Grub4DOS question

Apologies for posting this here, but Bootland is a bit daunting

I want to temporarily install XP a second time to my laptop. Using DD I've created a new primary NTFS partition immediately after the existing XP boot partition, but if I just go ahead and install XP to this partition I will get a Microsoft style dual boot which I don't want.

I use Grub4DOS as boot manager, and want to use its config file to hide each XP when booting the other. I know how to do this, but before going ahead with the install can I add hide (hd0,0) to fool the installer? If this is OK I know how to restore my MBR to get Grub4DOS back.

EDIT - forgot to add that after adding that line I would reboot to my VistaPE partition in order to get the XP partition hidden.

 

Bernard:

That should work. You could also just issue the command from a Grub4DOS command prompt instead of adding it to the menu.lst file. You should also make the new partition active before installing XP to it.

I presume then you would manage dual booting something like this:

Code:

splashimage /boot/gentleblue.gz
timeout 30
default 0

title   XP1
hide (hd0,1)
unhide (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr

title   XP2
hide (hd0,0)
unhide (hd0,1)
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr

title VistaPE
...

The makeactive statements are only necessary if you ever rearrange partitions or add additional drives. Grub4DOS doesn't require any partition to be active, but Windows will assign drive letters (if it ever needs to re-do this) starting with C: for the active partition. You will want the new partition to be set as active when you install XP to it so that it will get the C: drive letter for the system partition.

 

Thanks Mark. That is exactly what my config file looks like except there is also an entry for VistaPE. I've also used the same file previously to boot SUSE, but I needed the space so that's now been replaced by a VM on my main PC.

Grub4DOS is so flexible and utterly dependable I don't think I'd look at any other boot manager. I use it on all our comps here.

Bernard

 

I agree - if you take the time to learn the somewhat arcane syntax then you can easily boot almost anything with Grub4DOS. Since I'm currently experimenting with Windows 7 on my laptop I have installed Grub4DOS to the MBR and use it to switch between Win7, WinXP, VistaPE, Linux, Acronis Rescue, Memtest, etc.

On another note, I also presumed above that the Grub Loader file grldr is on your VistaPE partition, or at least on an unhidden partition. I don't know what will happen if you put it on a partition that occasionally gets hidden.

 

Yes, grldr is safely on the VistaPE partition. After reading about it here I keep meaning to try to find some time to try to boot an iso with it. Time is the enemy though.

 

Booting an ISO image is a really nice feature. To boot the Acronis ISO, for example, go to Bootable Media Builder and create the ISO and name it ati.iso. Copy it to your VistaPE partition at /Acronis/ati.iso. Assuming your VistaPE partition is the third primary then add the following boot stanza to your menu.lst file:

Code:

title	Acronis TI, DD
map	(hd0,2)/Acronis/ati.iso (hd32)
map	--hook
chainloader (hd32)

 

I've c & p'd that. Can imagine no end of uses for it.

 

Mark:

Second XP up and running. The suggestion to use the Grub4DOS command line was helpful, thanks again.

Bernard

 

That has worked too. It's too easy