BootMagic nightmare... :S

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:02 am

Hello everybody!

I am trying to make a dual-boot machine but with no luck.. I have tried PQ BootMagic but with no success as it tends to confuse my hard disks that are attached on the the motherboard's channels, with those that are attached on the PCI to RAID ATA card (which, by the way, is seen in BIOS and in XP as a SCSI card).

Are there any other good boot managers that you would recommend me?

What is important for me are the following:
- The boot manager to be located on a separate small partition (NTFS or FAT16/32, doesnt matter)
- Me to be able to format at any time any of the two partitions, without loosing the ability to boot the other
- A boot manager that preferably doesnt hide from the OS the other partition as BootMagic does.

Thank you

Music Manic · Post by **Music Manic** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:49 pm

It's not bootmagic it's BIOS settings.Set the primary hard disc to be the bootable one in BIOS.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:39 pm

Could someone write me a step by step dual XP NTFS installation using bootmagic please?

I ve spent the last two whole days "fighting" with no luck..

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:24 pm

You don't need any magic on your boot. Select another partition to install XP onto next time, it will make the dual boot menu for you. It's very easy eh.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:28 pm

But what if I decide to format the first partition? Will I be able to boot into the second one?

Music Manic · Post by **Music Manic** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:48 pm

On 2005-04-12 18:28, rodos1979 wrote:
But what if I decide to format the first partition? Will I be able to boot into the second one?

No you won't because you're deleting system files boot up looks for.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:54 pm

Whenever I rn into very long and tedious technical problems I think about how much time it is taking to resolve. Then I wonder how much money I am losing by applying my (lack) of expertise to the problem rather than making income.

In this situation there may come a point when it is cheaper to consider another computer and be finished with technical issues.

I know this is a bit OT, but some things just take far too much time.

Lima · Post by **Lima** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 2:28 am

I've got 4 partition in my hd and 2 operative system:win 2000 and winxp
This is my experience:

Firstly I've installed Win 2000 on the first partition, then I've installed Win xp on the second. Win XP has automatically recognized the other OS and has automatically done a boot manager. It's very simple (as the good Atom said).

If you invert the order of installation you will encounter some difficulties (I've done this test before, because I've already had win Xp installed). I think that the boot manager of win 2000 is less evoluted than the xp's one. So I suggest to install XP by last.

If you ask to me why I've installed 2 different windows and not (for example) a windows and linux, the reason is that win XP is more expensive in terms of resources than win2000. I've tried Linux and (other than there aren't any pulsar drivers) in my opinion is still too early (I've insalled the last Agnula). I also needed 2 separated ambients one for the music and one for all the rest.

I agree with Spirit: 2 different computer are the best solution, but I can't it efford now.

Finally I'm very satisfied with my setup: in win2000 I've got only the strictly necessary to work with music (no internet, no graphic text ecc.. progs, no real player et simila). Since I've changed, all my click and pops throuble has gone.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 6:00 pm

Thank you guys for your responses!

What is important for me is to be able to format any of the two partitions at any time and not loosing the ability to boot into the other. I managed to set this up with a "try before you buy" version of System Commander. A friend in the SOS Forum, told me of another way to do it using only the native XP boot loader. I am going to try that too and if it works good I ll do his way (which is totally inexpensive). Otherwise, I ll buy SC.

Thank you!

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 6:12 pm

http://sourceforge.net/projects/grub4dos/

grub is a free opensource bootloader, it manages the bootsector. It automatically detects installed operating sytems when it's installed, has user options for boot theme, locations etc...

I use it on 2 machines; it comes with Demudi (a linux OS). Haven't tried the DOS/WIN interface yet, but I think it will be the same.

Give it a try, it's free and easy

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:19 pm

Hello Rodos!

There are quite a few good boot managers out there, but PowerQuesty BootMagic is the best of the market, and it is so said by all experts alike in the IT market. There is no doubt about it, but… it is hard to set if you have special configuration, it is quite complex what may happen, and it can be confusing if you have not yet studied “with care” the manual. I would STRONGLY advice you to study, by heart, the manual of BootMagic, “before” you start doing anything.

If you are using BootMagic, you are obviously using PartitionMagic too. Well, this is the basic procedure:

You need to kill your disk to start clean, use a good app like Seagate Disk Wizard. You can get it from Seagate download page. Built your disks, you’ll need two floppy. Once you have it, choose the “fill with zeros full”. It will take about 6 to 8 hours. It is good to let it through the night, so you don’t feel anxious.

Once you have killed your disk, so you are completely sure there is not a single line there that could bother you, format your C drive with the installation of XP. Then install it without making any partitions.

Once you have XP running well, install again Partition Magic. Do a second partition in the same drive, then put it as ACTIVE, reboot and install a second copy of XP. If the partition you have created and set as “active” is not marked as to be the C drive, DO NOT INSTALL so… Something is wrong. You MUST install to a C drive, this is the mayor mistake of most people using BootMagic, to install to a letter different to C. I explain myself a bit better, BOTH drives MUST be C when you are installing XP, the first, and then the second, and if you were to install 6 more instances of XP, or any other OS, they all must be “C drive” when installing. This is mandatory.

Once you have done it, install BootMagic in the partition you have PartitionMagic, and then set BootMagic to recognise the OSs you have there, then set it active, save. That’s it.

Unfortunately, there are far too many parameters that can make your life difficult, as I said, most of all if you have a complex system. An particularly if you want to have different primary partitions in different drives, this is much more difficult and instable. Not recommended.

Now… if you are depressed and tyred, what I can perfectly understand, please get OSL2000 BootManager 8.80. It is a shareware boot manager, quite powerful, much, much simpler. As simple as that: install two instances of XP or whatever, in whatever way, then install it, restart, done, you have a double boot. It is not as reliable as BootMagic, but it works well if you don’t mess with it, highly recommended for those people using double boot from DIFFERNET HDs.

Still, please, I can’t insist enough for you to READ the help of PartitionMagic. If you have any doubt, there are plenty of information in their web site, you won’t lose your time going there.

GOOD LUCK, I really whish you can set a stable and perfectly working system!

Nestor.