OS Selector - Booting XP, Vista, Linux from Logical Partitions???

Mark,

It would be interesting to see if Mike got the exact same results using GRUB instead of OSS to boot the Logical XP partition. My best guess is that he would since I think OSS is booting just fine to the partition. The problem lies with the Windows startup. Something in the system doesn't like it.

My test was done with a very clean Windows XP SP2 install.

An XP Repair Install would probably fix the problem, but it would automatically setup the boot files to one of the Primary partitions. Maybe this wouldn't matter. An OSS reactivation would restore OSS and the only thing that should need to checked would be to make sure the boot.ini files were both still correct.

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Mike,

If you have a good backup image of your current XP partition, have you considered reformatting it and reinstalling XP so you have a clean install? Then copying that to unallocated space using the DD Copy Wizard, changing the necessary settings, setting up the OSS entry and seeing if it would boot okay. If it worked, you'd have a clean XP copy and you could then restore your original XP partition.

 

I think OSS is working. It's choosing the OS on the logical volume and that OS starts to boot. Nothing more for OSS to do. However the OS fails to load and it looks like a drive letter issue. Mike did what was needed to correct this but the OS still froze. MudCrab succeeded using a slightly different method. I'm interested to hear the next chapter.

 

SUCCESS!

I got the logical working, and I also have several primaries working, all OSS selectable.

I'm late for a dinner engagement, so I'm off.

I'll post the details later tonight - Drive mapping in the registry was the culprit, even though I thought I had solved that completely via the steps in post #8.

I'll be back with the details later.

Cheers.

Mike

 

Mike,

That's pretty much what I suspected. I look forward to hearing what the ultimate solution was.

 

Re: OS Selector - Booting XP, Vista, Linux from Logical Partitions SUCCESS

I was also fairly certain that it must have been as issue with drive mapping, particularly with all of the info posted at the goodells website (and they discuss that symptom of the hang just prior to the XP login prompt).

I finally booted by Reatogo XPE (aka Bart PE) USB stick (I also have a CD with it), and used the Regedit tool that's included. That included Regedit tool has a very cool feature where you can specify that the registry you want to edit is remote - which causes it to scan all mounted partitions looking for Windows installations, and then displays each one for you to choose to edit. I looked at the registry for the logical XP partition, and sure enough it had incorrect MountedDevices entries. I then mounted the TI image I used for cloning, and it had the same issue. It became clear that some kind of cross-reference between OSes had occurred, or in my stupor I either cloned the wrong partition, or restored from the wrong image. I've been running on just a few hours of sleep each night over the last week.

In any case, I used Regedit from Reatogo XPE to edit the logical partition registry, deleting all of the MountedDevices entries. I then re-booted, and in OSS I made sure that all other partitions were hidden, and then booted the logical, and viola! That did the trick.

I have subsequently also learned how to use the standard regedit tool in XP to load and modify any other OS partition's registry via the "Load Hive" and "Unload Hive" features. That allows me to confirm and reset drive mappings any time for any OS by simply booting into some other OS, without having to go to Reatogo XPE (aka BartPE).

Once I got all of that straight, I saved my bootwiz.oss installation tree, un-installed OSS, and started with a clean slate, cloning the original primary/active C: drive, and restoring it to both a logical and another primary partition. For the logical, I then modified the Hidden Sectors value, the boot.ini partition(#), and then manually modified the bootwiz.oss file to add an entry for the logical OS (since OSS cannot detect logical OS partitions). It's very important to make sure that the first time the logical OS partition is booted, that the registry entry for MountedDevices is cleared (before booting - either making sure you cloned from an image where it was already cleared, or by clearing it using regedit and modifying the hive file), and that all other partitions are hidden (via OSS properties on that logical OS partition). After that first boot, you can unhide anything you want, and you'll be fine.

After I recuperate, I'll try installing Linux (probably Fedora Core 7), and Vista, both into logicals. Someone said installing Vista into a logical would be difficult, but the heck, it's worth a shot!

A BIG THANKS TO MudCrab!

MudCrab - I really appreciate all the time and energy you spent helping me out, particularly the fact that you took the time to go through all the motions of installing and booting XP from a logical partition yourself. That really helped to validate what I was doing.

I also want to thank Brian K, for your comments and suggestions. The more eyes that look at a problem, the better!

Thanks again.

Mike

 

Re: OS Selector - Booting XP, Vista, Linux from Logical Partitions SUCCESS

Mike,

Thanks for posting the details and you're welcome for the help. When I did my test, the logical partition didn't exist so the XP partition I copied never saw it. This would be the same as the MountedDevices list being cleared since there were no other Windows partitions visible at first boot.

Post back on what happens with Vista. I haven't tried that yet, so I may too. I don't even know how OSS handles Vista installed in a logical, but booting from a primary (the normal way Windows does it). It may be the same as XP and not really be a problem. However, I think that the copy or restore will cause a repair to be needed and that will be the problem. The repair will probably need to be done manually (using a BCD editor) instead of using the Vista DVD "automatic" repair as it will most likely setup the booting files on the current active primary partition (which you don't want).

You shouldn't have any problems installing Linux. I usually install GRUB into the Linux partition and not the MBR and OSS picks it up automatically in most cases and with the OS Detection Wizard otherwise. In tests, I have also let Linux install GRUB to the MBR and OSS either detected it automatically or detected it after reactivation depending on how Linux was installed.

 

Mike,

Great work and thanks for the detailed explanation. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

PS this thread details what you have done with the registry independently. Interesting.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174958