3rd Party Boot Managers

[electro77]

Acronis, Bootmagic? Which 3rd party bootmanager is recomended to install Vista, Leopoard, and XP on Intel Core Duo system?

[Panarchy]

EasyBCD

[BBrown]

EasyBCD

 

 

I second that. EasyBCD is the way to go. Works flawlessly.

[Panarchy]

BTW, Electro, you install EasyBCD onto Vista, then add the other OSs into it (probably Mac will be the only one you need to add)

[electro77]

What if i'm only using WinXP Pro? Is Easy BCD still the best way to go?

[verdant]

What if i'm only using WinXP Pro? Is Easy BCD still the best way to go?

 

To run EasyBCD you need:

1. An IBM-Compatible PC. (x86 or x64)
   
2. A BIOS-based motherboard/emulator. (basically, most PCs out there or Boot Camp)
   
3. The Windows Vista bootloader. (see this guide if you don't have it)
   
4. Microsoft .NET 2.0+ Framework. (download here)
   

To use Easy BCD with XP Pro, check out http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/how-to-insta...ws-xp-machine/v

[electro77]

Thanks all.

[electro77]

I ran into a problem. "The Application [EasyBCD 1.7.2] failed to initialize." I can't get it to run under WinXP.

[rajindia]

remember easy bcd is not the boot manager.

 

it is gui frontend for vista boot manager.

 

but easybcd makes the scripting easy.

 

But easybcd best for vista os.

 

for xp and mac i prefer mac darwin bootloader.it does the job.

[verdant]

I ran into a problem. "The Application [EasyBCD 1.7.2] failed to initialize." I can't get it to run under WinXP.

 

If you checked the web URL in my earlier posting you would see the following:

 

First, a disclaimer:

In order to use the Vista bootloader, you'll need some

licensed

Vista files. The only legal way to get these is by already having Windows Vista

legally installed

on another machine and grabbing the files from there. Kapish?

Second, the answer: Of course you can. And here's how!

1. Go to a Vista machine and zip-up the C:\Windows\Boot\ folder.
   
   
2. Extract those zipped files to the same location on your XP machine. (i.e. you should now have a C:\Windows\Boot\ folder on your XP machine, too).
   
   
3. Download and install the
   latest version of EasyBCD
   .
   
   
4. Run EasyBCD. When you first start it, it'll tell you what you already know: the Vista bootloader isn't installed! It'll ask if you want to repair it - (obviously) click yes.
   
   
5. When prompted for the letter of a Vista drive, give it the same drive letter as your XP partition - the one you copied those files to earlier. When asked for the boot drive letter, give the letter of the drive with boot.ini and ntldr (most likely C:\).
   
   
6. Let EasyBCD "repair" your bootloader and wait for it to finish.
   
   
7. Once it's done, you'll have a (non-working) entry to boot into Windows Vista - delete it from the "Add/Remove Entries" screen and instead add a new entry for Windows XP.
   
   
8. Reboot & Enjoy!
   
   

5 easy steps (never mind the numbering), and you'll have the Vista bootloader up and running in no time. What you do with it after that.... well, that's up to you.

 

showing you how to use EasyBCD with XP.....

[electro77]

I fixed the problem and got BCD running on XP. .net 2.0 needed to be installed

 

I set a new Primary C:\ partition active and installed a 2nd WINXP. I think it overwrote the MBR and now it can't get back into the partition that has EasyBCD. What should I do now to get back to the 1st primary partition so I can use EasyBCD to multiboot?

[verdant]

I fixed the problem and got BCD running on XP. .net 2.0 needed to be installed

 

I set a new Primary C:\ partition active and installed a 2nd WINXP. I think it overwrote the MBR and now it can't get back into the partition that has EasyBCD. What should I do now to get back to the 1st primary partition so I can use EasyBCD to multiboot?

 

Are you saying you have two primary C:\ partitions set up and on one you have BCD installed?

 

What about installing EasyBCD in the 2nd WINXP partition?

 

Or run Recovery Console from XP CD?

[electro77]

Are you saying you have two primary C:\ partitions set up and on one you have BCD installed?

 

Yes. Before I installed the 2nd copy of WinXP, I created a new partition and set it Active with Partitionmagic so XP would be installed onto drive C:\ and not another drive letter like M:\. On my old system I used to used Boot Magic floppy rescue disc after doing this, so I could have several C:\ partitions that the other O/S couldn't see. I just don't know how to achieve that using EasyBCD. Should I have created a bootable EasyBCD CD first?

 

 

What about installing EasyBCD in the 2nd WINXP partition?

 

Thats not an option because my the 2nd windows XP partition I created is supposed to remain a clean XPSP2 install with no additional programs on it. Only the 1st partition is supposed to have apps like BCD and Partitionmagic installed.

 

Or run Recovery Console from XP CD?

 

This sounds like the kind of solution I'm looking for. Do you mean boot with the XP CD again?

[electro77]

This is the basic dilemna

 

I know how to get easy BCD installed under WinXP. Now I just want to create a couple of C:\ partitions with Windows XP for each. Each C:\ partition is supposed to be hidden from the others.

 

So how do I install several WinXP Primary partitions without getting a switch to drive letters other than C:\?

[verdant]

Yes. Before I installed the 2nd copy of WinXP, I created a new partition and set it Active with Partitionmagic so XP would be installed onto drive C:\ and not another drive letter like M:\. On my old system I used to used Boot Magic floppy rescue disc after doing this, so I could have several C:\ partitions that the other O/S couldn't see. I just don't know how to achieve that using EasyBCD. Should I have created a bootable EasyBCD CD first?

 

 

 

 

Thats not an option because my the 2nd windows XP partition I created is supposed to remain a clean XPSP2 install with no additional programs on it. Only the 1st partition is supposed to have apps like BCD and Partitionmagic installed.

 

 

 

This sounds like the kind of solution I'm looking for. Do you mean boot with the XP CD again?

 

Could you not install BCD on the 2nd primary partition just to access the first, tidy up your BCD entries via EasyBCD in the 1st partition and then uninstall EasyBCD from the 2nd?

 

Or you could boot from the XP CD again and run whichever you wish

 

Fixboot: Writes a new partition boot sector onto the system partition.

Fixmbr: Repairs the master boot record of the partition boot sector.

Diskpart: Manages partitions on your hard drives.

 

UPDATE: Read here too

 

[electro77]

Could you not install BCD on the 2nd primary partition just to access the first, tidy up your BCD entries via EasyBCD in the 1st partition and then uninstall EasyBCD from the 2nd?

 

Or you could boot from the XP CD again and run whichever you wish

 

Fixboot: Writes a new partition boot sector onto the system partition.

Fixmbr: Repairs the master boot record of the partition boot sector.

Diskpart: Manages partitions on your hard drives.

 

 

Whenever I boot from the XP CD without setting the partition active prior to install, I wind up with a drive letter other than C:\.

 

Is there a guide on the net to boot 3 different copies of WinXP with EasyBCD? Each installation has to be done to C:\ and the other C:\ partitions have to be hidden.

[verdant]

Whenever I boot from the XP CD without setting the partition active prior to install, I wind up with a drive letter other than C:\.

 

Is there a guide on the net to boot 3 different copies of WinXP with EasyBCD? Each installation has to be done to C:\ and the other C:\ partitions have to be hidden.

 

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15222 may give you some pointers on how to set up 3 XP OS system

[electro77]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15222 may give you some pointers on how to set up 3 XP OS system

 

Thanks but its a bit too much for what I want to do.

 

This is how I used to do it when I had a floppy drive and Bootmagic/Partitionmagic. I just want to be able to do something similar with EasyBCD now.

 

Step 1. Install WinXP to hardrive

Step 2. Create another primary partition on hardrive, set it active and restart (it becomes C:\ when the Computer is restarted).

Step 3. Boot with WinXP CD and install WinXP on the new active C:\ partition

Step 4. Use Bootmagic rescue floppy and restore boot sector (which sends you back to the home partition where Bootmagic/Partitionmagic is installed)

Step 5. Re Enable Bootmagic and select from the different WinXP O/S during startup

Step 6. repeat steps 2-4 to add another O/S

 

When I did it that way, every WinXP partition was named C:\

[verdant]

Thanks but its a bit too much for what I want to do.

 

This is how I used to do it when I had a floppy drive and Bootmagic/Partitionmagic. I just want to be able to do something similar with EasyBCD now.

 

Step 1. Install WinXP to hardrive

Step 2. Create another primary partition on hardrive, set it active and restart (it becomes C:\ when the Computer is restarted).

Step 3. Boot with WinXP CD and install WinXP on the new active C:\ partition

Step 4. Use Bootmagic rescue floppy and restore boot sector (which sends you back to the home partition where Bootmagic/Partitionmagic is installed)

Step 5. Re Enable Bootmagic and select from the different WinXP O/S during startup

Step 6. repeat steps 2-4 to add another O/S

 

When I did it that way, every WinXP partition was named C:\

 

Perhaps this will help you with EasyBCD:

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Driv...ers+and+Numbers

 

and from here

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html

 

QUOTE

If you want to have more than three Windows OSes and an extended partition per hard drive then you will need to put Windows onto a logical partition. With Linux you are able to install a fully independent and stand alone OS directly to a logical partition or to a second or higher hard drive, because the Linux IPL is clever enough to be able to pass control to that OS. Unfortunately Microsoft have never introduced such abilities in there IPL and so has never seen the need to allow you to do a fully independent install of Windows to a logical partition or other drive. Their IPL can only work with primary partitions on its own boot hard drive, so if you want to install to anything other than one of these primaries then you can only do it by allowing a boot drive primary to become a system partition where ntldr or bootmgr will operate as a bootmanager. The Windows setup will simply refuse to continue if there is not a suitable boot drive primary that it can use.

 

This of course means that getting an independent install of Windows on a logical partition or another hard drive requires a little work around. For a second or higher hard drive it only requires making that drive the boot drive during the install. For a logical partition the easiest and cleanest way is to simply clone it there. See Dan Goodell's excellent guide to Booting Windows from an Extended Partition.The Windows logical partition PBR needs one small tweak to make it bootable, but you might not even have to do this yourself as many recent cloning tools will now do it for you automatically when you copy Windows to a logical partition. After cloning 2K/XP you have to make a simple edit to the boot.ini file in notepad so that it points to the changed drive and/or partition. With Vista you have to edit the new BCD file, which is explained on the cloning page.

ENDQUOTE