Boot Manager Selections ?

Discussion in 'Paragon Partition Manager Product Line' started by lwbone, Jan 26, 2010.

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  1. lwbone

    lwbone Registered Member

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    Vista sp2, XP Pro and now Win7. (All installed iondependently) PM 9.5, installed under WinVista, allows me to 'hide' other OS's but on re-boot, only shows WinVista as bootable. Would like to dynamically boot to other OS's while hiding the non-selected OS's from the booted one.

    Do I need to install the other OS's under PM9.5, or Am I just outta luck.
     
  2. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    Couple ways of doing this.

    You can install Paragon Boot Manager to load each time and select the available OSes.

    Also look into using EasyBCD to modify the bcd for multi boot.
     
  3. lwbone

    lwbone Registered Member

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    Great ... Now how do I invoke option #1 - have PM list the OS's. Without PM, the choices of OS are all there, so I do not think I need EasyBCD.

    Do I need to install PM9.5 in each of the OS's [currently only WinVista has it]

    TIA
     
  4. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    From one of the OS where Paragon is installed, in the full scale launcher of the program, under Tools > Boot Manager.
     
  5. lwbone

    lwbone Registered Member

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    I have gone through each item under the BootManager,and no joy!

    What I want to achieve is the following:
    Disk-0 [300GB]
    WinXP 50GB
    WinVista 50GB
    Win 7 50Gb

    Unallocated 140GB
    Yeah, Yeah, a triple boot! No problem … got that successfully. What I want is beauty AND elegance.

    The Primary Partition(s), should boot as C:\ and render the other partitions as hidden to the current booted OS.

    So far, I have been permitted by Partition Magic Professional (PM9.5) to hide the non-booted partitions when booting in WinVista, but cannot switch [via a reboot] to any other partition other than by restoring the Drive letters and ‘un-hiding’ the suppressed partition(s).

    EasyBCD does not seem to offer any help along these lines.

    My only solution, so far, is to install PM9.5 in each OS and manually suppress the other OS's with each boot.

    Ok. I know that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but really! What am I missing. - HELP -
     
  6. lwbone

    lwbone Registered Member

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    Re: Boot Manager Selections ? [Partial Success]

    By using Disk Manager under WinVista and Windows7, I am able to remove drive letters (effectively hiding the OS's) from the other OS's and still successfully boot into them. XP, however, insists that WinVista is the system drive and is assigned to C:\ and will not allow me to change it. :'(

    Note: Vista, after removing drive letters,reports the partition as RAW, and removes identifying info. Win7 just removes the letters but retains the ID info. WinXP also removes the drive letters and retains the info. XP also reports that Winvista retains the System files,, but XP has the boot.

    Could it be that since XP was installed after Vista that XP retained the system files under Vista? Could I change the install order and allow XP and Vista to keep, use and maintain their own System and Boot files?

    I still want ELEGANCE and SIMPLICITY
     
  7. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    Re: Boot Manager Selections ? [Partial Success]

    Probably, the XP bootfiles are on the Vista partition.

    Go to folder options, show hidden files and have a look .

    You can copy them to the XP partition , if you like, you will need to edit boot.ini so it is pointing at the Xp partition.

    Then hand the active flag back and forth between the Xp and Vista partitions to select which to boot thru.

    A lot of 3rd party managers do that .

    You could then try the Paragon boot manager to do it for you.
     
  8. loli22

    loli22 Registered Member

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    o_O


    why dont you just make the three partition primary and 140g as logic (extended partition)? this way the primary can see the logic but dont see each other, install whatever boot utilitie you use in the first primary and that it.

    PS: you do know you can have only four primary partition?
     
  9. lwbone

    lwbone Registered Member

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    Re: Boot Manager Selections{SOLVED}

    Thanks for the many suggestions for solutions ... Reinstalled with WinXP first then WinVista then Win 7 allowed me to use the native Disk Manager boot to each as C:, after removing the drive assignment for the the other OSes. May yet further investigate using BootIt to permit more than 4 Primary partitions, if the need arises. Again.. Thanks
     
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