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IanWorthington

21 Posts

12536

October 13th, 2005 07:00

Installing second copy from preinstall?

I have an Inspiron 700m, preinstalled with XP Pro.
 
I need to install a second bootable partition of this on my machine but I'm not sure how I can do so using the preinstall.  I have a separate copy of the XP Pro install disk but I can't install directly from this because of MS's authorization mechanism :(
 
Is there any way I can use the preinstall, my disk, or some combination of the two to install a second copy on the 700m?
 
Thanks,
 
Ian
..

Message Edited by IanWorthington on 10-13-2005 03:39 AM

dg1261

623 Posts

October 17th, 2005 21:00

"What's the mechanism that getting it confused?"

You'll have to ask someone who uses that silly scheme.  It's fragile and kludgy, so I don't waste my time with it.

"What would you recommend?  pqboot? I notice you talk highly of xosl."

Pqboot is utterly simple, requires no installation, and makes no changes to either partition.  It is not a boot manager, it is a tiny, single executable file that toggles the active partition bit in the disk's partition table.  However, in true multibooting fashion, it also hides the alternate OS partitions.  Since you want the alternate partition to remain visible, pqboot will be less useful to you.

XOSL is a genuine boot manager.  It's free and my personal favorite, but has a keyboard handling bug that prevents it from working on some laptops.  I use it on all my desktops and any laptops which aren't affected by the bug.  It doesn't work on a 600m, so it may not work on your 700m.

However, there are many worthy alternatives, including several other free boot managers.  Take a look at Ranish Partition Manager, GAG, or OSL2000, for example.
 
 

Larry Alan

1 Message

October 30th, 2005 22:00

Hi, Dan!

After reading your posts here and checking out your web site, I only have one question: Why in the world does Dell make it so complicated? It was relatively easy to install four multiboot XP partitions on my old Gateway that died.

Here's a scenario I'm thinking about: Let's say I buy another SATA drive (which I want to do anyway). I disconnect my current Drive 0 SATA and replace it with the new SATA drive.Can I use the Reinstallation CD to install the OS on the new drive?

I'd then move the new drive to Drive 1 and reconnect my original drive as Drive 0.

Hope I've made sense.

dg1261

623 Posts

October 31st, 2005 19:00

"Why in the world does Dell make it so complicated?"
 
I think Dell is still searching for a good method of restoring the original "as-shipped" system.  DSR has only been around for a little over a year, but it wouldn't surprise me if Dell is working on another method that isn't so fragile. 
 
Dell's DSR is rather a late development when compared to what other oems have been doing for several yrs now.  To be fair, I believe they've consciously tried to eliminate some of the shortcomings of the methods used by other oems.  But none of them are perfect. 
 
And if you want to talk about complicated, nothing comes close to the HPA scheme used on IBM laptops, or the weird way hard disks are bios-detected on IBM, HP, and Compaq laptops.
 
"I disconnect my current Drive 0 SATA and replace it with the new SATA drive.Can I use the Reinstallation CD to install the OS on the new drive?"
 
Yes.  Note you'll probably need to do the F6-key dance and provide the SATA driver when booting from the XP CD.
 
"I'd then move the new drive to Drive 1 and reconnect my original drive as Drive 0."
 
You didn't state what your goal is here.  I thought you were replacing your main disk, but this sounds like you're trying to create a dual-boot system.  If so, whether or not it works will depend on the capabilities of your third-party boot manager.  I've used several, but don't have any experience with them on SATA systems.
 
 
Dan Goodell
 

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