@Freshbie

This guide, though still largely valid, is a bit oldish.

Newer releases of grub4dos have added features, and solutions/workarounds were found for most problems.

BUT, you seem to have started, just like all "freshbies" do , with a very ambitious project, without having (yet) digested the needed background knowledge.

There is NO way you can have more than 4 Primary partitions on any hard disk, for the simple reason that there are 4 entries in the partition table in the MBR.

You can have a standard setup:
1 primary partition + any number of logical volumes inside extended partition
OR
a maximum of 3 primary partitions + any number of logical volumes inside extended partition
OR
a maximum of 4 primary partitions

The above is NOT negotiable, though there are a couple of (relatively complex) workarounds to do that, but the whole point is that you need NOT more than 4 primary partitions.

Another thing that you may want to note is that you simply won't be able to install XP from a USB harddisk unless you use one of the apps in the dedicated forum (or replicate manually what they do).

What you should do is browse, search and READ both here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=157
and here:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66
(start from the pinned topics in both forums)

Using this app:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=120444
you will have most of the things you asked for, then you will need to integrate the results with the other items.

jaclaz

Very glad to hear from you !! Jaclaz

I now success to install XP Pro from my first partition.

I have read the thread you give me here.

It seems like, one who will truely understand must have technically knowledge on it.

If something i don't get it, i hope i can ask for your help


Lastly i will try to make my HDD boot from extended partition on logical disk.
I will see if i can do it and will report here for us all to study from it.

My primary concern for now is, Can i boot XP pro, Vista, Seven on same partition?
And for XP can i use the same partition for different version of XP?

Thanks alot !!

Freshbie

Only up to a certain extent.
For complex/multiversion setups, I guess this:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=121446
or a similar approach, running the actual setup from an already booted PE of some kind is easier/better.


Good

Read these:
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ptedit.htm
and this only partially unrelated thread, that may however give you some ideas:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=7138&hl=

jaclaz

Thanks Jaclaz.

The post you give to me is very interesting.
I try to follow and adapt to my use

Now i got an idea. If i use multiple folder to keep setup files instead of mutipartition.
How can i tell grub4dos to boot the loader inside the folder?

And now after i install a windows to my computer, i got a problem that my computer see any external HDD as a removable disk
then i can see only first partition. I use winsetupfromusb. I think i have to fix a migrate.inf but don't know how

You can tell grub4dos almost everything you want, and it will probably do what you told it to do, but the problem remains with the HARDCODED paths and more generally NOT FLEXIBLE way the Windows Setup works.
In other words, I doubt that you will succeed with your idea.


migrate.inf is only needed/useful to assign letters to a drive partition (differently from wht setup would do automatically).

If all your USB hard disk are shown as "Removable", there are two possibilities:

• all your USB hard disks are "Removable"
• somehow you managed to have installed/running the "reversed" dummydisk.sys Filter Driver

I haven't handy any install on which the rdummy.sys is installed/running, but it should be in the Registry in
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\rdummy]
(or somethng similar)

jaclaz

Confirmed to work on Windows 7 build 7600 RTM

You should try it's great and you can find test keys from microsoft btw