Installing second copy from preinstall?

Didn't need a second license for a second install on my desktop: same hardware.

Its just this preinstall nonsense that's causing me a problem...  Is there no way to build a setup disk from the preinstall?

Ian

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Message Edited by IanWorthington on 10-13-2005 10:02 AM

Wouldn't this mean I'd have to buy yet another Xp license though?  The CD I have is registered to and authorised on my desktop machine.  Or is there some way of obtaining the key for the preinstall and using it with the CD copy?

Ian
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Message Edited by IanWorthington on 10-13-2005 09:15 AM

Hi Dan --

I don't have a reinstall disk but have kept the reinstall partition intact. I have PartitionMagic and Ghost available, though I can't Ghost my current partition due to its size. The machine has a DVD burner and I have a copy of Roxio installed.

I have not changed the original partition layout and wish to end up with two bootable partitions.

What do you think my options are?

Thanks,

ian

"I don't have a reinstall disk but have kept the reinstall partition intact. I have PartitionMagic and Ghost available, though I can't Ghost my current partition due to its size. The machine has a DVD burner and I have a copy of Roxio installed.

I have not changed the original partition layout and wish to end up with two bootable partitions."

As mentioned by others, you don't want to use the retail XP cd you have from the other system (and it wouldn't be legal, anyway).  So, since you don't have a Dell reinstall cd, you'll be using a Ghost image.  You can either Ghost your existing XP partition, or you can restore the "as-shipped" Ghost image buried in the DellRestore partition that you left intact.  (The latter would actually be easier to do, but either can be done--it just depends on which one you want the new copy to look like.)

You need to clarify what partition layout you want to end up with.  You presently have 3 partitions for Dell Utility, XP #1, and DellRestore.  You plan to add a partition for XP #2, but do you plan to also have a separate (perhaps even shared) partition for data?  If so, it won't be easy to also keep DellUtility and/or DellRestore, so what are your plans for those?

BTW, what size disk are you working with, and which version of PartitionMagic?

My recommendation would be to save the oem Ghost image from the DellRestore partition, eliminate the rest of the DellRestore partition (its use will be marginalized by dualbooting, anyway), and create a shared data partition.

Are you planning to use a boot manager?  It's optional at this point, as you can simply use pqboot32.exe, which you'll find on your PartitionMagic cd.  (Just run pqboot32 from either XP copy, and you can choose which copy of XP to reboot into.)

Meanwhile, start building yourself a dos-bootable cd.  Since you don't have a floppy drive, visit www.bootdisk.com and download the "non-Windows based" version of a Win98se boot disk.  Extract the image file (win98sec.img) from the download and use it directly as the boot image for Roxio--start Roxio, tell it you want to make a bootable cd, and when it asks for the source floppy, tell it you have a file instead and direct it to win98sec.img.  Into the cd project window, drag the rest of the utility files you'll need:

• PartitionMagic:  all files from your PM cd's \english\dosmake\disk2 directory.
• Other PM utils:  pqboot.exe, pqboot32.exe, ptedit.exe, and ptedit32.exe--copy from your PM cd.
• Ghost:  ghost.exe from your Ghost 2003 cd.
• Terabyte utils:  editbini.exe and mbrwork.exe--download from the free utilities page at  www.bootitng.com.

Basically, the idea is to boot from cd, retrieve the oem Ghost image for safekeeping, use PM to rearrange your partitions, use Ghost to restore an image to your XP #2 partition, fix a few minor glitches with ptedit/editbini so both XP's will work, and use pqboot to switch back and forth between the two bootable XP's.

Contact me by email (see my webpages) and I can give you step-by-step instructions of how you'll use these tools.  For a little light reading (not! :smileywink:) you'll find plenty of background material on my webpages at www.goodells.net/multiboot, www.goodells.net/dellutility, and www.goodells.net/dellrestore.

Dan Goodell

Message Edited by dg1261 on 10-13-2005 07:22 PM

Hi Dan --

Many thanks for your comprehensive answer, and your even more comprehensive website:  I think everything I need to know is covered in that lot.

With my desktop I have it configured so that the two bootable partions XP1 and XP2 are equale and both visible to each other and the data is storted elsewhere.  For this machine I only need to keep a seperate os/registry so I would propose to have a small XP2 just for that and keep XP1 as the data store.

I have the largest hdd the 700m ships with, 80GB, which I think is ok for my PM, v7. 

I was just going to use the standard XP boot loader.  Do you think there's good reason to avoid it?

Thanks,

Ian
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"I have the largest hdd the 700m ships with, 80GB, which I think is ok for my PM, v7." 

Yes, PM7 should be able to handle an 80GB.

"I was just going to use the standard XP boot loader.  Do you think there's good reason to avoid it?"

You can't use the native XP boot loader.  Read www.goodells.net/multiboot/principles.htm carefully.  The XP boot loader cannot support two independent XP installations.  When you use Ghost to duplicate an OS partition, the two must use the same drive letter, and the XP boot loader can't do that.

Message Edited by IanWorthington on 10-15-2005 03:10 PM