Truecrypt boot issue

Hi,

I'm trying to have two installations on windows 7 on my computer: one unencrypted and one encrypted

I also want to, ideally, only boot the encrypted one with the rescue disk

I did this in the past by selecting the encrypted partition as active in disk management and then booting the rescue disk. The difference in that case was that the encrypted OS/partition was windows XP, not windows 7

I suspect what I need to do, instead of changing the active partition, is to either

(1) modify the BCD store to point to both locations first looking at the encrypted partition which will boot only when the rescue disk is in but otherwise boot to the unencrypted windows 7

(2) make a more sophisticated boot disk than the rescue disk which disregard the "active" partition (not sure this is possible)

as it stands now, if I use the rescue disk it still just boots to the unencrypted system

 

You could try grub4dos to chainload the bootloader to either encrypted or unencrypted drives. You could add the iso to the encrypted partition and I believe grub4dos has support for booting iso natively. I hope I am understanding your question correctly.

Edit:You could also see if easybcd would work for you. Also Is the cd-dvd drive set to boot first in your bios?

 

I always just:

Pre-format the disk with two partitions, the second x% larger according to TC Documentation for Hidden OS setup.

Then install Windows 7, and then TC.

Run Hidden OS setup. Create the rescue.iso when it tells you to.

After TC clones the install to the second partition, put the rescue.iso on a bootable USB/SD Card using the 'bob7' method:

Then test, by booting the Hidden OS which is now on the second partition.

If successful, proceed to re-install Windows 7 on C:\. Windows will install it's own boot loader, and you'll only be able to get to the encrypted OS by booting off the USB/SD Card via the BIOS.

I've done this method MANY times, and it has always worked.

PD

Edit: Pro Tip - Go into Disk Management while in the unencrypted OS, and Hide/Unassign (forget which it is) the second RAW partition. Keeps Windows from asking to format it.

 

Nice tip! Thanks for sharing. I'll have to try this soon