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Dual boot windows XP
Curtis - Mar 29, 2003
  Curtis Mar 29, 2003
I was just idly wondering if it would be possible to dual boot two copies of an OS like windows XP?

There are a few drivers I'd like to try out without destroying a perfectly good install, so I'm curious...

 Myname Mar 30, 2003
You might be able to do it without, but Partition Magic might be the best way to do it.. Just split your current partition into 2 and start the install on the new partition from within Partition Magic.

 Curtis Mar 30, 2003
Partition Magic eh? Does that have some kind of boot loader?

 Myname Mar 30, 2003
Yeah, Boot Magic .

 mtxblau Apr 1, 2003
Or, rather than using a dual boot, get yourself Norton Ghost, and take an image of your perfect install. If there's a mistake, reformat and reload. It's saved me countless times, and let me tell you, it's much easier to mess around with your computer knowing there's a backup somewhere.

There are other programs like this, but Ghost by and far is the most robust and useful (it can image Linux partitions as well). It all operates from one bootdisc, and you can burn the image directly to a CD-R if needs be (it supports multi disk spanning).

 Quadriflax Apr 1, 2003
Isn't this what the system recovery is for? Couldn't you just make a restore point right before you install the drivers? If things screw up, go back to that. Reading through a number of posts in alt.os.windows-xp suggests to me that using Partion Magic and XP is not a good thing. Specifically: http://tinyurl.com/8mp8... Kadaitcha Man is probably one of the only people in that group that knows his stuff. Though much of it seems to be specifically referring to Partition Magic 7. Dunno about 8.

 Curtis Apr 1, 2003
Well the reasoning behind my need for two XPs is that I want a system setup with some specific sound drivers... so that I can experiment with some recording software. These drivers have some limitations (in terms of gameing), but also some advantages (in terms of rcording) and it would be a hassle to constantly switch between the regular SBLive drivers and these using System Restore and Ghost.

I'd also like an install of win98 and linux.

 Gallstaff Apr 1, 2003
You can install windows and linux? Man that sounds like a world of trouble. I've only ever heard of windows/windows.

 mtxblau Apr 1, 2003
Hmm, Linux and windows isn't all that bad.

Mandrake Linux (probably others too, I don't know, haven't tried) allows you to make a folder an virtually mount Linux, so you don't have to reformat or anything like that. It's stable, but a bit slower - however, it doesn't require making partitions. Or you can just leave some unpartitioned space and format/mount it in the setup. Either way works.

The one thing I'm not terribly crazy about is not being able to access files in windows from Linux. You can do it the other way around though. Comes with the territory, I suppose.

And Gallstaff, I've done Windows 98/ 2000/ Linux at one time. LILO is one heck of a bootloader.

In any event, I imagine if you wanted to do all four at once, you'd set up four or five partitions, install 98 first, in the first partition (always in the first partition) then XP, then XP in the third, and Linux in the fourth. Lilo should recognize the first three partitions (if that's what you use, I think it's being included in most distros these days) and write a fourth for itself.

But that's a helluva a lot of work.

If anything, you can install everything but the drivers in partition 2, then ghost it and overwrite partition 3 (after installing XP), since the boot.ini is in drive C. This is applicable with or without Linux, although I imagine you'd need a separate bootloader.

----

Personally, the time you'd spend setting up two XPs may make system rollback/ghosting better. I mean, after you figure out which drivers are better, wouldn't that make one of the XP's moot? Or maybe I'm misinterpreted what you're saying, and that one XP is purely for recording and the other is for gaming (isn't that what hardware profiles are for?).

 Quadriflax Apr 1, 2003
Yeah, there's always the driver rollback. If a driver doesn't work, just use that to go back. I think you could easily switch back and forth with at most a reboot inbetween switching from one to the other. Install--> record--> roll back to others--> play games repeat.

I know a friend of mine who had a Linux/Win2k duel boot. It took him quite a while to get it setup right. Granted he was quite new to Linux at the time, but still. Seemed like more work than it was worth.

But while we're on soundcard drivers... I have an SB Live XGamer. I d/led and installed the latest drivers from Creative when I installed XP a month ago. But I've had some performance issues that I hear are somewhat common (MP3 playback is crackly sometimes). I've also noticed that when I do a Windows Update there's a suggested d/l for Driver Updates: Creative Media Driver Version 5.1.... I'm not sure what this is all about. Is this a MS thing? Just curious as to what they are.

 Curtis Apr 1, 2003
MTX: Yes, one set of drivers would be purely for recording, the other for gaming.

Using Partition Magic/Boot Magic I should be able to workout a multiboot system. I'm a little concerned about the boot boundries for the various OSes (eg windows 98 must boot from the first 2gb, XP from the first 8) although there seems to be some workarounds for that.

Quadriflax: I'd say the drivers offered on the Windows Update site are just the latest ones signed by MS. They are probably older than the ones offered by Creative.

I'm confident that I could use Lilo to triple boot 98/XP/Linux - I've done dual boots this way before - adding the extra XP complicates things. Still, what's life without a challenge?

Not a problem for now though...I still need to scpare together the funds for this new setup.

 TheXev Apr 1, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			 Well the reasoning behind my need for two XPs is that I want a system setup with some specific sound drivers so that I can experiment with some recording software. These drivers have some limitations (in terms of gameing), but also some advantages (in terms of rcording) and it would be a hassle to constantly switch between the regular SBLive drivers and these using System Restore and Ghost.


Actually, there is a way you can have your cake and eat it too without installing Windows completely twice (although a duel install XP/XP is quite possible, any NT based OS should have no problems doing it). What you can do is go into the hardware tab of your system properties (where Device Manager sits), and click the Hardware Profiles button. Make a copy of your current config and name the copy something else, like Recording config. Reboot and you will get a menu that will allow you to select Hardware profiles. Select the recording config and let Windows boot. Uninstall the normal sound drivers and install the recording optimized ones on this config. You should be able to switch over to the Gaming config and those drivers will automatically load up, while recording config will load with the drivers you installed. Give it a shot! If it doesnt work, I suppose you should duel install Windows XP (it is doable, so long as you know what you are doing).

 Curtis Apr 1, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by TheXev@Apr 2, 2003 @ 10:09 PM



 ...(it is doable, so long as you know what you are doing).


That's always the trouble, isn't it?

Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a go when I get some time to pull appart my current "test" system.

 TheXev Apr 1, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Curtis+Apr 1, 2003 @ 11:12 PM-->
QUOTE(Curtis @ Apr 1, 2003 @ 11:12 PM)