Hi All, hi Felix,
as I'm not subscribed to this list, please cc me while
answering, e.g. by "Reply all".
Maybe you remember this discussion.
Now I've found a possibility to have 2 WinXP
installations, both originally installed on "C:",
alternatively running on one disk.
As I still was unable to boot a Windows by Grub from a
logical partition (only NTLDR can do that, but in my
case resolves incompatible drive letter), I deleted
the sda2 recovery partition, to use it for the old
WinXP installation.
First I tried this:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#DOS_002fWindows
It works for to boot the Win-installation on sda1, but
it dosn't work for the one on sda2 (~ 10 seconds after
WinXP boot screen I got a blue-screen).
So the only thing I found out, that works, is to swap
the order of those partitions in the partition table:
Device Boot Start End #cyls
#blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 0+ 3038 3039- 24410736
7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 16418 19456
3039 24410767+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 3039 5390
2352 18892440 83 Linux
....
exchange/toggle with:
/dev/sda1 16418 19456
3039 24410767+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 * 0+ 3038 3039- 24410736
7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 3039 5390
2352 18892440 83 Linux
....
Unfortunately grub can't do that until now, so I'wd
like to suggest an enhancement (is this the right
place here?) e.g.:
parttool (hd0,1) swap-order (hd0,2)
Thanks,
-Ulf
On 2012-11-17 01:10 (GMT+0100) Ulf Zibis composed:
I have an old bad running WinXP installation,
which was installed on partition
1 as C:.
Now I want to move this installation to another
partition and make a fresh
WinXP installation on
partition 1.
For some reasons, I want to have the possibility
to run the old installation
later. I believe, that
I can run it, if I manually "hide" the 1.
partition and mark the 2. as
active/boot, so Windows will
guess the 2. partition as C:.
I Grub smart enough to do that for me when booting
the old Windows partition
from the 2. partition?
Ideally I would like to move the old WinXP
installation to a "logical"
partition. Would that also work?
So my preferred partitioning would be like:
Primary partition 1: new Windows XP installation
Primary partition 2: Thinkpad Recovery (physically
at the end of the of the
harddrive)
Primary partition 3: Ubuntu
Extended partition 4:
Logical partition 5: Ubuntu swap
Logical partition 6: Data
Logical partition 7: Backup
Logical partition 8: old bad Windows XP
installation (Copy from originally C:)
> Windows primary partitions cannot be "moved"
except via sophisticated understanding and working
knowledge of partitioning and the Windows registry.
Some time ago I was able to manually hide partition 1
and flag partition 2 for boot. In that case, the "old"
Windows was moved from primary partition 1 to primary
partition 2. IIRC then the "old" Windows booted
properly without any registry change. In MBR I set:
1BE: 80 -> 00
1C2: 07 -> 17
1CE: 00 -> 80
(This hack should not work, if the "old" Windows is
moved into a logical partition in the extended area.)
IIRC, the boot manager, distributed with the old
commercial Powerquest Partition Manager, used exactly
this technique to manage multi-boot on multiple
Windows installations.
I would be happy, if Grub 2 could somehow do the same,
and revert the change when booting from another
partition. This would necessitate to delete the
Thinkpad Recovery partition or install Linux to a
logical partition.
So still preferentially I would like Grub 2 to boot
the new Windows installation from primary partition 1
and the "old" Windows installation from any logical
partition, but having the systemdrive named as C: in
both cases.
I remember that I had read a tutorial about
"duplicating Windows" to 2 partitions for the purpose
to have a working installation and a test installation
to try out dangerous things without corrupting the
first. I'm pretty sure, that the 2nd one was created
by just copying the 1st, and if booted into the 2nd,
partition 1 appeared as D:.
Unfortunately I do not find this tutorial again by
Google.
> Windows needs a primary to be C:, but it needn't
be "installed" to C:.
In other words, Windows needs the NTloader, boot.ini
etc. in the first Windows-visible-native-typed
partition which is always named as C:. If Windows
itself is "installed" in any other other partition, it
would be named different, e.g. D:, E: ... right?
Also Grub 2 is not able to boot Windows from a logical
partition, if there is no Windows-visible-native-typed
primary partition?
> What you can do is designate the new installation
be "installed" to a logical, as long as there is a
C:/primary to boot from. If there are no other
Windows-native partition types, the logical will be
D:, where the new XP would be installed and run from
after booting from C:, much like Linux can have a
separate /boot instead of having everything on /.
Yes, that should work. Then I would have the "old"
Windows in C: and the new installed Windows in D:,
meaning, that the system drive would be D:
But I want it vice versa, to later have the
possibility to simply delete the "old" Windows
partition.
> If you now have Grub on the MBR, the Windows
installation will overwrite it with standard PC MBR
code. Before starting another Windows installation if
you install Grub to your Ubuntu / partition, then
either of Windows or Linux can chainload the other via
the standard MBR code Windows will install, as spelled
out on
http://fm.no-ip.com/PC/install-doz-after.html
which should help understanding multiboot with more
than one Windows as well as with Linux.
Do I understand right, that here Grub 2 can chainload
Windows via the hda1, even if hda3 is the "active"
partition?
- Ulf
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