acronis OS Selector question

Hello,

Great forum.

I know I can install MANY OS's on different hard drives .. but,

how many different OS's can I actually boot to?

Thanks.

 

What do you mean by different? Usually, if you can install an OS, you can boot to it.

If you have some specifics of what you'd like to do or be able to do, it would help.

 

Thanks for the response.
Different hard drives means more than one physical hard drive.

I just realized this question may be about Disk Director instead of
OS Selector.

I'm trying to install the same version of XP on several partitions of the
same hard drive, and I want to be able to boot to them all.

I installed on three partitons fine, but on the fourth try Aconis would only give me the option for a logical partition and not for a primary partition.

And I'm pretty sure I read in the help section that three primary partitons was the limit.

I don't think a logical drive will boot .. but I could be wrong.

 

I meant by the second different. Where you said "different OS's". I didn't know if you were talking about Windows, different versions of Windows, Linux distros, OS X, etc.

Setting up to boot from a Logical partition can be done, but it's not easy and there are quite a few manual steps involved. I'd avoid it, if possible.

There is a maximum of four Primary partitions or three Primary partitions and any number of Logical partitions. If DD is not letting you create another Primary partition, I would assume you already have one or more Logical partitions on the drive.

If you don't mind using the Windows boot manager and mixing the booting files, you can install Windows to a Logical partition and have it boot from one of the Primary partitions. Windows will default to installing the booting files to the currently Active partition. I have not run tests on whether or not OSS will boot directly into a system configured this way -- it may. I just prefer to have independent, isolated installations.

 

Thanks,

So if I understand you correctly, if I want to use Acronis, the maximum bootable OS's I can have setup on a single hard drive is FOUR.

And if I want more than that I need another hard drive.

Is that correct?

 

You can have more than four on one drive. It's just harder to work with independent Logical Windows partitions. OSS won't detect them so they have to be added manually. There's also a chance they won't work at all with OSS (this has been posted recently -- my tests have still worked).

How many Windows installations are you planning on installing?

Do you care if you use OSS or the Windows boot manager (partitions can't be hidden when using the Windows boot manager)?

Are you planning on hiding the OS partitions from each other?

It's hard to give good advice when the situation isn't clear.

 

I don't care which boot manager I use and I don't need to hide any partitions.

Basically, I'm setting up one PC to do six different jobs. I've been doing this on a single XP OS installation and things get bogged down pretty fast.

Moving specific operations to other XP setups will speed things up a lot since some tasks do not need certain software like anti-virus (no internet needed), etc. I also use different screen resolutions and desktop setups, which are a pain to switch constantly.

I would happily use Windows boot manager if it would do what I want.

Thanks.

 

Are you currently using OSS or are you using the Windows boot manager?

 

Yes, I'm using OSS and I can boot to two different XP partitions.

 

Is each OS booting from it's own partition or are both booting from the same partition (which will be one of the XP partitions)?

The booting partition for the OS will be the one OSS shows as the Active partition for that OS entry.

 

Hmm .. this sounds like a simple question but I'm too new at this to know.

How can I quickly tell?

 

I've just learned that hiding partitions WOULD be a good idea in my case.

So let's go with that.

 

I'm reading this page which seems to have much of the info you're talking about. Is this a good guide?

http://www.optimizingpc.com/install/multiboot.html

 

Is each OS partition assigned as C: when you boot into it?

If you post a copy of the BOOTWIZ.OSS file, I can look at it and tell how it's setup (instructions can be found here).

 

This may be it .. let me know.

Wed Jul 22 18:24:47 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
oss_match::Match begin
First start
Disk 149.05G installed
Partition 219 need to detect as new
Partition 223 need to detect as new
Partition 221 need to detect as new
oss_match::Match end
Version of file: 219:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntoskrnl.exe is 5.1
Os 2744254812, Windows XP Professional renamed to %n Professional%l %l(%ll%l)
cfg_os::AddDetectedOses begin
oss_os::ChangePartitionParams begin
Set active partition 219 for os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
oss_os::ChangePartitionParams end
File: 219:\ntldr added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\ntdetect.com added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\bootfont.bin added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\ntbootdd.sys added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\boot.ini added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
Dir: 219:\WINDOWS added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
Dir: 219:\Program Files added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
Dir: 219:\Documents and Settings added to os: 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English)
New os: 2744254812, ws on partition 16748980 added
Os 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English) setted default
Create file: 219:\BOOTWIZ\a392015c\bootsect.sys
Result: ok
SectCommandValue. Section: boot loader, command: default, value: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS, file 219:\BOOTWIZ\a392015c\boot.ini
KeepFile. Section: boot loader, command: timeout, keep: 1, file 219:\BOOTWIZ\a392015c\boot.ini
KeepFile. Section: operating systems, command: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS, keep: 0, file 219:\BOOTWIZ\a392015c\boot.ini
cfg_os::AddDetectedOses end
Added boot from A:
oss_os::ChangePartitionParams begin
Set active partition 219 for os: 1948739107, Boot from floppy A:
oss_os::ChangePartitionParams end
os_selector::Init end


Wed Jul 22 18:26:24 2009
Host os: Windows XP


Wed Jul 22 18:29:07 2009
Host os: Windows XP
Os 2744254812, Windows XP Professional (English) renamed to C~MAIN


Wed Jul 22 18:32:28 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector:eleteOs begin
Os: 1948739107, Boot from floppy A:
os_selector:eleteOs end
os_selector::Commit begin
Os deleting confirmed, DeleteDirs=0, DeleteDerived=0
os_selector::Commit end


Wed Jul 22 22:30:47 2009
Host os: Windows XP
os_selector::Init begin
Checkfile 219:\ntldr changed
Version of file: 221:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntoskrnl.exe is 5.1
Os 708778460, Windows XP Professional renamed to %n Professional%l %l(%ll%l)
cfg_os::AddDetectedOses begin
oss_os::ChangePartitionParams begin
Set active partition 219 for os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
oss_os::ChangePartitionParams end
File: 219:\ntldr added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\ntdetect.com added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\bootfont.bin added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\ntbootdd.sys added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
File: 219:\boot.ini added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
Dir: 221:\WINDOWS added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
Dir: 221:\Program Files added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
Dir: 221:\Documents and Settings added to os: 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English)
New os: 708778460, ntxp on partition 219 added
Os 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English) setted default
Create file: 219:\BOOTWIZ\2a3f19dc\bootsect.sys
Result: ok
SectCommandValue. Section: boot loader, command: default, value: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS, file 219:\BOOTWIZ\2a3f19dc\boot.ini
KeepFile. Section: boot loader, command: timeout, keep: 1, file 219:\BOOTWIZ\2a3f19dc\boot.ini
KeepFile. Section: operating systems, command: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS, keep: 0, file 219:\BOOTWIZ\2a3f19dc\boot.ini
cfg_os::AddDetectedOses end
os_selector::Init end


Wed Jul 22 22:31:47 2009
Host os: Windows XP
Os 708778460, Windows XP Professional (English) renamed to E~PCP
Os 708778460, E~PCP renamed to E~PCPLACE


Wed Jul 22 22:32:49 2009
Host os: loader


Wed Jul 22 23:15:03 2009
Host os: loader


Wed Jul 22 23:38:54 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
oss_match::Match begin
Disk 186.31G installed
Partition 225 need to detect as new
oss_match::Match end
os_selector::Init end


Wed Jul 22 23:50:23 2009
Host os: Windows XP


Wed Jul 22 23:52:09 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
oss_match::Match begin
Disk 186.31G removed
oss_match::Match end
os_selector::Init end


Wed Jul 22 23:55:04 2009
Host os: loader


Thu Jul 23 00:16:18 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
oss_match::Match begin
Disk 186.31G installed
Disk 465.76G installed
Partition 225 need to detect as new
oss_match::Match end
New checkfile 227:\io.sys
New checkfile 227:\ntldr
New checkfile 227:\boot.ini
os_selector::Init end


Thu Jul 23 00:32:48 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
Checkfile 219:\boot.ini changed
Os 2744254812, C~MAIN setted default
os_selector::Init end


Thu Jul 23 00:59:22 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
Checkfile 219:\boot.ini changed
os_selector::Init end


Thu Jul 23 08:34:15 2009
Host os: loader


Thu Jul 23 13:58:32 2009
Host os: loader


Thu Jul 23 14:06:37 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
oss_match::Match begin
Disk 186.31G removed
Disk 698.64G installed
Disk 232.89G installed
Disk 232.89G installed
Partition 227 need to detect as new
Partition 229 need to detect as new
Partition 231 need to detect as new
oss_match::Match end
os_selector::Init end
os_selector::Commit begin
Context 2017127636 deleted as empty common
Context 3148043759 deleted as empty unused
Context 1862080909 deleted as empty unused
Context 550176801 deleted as empty unused
os_selector::Commit end


Thu Jul 23 22:36:24 2009
Host os: loader


Fri Jul 24 09:41:57 2009
Host os: loader


Fri Jul 24 11:53:57 2009
Host os: loader


Fri Jul 24 12:09:00 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
Checkfile 219:\boot.ini changed
os_selector::Init end


Fri Jul 24 12:24:28 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
Checkfile 219:\boot.ini changed
os_selector::Init end


Fri Jul 24 12:39:08 2009
Host os: loader
os_selector::Init begin
Checkfile 219:\boot.ini changed
os_selector::Init end


Fri Jul 24 12:43:40 2009
Host os: loader


Fri Jul 24 13:48:11 2009
Host os: loader


Fri Jul 24 14:21:02 2009
Host os: Windows XP
os_selector:iscard
os_selector:iscard
os_selector:iscard

 

There may be several different configurations in there, from days of
trial and error.

 

That looks like a log file. Please see the guide linked in previous post.

 

Ok.

I just booted to the second partition and it did not boot as C, but rather as
drive E.

The C drive still refers to the main partition (the first one).