Hi people, I am having a bit of difficulty with making a dual boot Basically I want 2 partitions on a hard drive... Partition0: System - Windows XP Partition1: DOS with Symantec Ghost Then I want to be able to select at boot to either load windows or restore partition 0 from the ghost image (boot to dos and let the autoexec.bat deal with the rest). I have tried: Creating the first partition and installing windows XP, then creating the second, formatting it in DOS with the /s command to make it bootable, then update boot.ini to have either C:\="MSDOS" or disk(0).....partition(1)\="MSDOS" either of these do not work due to the whole dos has to boot from the first partition on the first drive idea i have also tried create the first partition and format with dos system files the system will now boot to dos then run windows xp install and create the second partition and install windows there this works in the way of i can boot into windows or dos... BUT a) it created the windows partition as E: drive, left c: as the dos drive and d: as cdrom b) it wont let me change e: to c: so that to users it appears normal (ie: windows being on C drive c) i cant hide c: drive what i want is: *windows on an NTFS partition *when windows is booted, the windows partition being C: *when dos is booted, it will be on C: as ntfs wont mount in dos *when windows is booted, i dont want the DOS parition to have a drive letter assigned (so its invisible to users in my computer) Has anyone achieved this? if so... HOW!?!?! hehe Any help is appreciated Thanks

You have ghost so you have GDISK. The trick is to "hide" the DOS partition before booting to XP. Then "-hide" the DOS partition and "hide" the XP partition so that you can boot into it when needed for a recovery. Also need correct one active. Put GDISK on your DOS boot disk. That is: create the two partitions with GDISK then hide the first (DOS) and make the second active. Now install XP normally. Now hide the second and unhide the first and make it active and SYS C: from a DOS boot disk. Now both will be C: when booted. In DOS or a DOS box, type: GDISK /? and study all the sub-helps like: GDISK /? /ACT "Then I want to be able to select at boot to either load windows or restore partition 0 from the ghost image (boot to dos and let the autoexec.bat deal with the rest)." That is counterproductive. What if the boot loader is busted? You don't need a boot loader. What you want to do is possible, you just need an emergency boot floppy to unhide the recovery partition. On this system i have six OS (2 HDD) and all of them are C: drive. They can't see each other, GDISK and GDISK32 are used to select the OS to next boot into from within each OS. GDISK32 will run inside XP although limited to /hide /-hide /act /-act /status. Best **************************************************

As you’re probably aware, there are various ways to dual-boot dos (or dos-based OS) and XP etc… Typically for a dual-boot with dos and XP… dos (must be) in first Primary partition on the drive; XP then can be in either the Extended partition area – frequently the first logical-drive with a second or more for data etc. XP boot-manger (installed in the dos Primary) controls the boot-sequence. Dos would appear as c: . XP as d: . Alternative approach: dos in first Primary as before; XP in a second Primary. Data in either an Extended area or another Primary – the third on the drive. Dos creates the first Primary; XP creates the second/third. Install dos first; then run XP setup and allow it to create its own Primary in the free-space; install XP there. If I remember correctly – while since I did this approach with W2K (it’s the same for both OS) - XP will install itself as c: (c:\ winnt or c:\windows depending on Pro/Home respectively). You then either use a boot-util to gain access to both Primary partitions and thus both OS; or set dos Primary active again and establish XP boot-loader there – including a bootsect.dos – via which dos boots from the XP boot-loader… I tend to favour the non-use of add-in boot-utils and establish the XP boot-loader in the dos partition – which partition then remains active and controls boot-options. In this second scenario (with/without a boot-util) XP will boot as c: - since that’s how it went in… XP (W2K/NT) store drive letter assignments as established during setup in the registry; this is consulted etc. during boot-up, and drive letters are thus preserved even if one tweaks or otherwise re-arranges XP etc. (apparent) location on the drive… Drawback when you do NOT use an ad-in boot-util… the dos partition will be visible to users; whereas using an add-in util will (usually) allow you to hide it… BootITng would appear to a very reliable/safe boot-util; several folks here recommend it highly… Which having said… it’s possible to restrict access to a given drive via permissions within NT/W2K/XP; possibly even to restrict ability see it also? In all the above scenarios, dos will be fat16 (to max of 2Gig); XP can be fat32 or – as you wish – ntfs…

I have dual boot dos/xp. The best thing to do is treat them COMPLETELY independant. Do not use xp boot loader because it will confuse the issue. For the two partitions to remain independant you can not even allow xp boot loader to enter the picture, because by this time the drive letters have already been assigned. Use a third party boot loader. (I use BOOTitNG from www.terabyteunlimited.com) Install xp as normal to c: Use actual WORD labels for your partitions because each os will claim that they are on c: when they are running. (When in dos, xp will APPEAR to be on D: and when in xp your dos will APPEAR to be on d:) It can get a little confusing if tou do not use word labels. Reboot the machine with dos 7.1 and type: FORMAT D:/S This will clean up d; and instll dos system files. Install your third party boot loader. You will now have a dual boot system with each os APPEARING to be on c: when they are running. NOTE: There is an option in BOOTitNG that will allow you to hide partitions.

" For the two partitions to remain independant you can not even allow xp boot loader to enter the picture, because by this time the drive letters have already been assigned...." Not strictly true about drive letters being assigned etc. - if you go the right way about it.... Both dos and XP (or W2K, and even NT - remember NT....) can be installed - each as c: - (naturally dos = c:\dos and XP/W2K = c:\winnt or c:\windows) - it can be achieved without resourse to boot-utils. But for many those utils do offer an easier way, that does keep them isolated from one another; and BootITng is the flavour of the month at present, and gets excellent reports from its users... And I agree that it may be easier on this occasion to use it? Having (over the years since NT first arrived) set up innummerable dual/multi-boots in various ways and from various starting points (including one or more OS already present...), I generally prefer to do it without recourse to boot-utils - whenever possible... In the end I guess it comes down to personal preference and the situation present at the time? Also agree with the excellent note/advice to label partitions accordingly...; anything that helps reduce confusions is be applauded...

Hey guys I found a REALLY easy way to do all this... Step1: Remove all partitions from the hard drive Step2: Boot from XP install CD and install windows XP onto a new NTFS parition of your chosen size, this will be drive C: Step3: After windows is installed, go into Control Pannel->Administrative tools -> Computer Management then choose drive manager Step4: Create a FAT16 (Not fat32) partition of about 10-20MB Step5 Download a boot loader called XOSL (just google it) and put the installer on a floppy disk or cd Step6: Boot from a dos boot disk (or win98 cd) and format your new partition with the /s command (format c: /s - windows partition will NOT be C as long as you have set it up on NTFS) Step7: Install XOSL to this new small partition by running the install executable from your floppy/cd Step8: Reboot your computer, it will load XOSL Step9: click "Setup" and add your windows partition to the list of options Step10: Boot into windows and create another FAT/FAT32 partition of your chosen size, and then boot from a DOS disk or CD and either install DOS on the partition or format with the /s command Step11: Reboot into XOSL and add your dos partition DONE! You are also able to set up XOSL to boot from a CD/Floppy drive, and set up a default OS to boot from (eg: windows in 5 seconds) - you will be prompted to hit Escape to go to the boot loader screen on boot time. The best part for my situation is that i can password protect certain boot options, for example, the DOS/Ghost partition If you disable CD-ROM and Floppy boot in the BIOS you can also allow them to boot with a password in XOSL. I found this to fulfill all my requirements and more... so thought i'd let you guys know as you might be interested to hear... Matt