Multibooting multiple versions of XP

I have just purchased Acronis Disk Director 10. Is there a conclusive
(start to finish/step by step) guide to loading 6 or more autonomous versions
of XP on the same hard drive? I HAVE read the acronis manual and find
it to be OVER-ambigous.

 

Along a similar line, can I create two separate versions of XP Pro SP2? One on my laptop internal HD drive C, and one on my External usb Drive E? What I am up to is to create a fresh install with my major programs on it to drive E, then clone it to C when I am done. Also it will serve as a backup bootable E in case my Drive C goes bad.

I want to do the rebuild while still using C as installing a fresh install w/ main programs is time consuming especially since I am disabled with chronic pain. I can only do a little bit at a time. I also own TI8.

If I have to I can partition my internal C drive to do my fresh reinstall and then clone it.

 

Hello booter and beckygb,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Partition and Disk Managing Software.

Please be aware that we do not provide special instructions for particular cases in Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 User's Guide.

According to limitation that one hard drive cannot contain more than 4 primary partitions we can recommend you to install some of them on the same partition.

The prescriptions describing how to install several operating systems on the same partition can be found in section 8.2.3 of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 User's Guide.

There are several ways to create a copy of your operating system to an external hard drive.

1. You can use the 'Disk Clone' feature or create a backup of your system partition and then restore this image onto external hard drive using Acronis True Image 8.0 (chapter 7 in Acronis True Image 8.0 User's Guide).

2. You can copy the system partition to external hard drive using Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 (section 3.3 in Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 User's Guide).

3. You can create a copy of your operating system using Acronis OS Selector (section 7.13 in Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 User's Guide).

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

Thank's for your respose (Acronis).
I was hoping that somebody else could chime in.
I have read case studies where 6 or more operating systems
were booted from a logical drive and were seperate from one another.
The steps are somewhat involved and I was hoping that the Acronis
software would make it easier?

 

I want to install two versions of XP also.

I have tried this option, with a copy of the system partition to a second partition on the same drive. However, when booting the new partition, this copied OS doesn't work "on its own" but uses settings and programs of the first, original OS. Acronis support recomends running Sysprep.exe from Microsoft but this is a rather complex procedure designed for cloning HD's for systemmanagers...

Is the copy (on the same partition) really independent from the original OS? In other words, doesn't the installation of programs in each OS affect the other OS in any way?

Thanks, Joris

 

Hello Joris,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Partition and Disk Managing Software.

Please be aware that in case you have copied your operating system using one of the described ways you should unplug one of the drives (source or destination) in order to boot and use the operating system or its copy.

If you have both drives connected to your computer then another letter will be assigned to the second drive. And all the applications will be run from your original drive, because all their internal paths will refer this drive.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

How can I disconnect a partition on the same drive?? Or how can I 'disconnect' a copy of an OS on the same partition

NB: this information seems to be totally in contradiction to what is stated in the Disk Director Suite 10.0 User’s guide:

8.2.5 Installing additional Windows copies

In some cases, you might need to install two copies of the same Windows OS (e.g. two or more Windows XP copies, each having its own properties and application sets). The first way to do it is to use one of the methods described above. These imply a complete OS installation. The second way is simpler: operating system duplication using the Operating system copy feature described in detail in section 7.13 of this guide. The program will fully duplicate contents of Windows, Program Files and Documents and Settings folders, including all software installed, into the Bootwiz folder. You will be able then to remove unneeded applications from each of the systems.

This is axactly what I want to do. Please tell me, is the user guide not correct??

Joris

 

Hello Joris,

Please accept my apologies for my inaccurate answer. I have not noticed that you want to create a copy of the operating system on the same hard drive.

User's Guide is correct. It describes how to create a copy of your operating system using Acronis OS Selector. In this case your operating systems and all applications should be independent from each other.

If you are experiencing some issues with the copy of operating system then please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post and submit a request for technical support. Attach the collected report file and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko