Some extra information.

Logged into the Windows 2003 Server, if I do My Computer->Properties->Advanced->Statup and Recovery->Settings I get the following message pop up:

"The C:\boot.in file can not be opened. Operating System
and Timing settings cannot be change."

Then on the Startup and Recovery dialog box that pops up, the Default operating system field is blank so there is no Boot.ini file to edit.

I guess this is because the necessary boot.ini file is actually on the XP operating system, on Partition 2.

If I repeat the procedure logged into the XP operating system on Partition 2 I see the following entries in the boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Enterprise" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut


Please note, I am using some Partition Manager server software to allow multi-boot during the start-up of the laptop. However the software is only detecting the XP operating systems on Partitions 1 & 2 (as these are bootable), but is not detecting the Windows Server 2003 operating system on partition 3 (as this is non-bootable with no boot.ini file of it's own I guess?).

What I would to do, as I mentioned before, is be able to log into the Windows Server 2003 partition using it's own boot.ini file, independent of the other partitions!

Thanks

S

Boot managers are finicky beasts. If you lose it recovery is very difficult. Make sure you backup any important information on a regular basis.

What partition type is partition 3? Primary or extended.

Boot.ini is just a text file and does not determine if the partition is bootable. Being a primary partition, marked as active, with ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini determine if the OS will boot. Partition 3's OS is booting from partition #2. In MS Speak this makes #2 the system partition and #3 the boot partition for 2003 server.

Here is your rub. 2003 is looking at c:\boot.ini. But it doesn't find it. This is because the boot manager is lying to the OS because its boot.ini actually resides on d: [partition 2].

This is kinda funny because Windows is smart enough to know its being lied to. Look at the boot.ini entries where they id the correct partition for both xp and server. But aspects of server are not smart enough because its looking at drive letter [c:\boot.ini] which does not match partition enumeration.

Given your present setup you will never, even with the boot manager, be able to directly boot partition 3 unless you, via the boot manager can directly install 2003 to the 3rd partition so the 3 partition is both system and boot for 2003.

BTW the way we do it now is not to multiboot but use Virtual PC or VMware to create virtual OS's. This makes your first XP install the host and you can run all sorts of VM's. They are just collections of files on the hard disk. You can switch between xp and server since both are running at the same time.

Also your setup did not need a boot manager. You could have done all three boots from the 1st XP boot.ini. Not sure why you have two XP boots but if you want to gain back partition space its something to consider which is lose the boot manager and have 2003 boot from the first xp partition.

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Joshua Bolton
Windows IT Forum Pro


Edited: 11/02/2009 at 05:52 PM by Wanderer