Installing an image as a 2nd os dualboot

[shahman]

I need some help going about installing an image I made of a fresh XP Pro Install as a 2nd OS in the same machine. I know I can install in the image another partition on the drive, but how do I manually modify the boot ladder so that both OS'es are accessible upon boot?

I know I can just reinstall the OS and the option to install it in a new partition would presenti itself - but what fun would that be.

 

[KoolDrew]

What 2 OS's are you trying to run in a dual boot?

 

[D1gger]

After you have ghosted the image to another partition, you can edit your boot.ini file on the C:\ drive. It is likely marked readonly, so you will have to change that in the properties before you can edit it. Use Notepad, not MS Word or other word processor to edit it. It should then look something like:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Copy #2" /fastdetect

Where your "Copy #2" refers to disk and partition where you installed the image. You may still have problems with drive references and such for your new image, since it was originally installed on C:\ and now it will be on another drive letter.

 

[shahman]

Can information like the drive letter be edited somewhere else?

 

[D1gger]

References to the drive letter will be sprinkled throughout the Windows Registry, so you could edit the Registry and change it manually. Good chance your going to bork something.

 

[shahman]

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a shot.

 

[montag451]

Partition Manager will try and sort out drive letter references, and, also, I THINK, BOOTITng from Terabyte will do the same

But as always - nothing is guaranteed 100%

 

[Navid]

I do just that. But, to get around the drive letter problem, I always keep only one partition visible. I use Drive Image to hide the inactive primary partition. This way, the active partition is always drive C no matter which partition I am using.