Is this possible for dual bootingto XP?

[cci(RR)us]

Hi,

 

Scenario as follows:

 

HDD 1: Windows XP [C: NTFS]

HDD 2: iDeneb 10.5.7 with Chameleon 2 [single GUID partition]

 

 

Objective:

 

Do away with HDD 1 and use only HDD 2. So, I need to copy the Windows XP partition from HDD 1 to HDD 2, and configure Chamleon 2 to chain load XP.

 

 

Would the following steps work?

 

1. On HDD 2, shrink main partition and create a FAT32* partition

2. Copy the entire XP partition on HDD 1 using "dd" to an ISO stored on another disk

3. Write the XP ISO to the FAT partition on HDD 2

4. Add XP to /Library/Preferences/System Configuration/com.apple.Boot.plist for chain loading

 

 

* Would NTFS work here? I don't need the Windows partition to be mounted in OS X but only need Chameleon 2 to chain load my XP that runs NTFS.

 

Thanks all!

[srs5694]

It's unlikely that your procedure would work. Windows tends to be very fussy about its boot partition, and changing it by copying it using a low-level utility like dd is almost certain to fail, because features like the disk's CHS geometry will be different. Also, Windows will not boot from a GPT disk on BIOS-based systems. You might be able to work around this last issue by creating a hybrid MBR, but that's just another variable to which Windows will object.

 

A better plan is to re-partition, create a hybrid MBR setup, and then re-install Windows from scratch. That will probably work.

 

If you absolutely can't bear to re-install Windows, I suggest you look into Windows-specific backup/restore utilities. I'm not very familiar with these, but there've got to be tools that will enable you to back up and then restore a working Windows system.