[tenshi2505]

Don’t know if this has been answered before, but I was wondering if there was a way to have one hard drive that has 2 partitions and have it where if you choose one os, the other partition that has the other operating system on it becomes hidden. And the same vise versa. Let me give an example of what I mean:

Let’s say I have one 80gig hd that I have partitioned into 2 40gig drives C: and D:

then I install windows xp on one of the drives (the C: drive)

now I want to install something maybe like windows 2003 on the other partition but I want to hide the c: that has xp on it so 2003 gets install on the other partition as a C:

then I want to be able to boot up one or the other os and have it where if I choose xp, the partition that has 2003 doesn’t show up in my computer when xp boots up. and the same for when choose 2003, I want the partition that has xp to be hidden, so 2003 seems to be on the "C:" drive and not have it be on the D: drive.

the only way I can see this done is by simply building another computer (duh) or by getting another hd and put the other operating system on it and just unplug one drive and plug in the other when I want to switch (which would be a pain).

if anyone knows of a program or some other way to get this done it would be most appreciated.

Also if I appear to be unclear about want I want, please ask any questions.

[leeleeleelee]

Partition Magic does it with Boot Magic.

[pkk]

you need a good bootmanager
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/
good luck.

[FthrJACK]

why the need to have the drives as C each time?

install XP on your primary drive (C:)

now add a partition(s)

install your OS choices on the other partitions, 98, win2k etc.

doesent matter about the letter of the drive, and you will be able to see into the partitions from each os. If you really wanted you could hide/lock those partitions under each OS computer management, well, on the NT systems anyway. on win9X they wont be able to see the NTFS partitions anyway.

On boot up, XP boot will ask you which OS you want to load.

If you do this (it is very straight forward to do) then make sure XP is the first OS on the disk, it doesent seem to like coming anywhere else. The boot.ini will be updated automatically when you install your other OS. You can also comment lines out in it if you want to hide the option for certain partitions, Or alternatively set it to boot one OS by default, then the boot option wont even get shown until you turn the default off.

look in

system properties > startup and recovery

for the boot options described above.

[LiquidSage]

FthrJACK, on Feb 12 2004, 12:12 PM, said:

why the need to have the drives as C each time?

install XP on your primary drive (C:)

now add a partition(s)

Well, I for 1 keep 2 primary part. as c: because of cmdcons and pebuilder (testing & recovery). I have a laptop so my choices are limited. I went withMasterBooter and Acronis OSSelector is suitable as well. This way, My main OS has cmdcons and can mount the 1st parttion which only has PE. So if my comp is screwy or i'm testing with part 1 being fat32, I can use PE to see both partitions and can use the same drive letter which is handy for trying to get prog's in PE to work. I guess now that most plugins are using big ramdisks @ b:, it is not all that neccessary.
Also, having Win9x and an NT on 1 hd is a hassle. Drive letters do get changed quite a bit. Booting another OS through VMWare off the main hdd is easier as well.
OSLBootManager is also a good choice

[ProdigySim]

Windows will always assume the partition it is on is the C: Drive.
I don't know how to make the other partition invisible, but if the problem is that you just need the OSes to be installed on C, it should work fine.
Even if it is the latter partition on the drive, Windows will call it C: since you have Windows installed on it.