 A Multiple Partition USB Stick with Multi Boot OS, Updated 5th April 2006 |
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 Jun 8 2007, 11:18 PM Post
#21 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 1 Joined: 8-June 07 Member No.: 142435 OS: none   |
Hi, This topic is just what I want! But I have a problem following the instructions. I have a SanDisk cruzer 4GB usb stick. By changing the driver, it is recognized as a HD in XP. I split it into three FAT16 partitions by using Partition Magic. (One thing to notice is that after launching partition magic, it complains about the space is not consistent for the usb stick, and I have to choose to fix it or the stick would be recognized as bad in Partition magic.) Then I use WinGrub to install grub to the usb stick as the instructions said. The partitions are all empty at this point. When I reboot and try to boot from the usb stick, nothing happens. I mean the BIOS still launches from the hard drive even the usb stick has a higher boot priority. |
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| Jun 18 2007, 05:30 PM Post
#22 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 17-June 07 Member No.: 143471 OS: XP Pro x86  |
Right, I got the Grub boot working. Only problem is when I use Markymoo's menu.lst it works the first time, but never again. the reason is that the partitions are hidden! So then I have to use a partition manager to unhide the partitions. Is there any way around this? Markymoo, what do you do once your partitions are hidden? I tried editing the menu.lst and removing the hide/unhide lines, but then BartPE would boot halfway and blue screen. So far I have tried numerous methods and Markymoo's seems to be the best. I just need some help avoiding the hidden partition problem. |
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| Jun 19 2007, 03:48 AM Post
#23 | |
| MSFN SuperB  Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none  |
@stevesumner What you report is VERY strange, markymoos entries in boot.ini come in pairs: QUOTE unhide (hd0,0) hide (hd0,1) QUOTE hide (hd0,0) unhide (hd0,1) So everything should be cool. However, you can add a "service" only entry in menu.lst, something like: CODE title Unhide all partitions unhide (hd0,0) unhide (hd0,1) and choose it when you find problems, if it works, nothing prevents you from adding the two line at the top of each entry. FYI, this interesting tutorial by markymoo appears to be a bit dated now, there are other ways to boot, expecially the direct chainloading feature of system files from grub4dos and the mapping features, so that in most cases hiding/unhiding partitions is not necessary. jaclaz |
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| Jun 19 2007, 04:46 AM Post
#24 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 17-June 07 Member No.: 143471 OS: XP Pro x86 |
Hmmm, not sure what I did. I found that after booting and getting the blue screen from BartPE, the next time grub wouldn't even work, it would just say try (hd 0,0) fat 16 try (hd 0,1) fat 16 error Or something like that from memory. Then when I plugged my USB back into Windows PC and checked in Explorer one drive had become hidden, a bit of a nuisance. I changed the second partition to the iso method and ramdrive and now the USB boots fine, maybe there was something wrong with my partitions and using the "pe2usb -f f:" command with the -f format switch fixed it? Still end up with a hidden partition which is not ideal. I would be interested in which method you prefer and what your menu.lst file would have, if you use grub as a bootloader, jaclaz. |
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| Jun 19 2007, 01:15 PM Post
#25 | |
| MSFN SuperB Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none | QUOTE (stevesumner) I would be interested in which method you prefer and what your menu.lst file would have, if you use grub as a bootloader, jaclaz. I guess it's all a matter of preferences, and of what you want to do. Personally, though it is fun to try different methods/solutions, I try to keep things as KISS as possible. There is no actual need to have the stick multipartitioned, unless you are going to boot a few tens of different OS. Of course there are limits, but most can be overcome, as long as you stay (STRONGLY suggested) with FAT16 or FAT32 as filesystem. What I usually do is: 1) Keep the Win2K/XP/2003 MBR (if it is the case in the "hacked" version that comes with the "HP" utility) untouched 2) Keep the bootsector (invoking NTLDR) written by the Win2K/XP/2003 FORMAT command or by the HP utility untouched 3) Add to root of the stick NTLDR, grldr and a boot.ini with a line: CODE C:\GRLDR="Grub4dos" 4) from the above setup you can boot a FULL 2K/XP directly through a line in boot.ini 5) for a PE/BartPE/Winbuilder you simply have an entry in CODE title PE/BartPE/Winbuilder chainloader /setupldr or CODE title PE/BartPE/Winbuilder chainloader /minint/setupldr 6) For DOS (7.1 aka Win98) you can use either BOOTPART and chainload it directly from BOOT.INI or add an entry in menu.lst like: CODE title DOS 7.1 chainloader /IO.SYS though usually it is much more convenient to use images, loaded either directly or through memdisk 7) for Linux, see above, also worth a shot is the RAMDISK using HMLOAD Here are a few links with some more ideas, details: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=19873&hl= http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=18045&hl= http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=18031&hl= http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=18846&hl= http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=95537 More generally search on the 911CD forum for keyword "grub4dos", please DO remember that here we are talking of grub4dos, NOT grub, the grub4dos WHERETO is here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/Grub4Dos-t14.html http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=19097&hl= And here there are some more related threads: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/Boot-methods-f12.html Have a look at the given links, and if anything is not clear or you need additional help just post so, specifying which OSses you are willing to multiboot. jaclaz This post has been edited by jaclaz: Jun 20 2007, 05:35 AM |
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| Jun 19 2007, 05:10 PM Post
#26 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 17-June 07 Member No.: 143471 OS: XP Pro x86 |
Hey cheers for that jaclaz, really useful info. I have tried your method and just want to check a couple of things. I should use XP's format to format the USB to FAT, then copy BartPE files to the USB. Then copy ntldr and boot.ini from c: drive and also copy grldr. Then edit boot.ini to have the line CODE C:\GRLDR="Grub4dos" and CODE title PE/BartPE/Winbuilder chainloader /setupldr or similar. Is that right? And that's all? My boot.ini looks like this: CODE [boot loader] timeout=30 [operating systems] C:\GRLDR="Grub4dos" title BartPE chainloader /setupldr This post has been edited by stevesumner: Jun 19 2007, 05:12 PM |
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| Jun 20 2007, 05:34 AM Post
#27 | |
| MSFN SuperB Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none |
Well, NO, the: CODE title BartPE chainloader /setupldr goes into the menu.lst file, sorry for the mistyping  .To further clarify, NTLDR looks for choices in boot.ini. Grub4dos' grldr, grldr.mbr and grub.exe look for choices in menu.lst. Syntax of menu.lst entries is detailed in the download and docs, briefly here is an example of a complete menu.lst: CODE # This is a basic menu.lst file for GRUB4DOS, in the version for ezG4DOS. # You can make changes to it. # Following lines load a splashimage and set text foreground/background colour # splashimage /GRUB4DOS/ezG4DOS.xpm.gz foreground = 69ed4e background = 337326 # Following line is the choice for colours when background image is NOT SET # (see above) they are commented out as a splashimage is SET # color black/cyan yellow/cyan # Following is the timeout for the default choice # By not pressing any key during the timeout, the default will be chosen timeout 10 # Following is the menu item that will default default 0 # This reflects the "normal" behaviour of a PC # i.e. booting the first partition of first harddisk # By setting it as default with timeout 10 seconds (see above) # We try to replicate somehow the "Press any key to boot from CD..." message # of Microsoft Install CDs, this way if no key is pressed, as an example for # unattended installs, the system will boot "normally" even if CD is inserted # of course if the "any" you press is [ENTER] system will boot from this entry title Boot Hard Disk MBR on (hd0,0) chainloader (hd0,0)+1 rootnoverify (hd0) title Win98.ima memdisk Boot find --set-root /grldr kernel /memdisk.gz initrd /win98.ima title Win98 HD find --set-root /IO.SYS chainloader /IO.SYS title BartPE find --set-root /setupldr.bin chainloader /setupldr.bin title NTLDR find --set-root /NTLDR chainloader /NTLDR I am correcting my previous post.  jaclaz This post has been edited by jaclaz: Jun 20 2007, 05:47 AM |
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| Jul 10 2008, 09:06 AM Post
#28 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 10-July 08 Member No.: 200261 OS: none  |
EDIT: read post #31, to get better instructions. Just got finished USB-Uber stick. USB trippleboot containing UBCD, DOS & CentOS. First I follow Markymoo's instructions: QUOTE A Multiple Partition USB Stick with Multi Boot OS Scroll down for 5/4/2006 update I wanted several operating systems on a USB stick and after many hours messing with syslinux, memdisk, grub4dos, xosl, freedos, avlgomgr, acronis os selector, ranish partition manager. I have succumbed. I first started out wanting to boot an iso off USB and ran into trouble loading large img with memdisk which I found out is due to a bug in msdos so I used freedos but things didn’t work out as planned and it’s a similar woe story’s with the rest. Acronis os selector lets you boot multiple os from one partition from different folders but don’t work great when it comes to dos. I have 5 partitions on my USB stick and using the boot loader BootIt NG http://www.bootitng.com/bootitng.html This is a 30 day trial. There’s a iso boot image inside the zip you need to burn to cd. Now I wasn’t happy just putting one os on my USB stick. I wanted linux and diagnostic tools etc. I now have what I think is the easiest helpful solution below. Stage 1. Ok XP can only see one partition on a removable USB but if change the USB driver to a fixed disk driver then XP will see it as a hard drive then we can have lay down multiple partitions as we like. Now open regedit and goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR and double click on USBSTORE and you see a subkey below it, select the first subkey below USBSTORE and right click and select Copy Key Name Here is mine, yours maybe different. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_0.00 Now we need only need this part: USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_0.00 Copy and paste it temporarily into notepad. You will now need this driver. http://www.xpefiles.com/viewtopic.php?t=92 Unpack it to a folder on your desktop. Inside the folder is the file cfadisk.inf. You need to open this file and scroll down to you see the line %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, specific data Now you need to replace all lines %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, specific data with the line you copied from your registry like so. %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_0.00 There could be more lines so replace all and save the file. Goto Device Manager and click on disk drives. You see your USB listed, dbl click on it and goto the driver tab and click update driver and install from a specific location and choose the driver to install and click on Have Disk and browse to the cfadisk.inf file your modified driver on your desktop and force that to replace your existing driver. It might ask you to reboot. You should now have your USB showing as Local Disk We want your first partition dos bootable so run HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. I’m using version 2.1.8. Select your drive letter of your USB device and select "Create a DOS startup disk" and browse to your 98 boot disk folder. Click Start. Your USB will be formatted and 3 files will be copied from your dos startup files. You need to manually copy the rest of the 98 boot files to your USB drive. You can now resize the drive (mines 512MB) and create multiple partitions. All partition software now sees it as a fixed disk. I used acronis disk director and resized the partition keeping the first dos bootable partition intact and made another 4 fat partitions so I had 5 in total. Make sure your format all partitions as Primary not Logical. So this way makes it easy to load multiple iso using ramdisk also. After this I made another stick only containing UBCD, because when I use UBCD own script it wipes whole stick as 1 partition containing only UBCD. - Windows XP or Vista (32-bit): Connect small ~ 150 MB small USB stick to computer. Mount UBCD and open command prompt, next go to the \tools\ubcd2usb folder and type ubcd2usb.bat D: E: (the D: is my cdrom and E: is stick). Now I have 1 stick containing UBCD only and another stick which seems to be as local disk. - WinImage software: Next thing is that I read the UBCD stick with WinImage software. and after that I write the data to the other stick. I notice that the other stick has now the data, but the MBR is missing, so I choose "edit master boot record properties" and save the mbr to bin file from UBCD stick to local disk and after that I import saved mbr to the other stick. Now I have stick containing UBCD with plenty room on it. - GParted: I modify flags to hide UBCD partition just in case not to lose the partition and then create new partition for DOS I also give the boot flag to this partition. - DOS boot Now boot computer with DOS boot floppy and format the partition which created earlier, remember to format to bootable. If everything went ok, if changed the boot flag with GParted I get either UBCD or DOS boot. Now I have two boots on the stick. Next I boot with CentOS 5.1 DVD and make custom partitioning. I create the OS root partition to the rest of stick (no swap or other partitions). To the bootloader I add the hidden UBCD /dev/sda1 to the bootmenu and I choose advanced and install the bootloader to the /dev/sda3. Then I choose custom install on packages, and take everything else away but editors and BASE install. After I have installed the system, I used GParted to manage the flags once more. Now I put the boot flag to the /dev/sda3. After reboot the stick finds GRUB, which has the other to boots (DOS and UBCD). Sorry this bad English etc, hope this helps some ppl, who tries to do the same as I did. Enjoy. This post has been edited by MI4C: Jul 17 2008, 11:25 PM |
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| Jul 11 2008, 10:02 PM Post
#29 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 10-July 08 Member No.: 200261 OS: none |
I noticed that the extra mbr.bin import is not necesary. Also that the first partition of the stick is viewable on normal computers, which is in my earlier post ~150 MB. Now question to others, how could I grow the UBCD partition ~5 GB without 5 GB UBCD stick? If I try to resize the stick with GParted the mbr brokes and partition magic can't even recognice the partition after I have used the ubcd script. Is there any way to fool operating system with ex. virtual hd (safe way) that I could create ~5 GB UBCD partition (with mbr), I think that the mbr somehow has information of partition table and if partition is touched it doesn't anymore match to the information kept in mbr. The bad side is that if I run the ubcd2usb.bat the script makes whole hd to same partition, I check'd that there is missing partitioning posibility on the running script (maybe if I get custom binary for this). The script formats the disk by checking %device%, so if I create virtual disk (also have to dig how to do it), could it be recogniced as device also? This post has been edited by MI4C: Jul 11 2008, 10:04 PM |
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| Jul 12 2008, 03:25 AM Post
#30 | |
| MSFN SuperB Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none |
MI4C, sorry, but I do not understand what you are trying to do. If what you are asking for is to create Virtual hard disks of given size/geometry or "manually" formatting a USB stick, you may find these batches useful MBRBATCH/MKIMG: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3191 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=5000 Otherwise, can you re-describe what you are trying to do? jaclaz |
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| Jul 17 2008, 11:20 PM Post
#31 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 10-July 08 Member No.: 200261 OS: none |
jaclaz, sorry for so fuzzy posting. I got the stick working just like I wanted. The virtual disk thing didn't work and some other things either didn't work. Here is description how to make 8 GB stick, containing DOS, UBCD 4.1.0 (ultimate boot CD) and Cent OS. You need 2 USB stick (8 GB and 150 MB or bigger), gparted liveCD, UBCD 4.1.0 CD, dos boot floppy and Cent OS installation media. No need to do the markymoo's thing described earlier. First create the small USB stick with the UBCD script (which is located on the UBCD CD \tools\ubcd2usb) ubcd2usb.bat D: E: (the D: is my UBCD CD and E: is stick). Then create with gparted 3 partitions to the bigger stick. I create 5 GB, exact size of the small stick and rest to the linux. Format each as FAT32 and manage flags that only 5 GB partition is not hidden. Boot with the dos boot floppy and format the 5 GB partition with startup disk option. Test that the stick boots to the created partition. After this connect both stick to computer and boot with gparted, you can check with gparted which stick is the small and bigger stick. Open terminal and type dd if=/dev/sda# of=/dev/sdb2 (the sda is the smaller stick and # should be the number where the UBCD is, I had it somehow on sda4, you can check that number from the gparted partition manage window). Now we have copied UBCD partition (including the data) from the smaller stick to the bigger. Remove the hidden flag from the sdb3. Next boot with CentOS 5.1 DVD and make custom partitioning. Create the OS root partition to the sda3 (no swap or other partitions). To the bootloader add the hidden UBCD /dev/sda2 to the bootmenu, the bootloader can be installed to the mbr, so no advanced settings needed. Choose custom install on packages, and take everything else away but editors and BASE install. After os installation the stick is ready. My problem was earlier that I didn't find a way how to get the UBCD partition to the second partition (because the UBCD function break-up if the partition size is changed, don't know why) and windows XP only sees the first partition of the stick, even if the partition is hidden. I found that if I create an image of this tripple boot stick and restore it, it somehow break-up. I can still clone the stick with the linux dd command which I used earlier in the instructions. This post has been edited by MI4C: Jul 17 2008, 11:29 PM |
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| Dec 15 2008, 03:36 AM Post
#32 | |
| WPI Guru Group: Software Developers Posts: 6516 Joined: 18-September 03 From: Pocatello, ID Member No.: 6960 OS: Windows 7 x64  | QUOTE with both password and fingerprint protection, so nobody, even the police, will not be able to see unauthorized information I agree with Jaclaz! Any prepared person with physical access to the thumb-drive can have your info in a matter of a handful of days, if not hours. I haven't had much experience bypassing print readers, but am assured and have witnessed them being bypassed with things as simple as a COPY (Yes a Xerox-type copy) bypassing them. Plus if it's on the thumb-drive itself you can be assured its not too sophisticated of one. As for the password I have bypassed many passwords in the past on things from bios to windows to programs. It's not hard and there is ready access to tons of programs that will nicely or, by brute force bypass nearly any password... This post has been edited by Kelsenellenelvian: Dec 15 2008, 03:43 AM |
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| Dec 15 2008, 04:43 AM Post
#33 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 2 Joined: 8-January 07 Member No.: 120935  |
Hello, thanks for the reply, and I am sorry fot any wrong approach.I own licensed versions of both XP and Vista, I have 2 PCs, and I need to reinstall windows very frequently, a clean install, an image file recovery won`t help me.I will use my flash memory to reinstall the OS as soon as the **** encoding fails and messes up my system32, which happens at least once ever 2 weeks.I live in Bulgaria, where the law that any policeman can seize anything from people, with no document or order from a judge, means the Police can steal anything they want from people and never return it.The EU court is aware of this, the procedure is long, so, this is another story.I don`t want my flash stick seized and my licenses literally stolen, last time a friend of mine was a victim of police literally stealing his PC with a valid Windows sticker, from his office.The policeman even asked him if the PC was good enough for videogaming...Now, communism is evil, as you might know.I want a single flash drive to ensure and backup both my PCs, and nothing more, nothing illegal, if I would want something illegal, I do not think I would post it online so everyone can see it.Well, I hope this is the right approach...And, do not worry, the police do not have any experts, as when they took a PC, I just disconnected the SATA cable, and they nevery made the windows boot  |
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| Dec 15 2008, 04:54 AM Post
#34 | |
| MSFN SuperB Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none |
You might be happy to know that one of the main contributors in the "install XP from USB" thingie is ilko_t, from Bulgaria.  You can find some info on the procedure also in your native language: http://www.hardwarebg.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102363 jaclaz |
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| May 25 2009, 07:32 AM Post
#35 | |
| Junior  Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 49803 OS: Vista Ultimate x64 |
Hopefully someone can help with this question... How would I make something like UBCD bootable within this environment? It has it's own partition but how do I properly point to it? is it that wingrub / grup will automatically point to the right files? |
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| May 25 2009, 07:41 AM Post
#36 | |
| MSFN SuperB Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none | QUOTE (andyd @ May 25 2009, 03:32 PM)  Hopefully someone can help with this question... How would I make something like UBCD bootable within this environment? It has it's own partition but how do I properly point to it? is it that wingrub / grup will automatically point to the right files? Something like UBCD or UBCD? UBCD has been in latest releases modified as to allow use of both Isolinux/Syslinux and grub4dos. However the steps are more or less the same. See here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6119 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7312 For a "generic" DOS based floppy image, start from here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3963 jaclaz |
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| May 25 2009, 09:07 AM Post
#37 | |
| Junior Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 49803 OS: Vista Ultimate x64 |
I meant booting an iso of some sort. Like say if I want to be able to add Acronis True Image to the boot as well I'll give the links a look - thanks! This post has been edited by andyd: May 25 2009, 09:07 AM |
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| May 26 2009, 05:20 AM Post
#38 | |
| MSFN SuperB Group: Software Developers Posts: 5031 Joined: 23-July 04 From: Italy Member No.: 25215 OS: none | QUOTE (andyd @ May 25 2009, 05:07 PM) I meant booting an iso of some sort. Like say if I want to be able to add Acronis True Image to the boot as well Boy, do I hate the use of the "any": each .iso and each OS has it's own story.  Read here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=6896&st=4 And here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5041 (post #4 is for Acronis) jaclaz |
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| May 26 2009, 08:36 PM Post
#39 | |
| Junior Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 49803 OS: Vista Ultimate x64 |
Well I meant more towards bootable tools etc but yeah I guess it was inappropriate  Thanks for the links. I actually registered and have been asking around there too.
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| Jun 27 2009, 09:32 PM Post
#40 | |
| Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 27-June 09 Member No.: 249101 OS: none |
Hello guys I try to follow the guide but i cannot create primary partition more than 4. My storage is 80GB 2.5" hdd in usb enclosure. Does it need to be primary for booting the OS? I need to make 6 partition like this 1. XP setup 2. Vista Setup 3. Seven Setup 4. Linux Setup 5. Ghost Image for boot 6. Program setup for each OS Now i can boot from Grub4Dos 0.4.4 and can see the menu But cannot boot !! Could anyone guide me the rest of this ? PS. i need windows setup partition to be NTFS but i am not sure for linux and else, please tell me what it should be? This post has been edited by Freshbie: Jun 27 2009, 09:49 PM |
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