Restore options for Multi Boot XP

I am a new TI user (just move over from Ghost 9.0).

I'm about 90% sure about how to setup a multi-boot XP environment on my new PC, but using this thread just to make sure that i don't mess it up too much.

I have a 300GB SATA disk with XP Professional Installed on it.

What i want to do is to restore the TI image backup of the C partition (50GB in size) to two new partitions on the existing Sata Drive, by avioding to Install XP twice and reinstall all drivers, updates and Essential Software.

I am using partition magic to control the multi boot environment. The first partition on the disk is a FAT32 (100MB) for the partiton magic, with XP installed on the second partiton, the rest is unallocated (about 230 GB)

I also have a second 300GB SATA installed for DATA, formatted as one partition

My question is:

What is the logical process of making this work?


My steps will be:

1. Restore C partition from backup using the recovery CD to new partion after the existing partition - this will be partition 3
2. Fixup Partition magic - add to menu
3. Fixup boot.ini for this partition - default option
4. At this point i probably have to fix the MBR (not to sure about this process. Can i create both to boot as C: , because one will active, the other will be hidden, with the process below

FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
BOOTCFG /rebuild

5. same process for the third partition

Any comments appreciated

Thanks

 

Hello RudyU2,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Yes, your process of setting up a multiboot environment is almost correct. However, we would also recommend you to prepare you current Windows installation for transferring using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) as it is described in this FAQ article, boot the computer from Acronis True Image bootable Rescue CD and create an image of the prepared operating system from there. One more thing to mention is that since you plan to use Partition Magic boot loader in order to select which Windows installation to boot there is no need to fix your hard rdive's MBR. You will probably need to change your boot.ini file if Partition Magic does not do it automatically when a new operating system is being added to it's boot menu. However, I can not be completely sure as Partition Magic is not an Acornis product and so we do not provide technical support for this program.

We would also recommend you to take a look at Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 which is a powerful partition and disk managing tool allowing you to set-up a multiboot environment as well.

We recommend you to download and install the free trial version of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 to see how the software works on your computer.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 in the respective User's Guide.

You may also find Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 FAQ page helpful.

Please visit Acronis online store to purchase the full version of the product.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov