Re: Can Grub start Windows XP from "other" partition

[Ulf Zibis]

Am 22.11.2012 06:11, schrieb Felix Miata:
> http://orgs.man.ac.uk/documentation/grub/grub_4.html#SEC22

Much thanks, I've found it in Grub 2:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#DOS_002fWindows


> > > > I remember that I had read a tutorial about "duplicating Windows" to 2 partitions for the 
> > > > purpose to
> > > > have a working installation and a test installation to try out dangerous things 
> > > > without corrupting
> > > > the first. I'm pretty sure, that the 2nd one was created by just copying the 1st, and if booted 
> > > > into
> > > > the 2nd, partition 1 appeared as D:.
> > > > Unfortunately I do not find this tutorial again by Google.
>
> > Do you have an idea, how this could have been possible, or do you know about a doc which may help 
> > me?
>
> Maybe it could be done with XXCOPY while booted to a maintenance system, but not by a partition 
> clone. Registry modifications would be required as well as adjusting boot.ini.

Well, but XCOPY (I guess you mean the one with one X) doesn't copy the partitions boot record. I 
believe, that the equal size problem will be solved by ntfsresize, which is automatically invoked by 
GParted. Hopefully, this night I can make a try.

> > > > > Windows needs a primary to be C:, but it needn't be "installed" to C:.
> > > > In other words, Windows needs the NTloader, boot.ini etc. in the first 
> > > > Windows-visible-native-typed
> > > > partition which is always named as C:. If Windows itself is "installed" in any 
> > > > other other
> > > > partition, it would be named different, e.g. D:, E: ... right?
> > > Yes.
> > But how does it work, if there are 2 Windows installations with 2 NTloaders?
>
> Proper configuration of menu.lst, including hiding and unhiding of primaries.
>
> > If Windows can only be booted by the NTloader from the 1st partition,
>
> Where did you get this idea? WinXP can only be booted from an only visible 
> primary.

Here I meant the 1st *visible* partition. Where I got it? ... I interpreted your "Yes" above as 
that. Maybe I didn't get it right.

> > how can Grub tell it to boot the Windows installation from the 2nd partition?
>
> Windows can be booted by any primary partition that contains NTLDR, if it is an unhidden 
> partition, and there no other Windows native unhidden primary partitions.

I have a different experience, behind the one, which is booted, other visible primaries are allowed, 
see my last comment below.

> > But if there are 2 Windows installations on a system, both listed in Grub's 
> > start menu, each has
> > it's own NTLDR + boot.ini with only 1 default entry, how can Grub manage to 
> > chainload the right
> > NTLDR, or instruct the NTLDR in the 1st partition to boot the Windows installation in the 2nd 
> > partition?
>
> Can't do that. Once chainloaded, you have to use the Windows boot menu from a properly constructed 
> boot.ini. This will be necessary if you make only one primary to be used as C:. You only put two 
> Windows stanzas in Grub's menu if you have two different primaries that could be C:.
... + edit the grub.cfg to add the hidden (+ makeactive) commands, because grub-update would not do 
that automatically. Grub seems to assume, that the the 2nd Windows should run as e.g. D:. Then there 
is no need to hide the 1st.
Right?

> > In case of the NTLDR of the 2nd Windows-visible-native-typed partition it will boot the 2nd 
> > Windows partition,
> > but "see" the 1st partition as C: and the 2nd as D:, which is the big problem 
> > here if it was
> > originally installed on C:
>
> Windows cannot boot a system with more than one visible native type primary per HD. In a single HD 
> system, D: will always be a logical, and C: will be the one and only visible primary.

Hm, that confuses me totally. See the following partitions I have on another disk, no Grub or Linux 
installed:
sda1: NTFS **boot** ---
 Windows XP installation
sda4: NTFS **none** --- Data
sda3: extended **lba**
sda5: FAT32 **none**-- - Backup
sda2: Compaq **diag** --- Thinkpad Recovery (physically at the end of the of 
the harddrive)

All partitions are visible and I can perfectly boot Windows from sda1.

Cheers,

-Ulf