Switching boot partition

Is there a utility which comes with Acronis DD 10 which allows simply changing active partition among multiple primary partitions? Please note that I do not want to use any utility which modifies MBR.

 

You can use DD to change the Active partition. If you don't want to use a boot manager, then you'll need to do the changes manually every time you want to switch them.

 

Does using the Boot Manager mean the original MBR has to be modified?

 

The boot manager included with DD is OSS (OS Selector). If you install it, it will modify the MBR. Most boot managers will want to modify the MBR.

Are you needing to change the Active partition a lot? If not, then doing it manually is not too bad. It just takes the time to boot into DD (which is pretty fast, especially if you use a flashdrive and the Safe Mode version).

 

I have been using a little utility called pqboot which came with Partition Magic. This utility runs on Windows or DOS. I wondered if there is similar one with Acronis DD. My problem of using Acronis DD only to switch active partition is that booting to the DD takes long time. The DD in Safe Mode as you suggested does not seem to be available for Windows.

 

Have you tried using DD in Windows to change the Active partition? I use boot managers so I don't think I've tried that before. If DD will do the change in Windows, it would affect the next boot-up. However, if you booted into another OS that didn't have DD installed, you'd need to boot to the DD CD to make the change.

 

PQBoot has already changed your MBR from the 'standard' MS MBR, so why the insistence that any alternative should not change it? There are alternative boot managers that are much better than PQBoot.

But I'm puzzled as to why do you want to change the active partition via DD10, doesn't PQBoot work for you any more?

 

Yes, each partition has to have DD installed or use the rescue disc to do the switching back and forth. The pqboot I mentioned previously is a self standing software that does not need be installed and will run simply by clicking on it which is placed on a data drive. I guess I just keep using this.

 

If you're interested, I use the boot manager GAG, which optionally supports running from a floppy. I use the floppy mode. I use it only for windows partitions, so I don't know how effective it is with any variants of Linux, for example. Works well for changing active partition and hiding the others. I don't boot into alternate partitions often, so I don't keep the floppy in the drive.

Doug

 

Yes, I am interested in the Boot Manager GAG. Where can I get it?