Need Fully Isolated Dual XP Booting

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I've followed the steps here: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/10956, however I'm continuing to get stop errors when booting into one of the partitions.

What I need is to boot into either of two XP partitions, both of which have a drive assignment of C:\, and both of which cannot see the other XP's partition. Is this possible?

If so, how do you do it when OSS doesn't allow hiding a system partition? Is there a way to make both partitions non-system partitions while allowing booting to either?

I'm using another partition utility as the DD demo doesn't allow you to do much of anything. I can start over, but for now I've installed XP on one of two primary partitions. I then copied that partition to another primary partition, thinking they would be the same, but that's not the case as explained above (one's a system partition). That said, I don't know if that matters for what I want to accomplish. I then did the hive thing explained in the above thread.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Dom, 05/23/2010 - 18:35
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Until MudCrab can respond, here are few things to consider.

In order to isolate the XP partitions from one another, you need to selective hide the nonbooting one and unhide (and make Active) to booting one. You would need a boot manager capable of this selective hiding and unhiding, or you could do it manually by hiding and unhiding the partitions with a partition utility (or directly editing the partition table).

Some of these topics are touched on in this recent thread: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/10835 although much of the material (especially at the beginning) is not relevant to your task - notice the later posts by Mark Wharton regarding Grub4DOS. This may give you some ideas, and does not require OSS, which certainly does allow hiding/unhiding of partitions.

You may also find some useful information in some of the following Disk Director forum threads (at least I found them useful):

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/9978 (with links to older Wilders Security forums)
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/9436
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6099
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/4009

Dom, 05/23/2010 - 21:00
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Thanks, Gary

I forgot to mention that I am using the demo version of OSS, but want to make sure it can do this before buying it. Yes, I've been able to hide each of the partitions with another partition utility and am able to boot into the unhidden one, each one doing what I want (defaulting to C:\ and hiding the other partition).

However, OSS isn't allowing me to hide the system partition when booting to D:\, for example, still showing C:\ (the system partition), which is not what I want. I used to be able to do this with BootMagic, but apparently that product isn't available anymore.

Dom, 05/23/2010 - 21:48
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If you've verified that the MountedDevices entries are correct for the D: Windows partition, the next thing is to verify that the properties for the OSS menu entry are correct. Is the correct partition marked as the booting partition (checkered flag)? Is the correct partition set Active?

If you're getting an error and XP is not calling the correct partition the System partition, it sounds like the wrong partition is Active.

I can take a look at the BOOTWIZ.OSS file if you post a copy of it (intructions can be found here) along with a screenshot of what DD shows for your drives.

Lun, 05/24/2010 - 04:57
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The orginal question here, is exactly my question, but looking at all the links I have not found the actaully answer.
I have XP SP3 installed on one partition with DD11 and OSS installed
second partition with another XP install. OSS works fine and booting either/or that I choose and both will boot as the c:\, exactly what I need it to do, but I also need to be able to hide the 1st partition (label Network Users) from the second partition (labelled Technicians) when Technician is choosen to be booted. The First partion (network Users) is allowed to see the Technician Partition. Can this be done? and if yes, exactly how please.
Any help is appreciated.. thanks

Mer, 07/20/2011 - 15:30
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You would just need to edit the OSS menu entries and set the options for each how you want. Right-click on the menu entry, select Properties. Click Partitions. Select the partition you want hidden and check the Hidden checkbox. Click OK to save the change.

Mer, 07/20/2011 - 16:43
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Thank you, That worked for the most part. I need this to be seamless for my users and was hoping I could have it so that the Main XP partition (that has the DD11 on it) that I labelled Network User, could see the other XP Partition labelled Technician in My Computer, but the Technician XP partition not see the Network user Partition.. from what you've told me above, no matter which XP partition I choose to boot, it automatically hides the other.

Gio, 07/21/2011 - 12:49
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It will only hide what is set for that OS menu entry. You should be able to set it how you want. If you have OSS configured properly and still don't see the partition, check Disk Management and make sure it's getting assigned a drive letter.

For example:

Network User
--Network User (active)
--Technician XP (not hidden)

Technician XP
--Network User (hidden)
--Technician XP (active)

Gio, 07/21/2011 - 18:01
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Perfect.. you were right on the Money.. I setup as you suggested and then I did have to go into Disk Manager and move my CD-ROM from D: to F: and then re-assign the Technician partition the drive letter D:, while I was booted into the Network Users Partition.... thanks a Bunch! You've been very helpful and have saved me alot of fustration, since I'm very new to your software.

Ven, 07/22/2011 - 12:05