Can I make a logical drive active?

Ok, here's the scenario. I have a 1TB SATA drive partitioned into 5 pieces, the first 4 for O/S's as follows:

0s1= 100GB, XP, Primary
0s2= 100GB, Vista, Primary
0s3= 50GB, Leopard OSX,
0s4= 25GB, Experimental OS, Logical
0s5= 725GB, Storage, Logical

I'd like to install a variation of XP on partition 4 (experimental) but am not sure how to do it correctly. The first 3 o/s were done properly by hiding each from each other and making the partitions active during installations but since the 4th is a 'logical' drive I can't make it active. Acronis DD wouldn't let me make more than the first 3 as 'Primary' partitions. So, ultimately, I can't hide the first 2 (leopard doesn't need to be hidden) to install the 4th.

Any suggestions? Yes I am using Acronis OSS.

Thanks

 

A320,

Certainly can. You can have multiple WinXPs in the extended partition. Restore your WinXP image to the logical volume. There are some other things you need to do. I don't know how DD handles the hidden sectors as I use a different boot manager.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ptedit.htm

Your boot.ini should be partition(4).

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not sure if I follow regarding restoring my 'WinXP' image?

Simply put, I have a modified version of XP on disc that I'd like to install to the 4th partition.

 

Remove the drive letter of the logical volume from Disk Management. Image and then delete your 50 GB partition. Create a 25 GB primary partition in its place and install your new WinXP. Image this partition. Delete this partition and restore your recent image of the 50 GB partition to the 50 GB of unallocated space. Restore the image of the 25 GB partition to the logical volume that has no drive letter.

Does this make sense or am I too brief?

 

Ah I get ya. It makes sense. Will this mess up my order of partitions in terms of physical location on disk? In other words, I'd like to retain that my main XP is first on the disk, then vista, then leopard, then the new xp.

thanks!

 

Correct. Same order.

You have to do it this way. Install. Image. Restore. Otherwise you will get a Microsoft "dual boot". Dan Goodell's web site explains it well. As a test, I've had over 10 WinXPs in the extended partition.

You have to remove the drive letter of the logical volume early on, otherwise you will break Rule #1.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

When this OS boots it will be C: drive.

It doesn't matter which of your 3 primary partitions that you delete for this exercise. Whichever has the least data (smallest image) would be the ideal.

 

thanks, I will let you know how it all goes