Windows Vista forum: How to use Partition Magic, Boot Magic, Powerquest

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Now read the whole thing. I find the treatise to be very complete and why I can't think of using Vista for high resolution applications we currently are writing. Microsoft has been quiet about our concerns so at the present time we are taking a wait and see stance.

Bob

Well, my favorite software is Partition Magic and Microsoft said "sorry, it will not work on Vista".

So I set out to see if it was true. You be the judge.

I like to see how things work so I played around with Partition Magic and Vista.
If you perform my test you will be astounded.


Use a PC you can play with and do this and you will not believe "Boot Magic" automatically programs all Vista "boot loaders". I was astonished. Keep in mind two things if you try my test-You can not start from a Vista operating system and boot magic must be installed and enabled.


1. Powermax 4.22 Drive Eraser....Maxtor...Put it in the CD rom drawer and it writes the hard drive to zeros like it was when it was brand new.
2. Windows XP Professional, or Home Edition. Only used for "Repair" features.
3. Powerquest Drive Image 7.0
4. Symantec Recovery Disk (Norton Ghost (9.0).I only use this in case you try to restore a drive and it says, incorrect parameter, target is smaller than source". This disk ignores the difference.
5. Powerquest Partition Magic
6. You must run partition magic and make two emergency rescue floppy disks, one to boot to any partition (boot magic floppy) and one to load partition magic.




You must have a large external hard drive.

You must have the Windows XP CD that came with your PC or the recovery disk before you can do anything.

First copy or save and data or pictures or stuff you DON'T want to lose to an external hard drive and than. Use a TEST computer.

1. Run powermax and erase the drive to zeros.

2. Install the Windows XP operating system.

3. Install Microsoft net framework 1.1

4. Install Partition Magic Powerquest Drive Image 7.0 (Looks just like Ghost 9.0)and immediately make two floppy disks for recovery environment, one for "Boot Magic" as stated above" and one for "partition magic".

5. Partition the hard drive into four partitions using partition magic. How this is done depends on the size of the hard drive. Don't change the active partition. When you partition the hard drive give them names so you know which is which. Lets say the hard drive is 200 GBs, make the partitions 35, 35, 35, 80. The 80 will be an extended logical drive with a partition 2 GBs of Fat32 file system. (Needed for Boot Magic.

6. Boot to the installed operating system into windows.

9. Click on Powerquest Drive image and click on "back up drive". Select the drive you are using.
10. Make the target a folder you created in the external hard drive.

11. When it is finished copying the partition to the external hard drive open "Powerquest Drive Image" again and click on "restore a drive" and browse to your source in the external hard drive and make the target the BLANK partition#2.(With a name)


12. When it is finished writing the drive you than have two perfect operating systems totally independent of each other.

13. But when you get to this point now how do you go from one operating system to the other without installing "boot magic". It is easy, just click on "partition magic" and right click on the operating system you want to boot to and at the bottom click on "advanced" and click on "set active" and boot.

14. When you get to this point you will fail (probably) to boot correctly into the new operating system.

You will get, " autocheck missing , skipping auocheck and it reboots over and over and over.

Or you will get a black screen that says "hal.dll is missing, reinstall hal.dll...

or others...

All are fixed using Windows CD repair feature that you can get into by loading Windows XP and choosing R for repair. (Need password) I made my own by slip streaming SP2 on to Windows XP.

When you get into command prompt select the operating system you want to logon to and type: bootcfg /rebuild
What: Windows XP Home Edition
How: fastdetect/

Notice the space after bootcfg before the slash mark and no space after fastdetect and the slash mark.

This will rebuild the correct boot loader.


Why I always load two or three XP operating systems instead of just using
the "Symantec recovery disk"? I do it because it is faster and I like it; however if you get into this stuff you will need the recovery disk at some point when you get the " incorrect parameter, target is smaller than source".

I always take care to match my source and target size but sometimes I have to use the Symantec recovery disk which came with Norton System Works 5. It loads exactly like Norton Ghost 9.0.



Now you can install Vista on any partition either as an upgrade (must go on top of Home Edition) or as a full install Vista DVD.

Once you have installed Vista save a drive image using powerquest drive image 7.0 or copy a drive to a drive. Both of these are targeted to an external hard drive and I leaned that if I copy a drive to a drive I can do this to it

Say I copy a Vista Drive to an external hard drive partition (copy drive to drive) and the Vista Hard Drive is 60 GBs and the external hard drive is 60 GBs.

After I finish I right click on the drive in the external hard drive and select properties and see that it is only using 16 GBs Are you ready for this????

Not only can I copy a Vista Drive to an external hard drive but now I open Partition Magic and right click on the partition in the external hard drive that holds the 60 GB copy of the Vista Operating system and resize it to 24 GBs.



I finished with this test and did it over and over an as long as Boot Magic is installed and enabled I can do anything with Vista I did with XP.

Here is a control test to confirm my findings.
1. Partition one and two has Vista installed by simply restoring a drive on the selected partition.
2. Partition three has XP Home Edition.
3. Ran Norton Ghost 9.0 recovery and installed Vista on partition three.

4. Made two mistakes (good mistakes) before testing Forgot to correct and delete incorrect boot loaders in VistaBootPRO for partition one and two and turned off Boot Magic; as a result I could not get into any operating system. I tried running the Vista DVD repair, boot magic rescue floppy, all aspects of the Norton Recovery Disk, Partition Magic rescue floppy and nothing would work. Vista DVD repair fixed the problem but still would not boot using the correct boot loader.

5. It cost me an hour because I had to use the Norton Recovery Disk and reinstall Windows XP Home (from drive image on external hard drive) back on partition three and run bootcfg /rebuild to get back into it. When I ran R repair it only recognized the XP partition and let me right in.
6. After I got in I went to the fat 32 partition that has Boot Magic on it and set it active with partition three as the default.
7. I then booted to the two Vista partitions first and ran VistaBootPRO and deleted the incorrect boot loaders.
8. Next I booted to Ghost 9.0 recovery and restored Vista V2i image to partition three.

9. Booted perfectly using Boot Magic and booted correctly to partition one and partition two. Partition three would not boot (I already knew it wouldnt) so I made sure partition three was set to default OS in Boot Magic configuration and ran Vista DVD repair and it corrected it and booted to the Vista and got this message what operating system do you wish to logon to it gave me a choice of four to pick from. One, two and four were WRONGchoice three was correct. In VistaBootPRO the correct one says Drive C.
10. I then opened VistaBootPRO and deleted choice 1, 2 and 4.

11. So in this test I now have three operating systems running Vista and one logical drive (fat 32) with Boot Magic installed on it. On my logical drive the fat 32 is 1.5 GB's and the other 78 GB's I can divide and divide any way I choose. Remember, I only have ONE hard drive.
12. Test complete and turned out exactly how I thought it would.

13. Conclusion to this test is as follows. Boot Magic MUST be active in order to boot into the operating systems when restoring Vista drives.

14. The Vista drives will never boot correctly(on first boot) and the user must run the Vista DVD repair feature to correct the boot loader. Then run VistaBootPRO and delete the incorrect boot loaders.

15. Boot Magic always works perfectly booting into any Windows operating system. It must always be enabled but any partition can be the default partition.

16. Final conclusion: 1.Boot Magic must be enabled. If disabled you must not boot to Vista; only boot to Windows XP. If you do boot to Vista it is weird, sometimes you can get back to XP by using the boot magic floppy rescue disk but not always. When you cant get back it is erase disk time.

17. None of this can be done if Vista is installed first on the computer. Vistas NTFS is different. NOTHING WILL WORK using Partition Magic starting with Vista.

18. But if you start with a hard drive written to zeros and follow my methods all aspects of partitions can be manipulated, copied, transferred and restored from external hard drives just as we could do with Windows XP.

All of this stuff is just me trying to figure out how things work. All these operating systems are 30 day test public keys Vista put out.

So, in conclusion, say I have a full copy of Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional that I am not using and I buy a new computer with Vista on it.
Here is what I would do.
Erase the hard drive to zeros
Install Windows XP and follow the procedure I listed above.
I would install XP Home, XP Home, XP Professional
Install Boot Magic on the Fat 32 partition.
Install Vista of the first XP Home
Boot and have my choice of Vista, XP Home and XP Professional


PS: The most amazing part of my test was when I copied a Vista drive to a external hard drive I could then make it smaller using Partition Magic. I really like copying drive to drive because of this.
You must realize that all I did in my test was convert Vista NTFS to XP NTFS thus making it visible to partition magic.

Sincerely
Jimmy Carter

Tell me what you think.

Retired Science Instructor

I love to experiment.
I tried to explain this to this web site and they refused to listen to me and would not perform my test and
banned me from their web site.
Isn't that terrible? ; an old man pushing 80 years of age and they stifle free thought and expression out of fear and ignorance.
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/index.php?sid=e7739f6a473b80e1a3f8acae2470958e


Tip: After I erase the hard drive ( Powermax 4.22 Drive Eraser) I just put the Norton Recovery Disk in and restore a drive to the 200 GB drive from a drive image stored on an external hard drive.

It most often boots to "missing operating system" when I do this and all you have to do(to correct) is boot from the boot magic rescue floppy and choose 1 and boot. When it opens look at what it says. The reason it booted to "missing operating system" is because it was not visible.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

If you start with Vista used Vista to shrink the volume non of the Partition Magic products work because the NTFS is different.

If you want help on how to do it starting with Vista go to this site and ask.

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/forum-95.html

I personally don't like their way and they hate my way but my way is really easy. But remember, they are asking for money and I am not.

If you use my way you can turn Boot Magic off and only boot to XP and anyone using your PC won't know it has Vista on it.

Their way always boots to a choice.

You enable or disable boot magic by using the boot magic configuration but always make XP the default operating system. Read the long post I have above.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Here is the end of my post above that explains how to manipulate Vista just like Windows XP.
So, in conclusion, say I have a full copy of Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional that I am not using and I buy a new computer with Vista on it.

Here is what I would do.

Erase the hard drive to zeros

Install Windows XP and follow the procedure I listed above.

I would install XP Home, XP Home, XP Professional.

Install Boot Magic on the Fat 32 partition that I create using partition magic.

Install Vista of the first XP Home

Boot and have my choice of Vista, XP Home and XP Professional


PS: The most amazing part of my test was when I copied a Vista drive to a external hard drive I could then make it smaller using Partition Magic. I really like copying drive to drive because of this.
You must realize that all I did in my test was convert Vista NTFS to XP NTFS thus making it visible to partition magic.

Sincerely

JC

If you need help post back and I'll help you. I get an email notice when someone posts so I'll know right away.

the other site. Don't use my method UNLESS you have a Vista Installation DVD.
You are right about the recovery disk. I gave you the other sites method that you MUST use.

Cheers:
JC

Yes my recovery disk is Vista

Jeff

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html&sid=b81410fdb9023f62568528b96248d01d


Here it is if you can't find it on my URL I posted above.


Windows Vista came pre-installed on your new computer and now you want to create a dual boot with Windows XP for reasons of your own. Perhaps you have some older hardware that is not supported, or a program or game that won't run in Windows Vista.


Preparation

The first thing one needs to do is to create a new partition on which to install Windows XP. This you can do by going to Computer>Right click>Manage>Disk Management.

Now right click on the blue primary hard drive at the bottom section of Disk Management and select "Shrink Volume". You can then choose how big the new partition that you want for Windows XP should be. It's suggested that you take into account that you may want to install programs and save data there, but also that you do not limit the amount of space available to Windows Vista unreasonably. Your total hard drive size will be your ultimate guide in selecting the amount of space you allocate to each operating system.

Shrink your Vista Partition---Unallocated Space
--------

After the primary partition has been shrunk you will have Unallocated space visible in black. At this point it is recommended that you change the drive letter of your DVD drive by inserting a DVD or CD into your DVD drive and close Autoplay when that dialog box appears, right click the blue area of your DVD drive in Disk Management and select "Change drive letter and paths..." and click Change. From the drop down menu on the right of the dialog box that appears, select E and click OK, and then click Yes when you asked to confirm your action. Now remove the CD or DVD from your drive.

Change your drive letters


Changing the drive letters as above leaves your drive/partition structure in a less confusing form than having your hard drive partitions irregularly lettered and does not interfere with the functioning of your DVD drive in any way. You will now have drive letter D: available to use for the partition you will create for Windows XP.

It is now time to create your Windows XP partition from the unallocated space by right clicking the unallocated space and selecting "New simple volume". Follow the "New simple volume Wizard" and accept the defaults until you get to the point where you can insert "Volume label" and type XP there to make identification of your XP installation drive easy. At this point select "Quick Format" to speed the process and continue with the wizard to completion of this action.

Create a new partition


NB. At this point it is critical that you close Disk Management and restart your computer so that your changed disk/drive structure is taken fully into the Windows Vista configuration settings. After your system has restarted, you will again need to restart your system to finalize the setting up of your new partition.

Reboot twice to set
your drive configuration



Install Windows XP

Once you have completed the preparation, you can now insert your Windows XP setup disc and restart your system again to boot from your XP CD and install Windows XP in the normal manner.


Create a Vista Dual Boot Menu

At this point you will have lost your ability to boot into Windows Vista for the time being and the next stage of this excercise is devoted restoring a dual boot to both Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Once you have your XP installation and drivers all installed, download and install VistaBootPRO. Make sure you follow the prompt to install .Net Framework 2.00 as VistaBootPRO will not run without it.

Open VistaBootPRO, ignore the prompt to backup your BCD. Go to the Bootloader tab and "Reinstall the Vista bootloader". Next, go to the Diagnostics item on the menu bar and select "Run Diagnostics". VistaBootPRO will default back to the Manage OS Entries page and you will see that you now have entries there for "Earlier versions of Windows" as well as "Microsoft Windows Vista".

Reinstall the Vista bootloader


Restart your system and select the operating system you would like to boot to.

The Vista dual-boot menu

I get to this point:

Open VistaBootPRO, ignore the prompt to backup your BCD. Go to the Bootloader tab and "Reinstall the Vista bootloader". Next, go to the Diagnostics item on the menu bar and select "Run Diagnostics". VistaBootPRO will default back to the Manage OS Entries page and you will see that you now have entries there for "Earlier versions of Windows" as well as "Microsoft Windows Vista".

However when I "Run Diagnostics" I only see the Microsoft Vista Partition and the HP Recovery Manager partition. I do not see "Earlier versions of Windows" I know that the vista partition exists since I am booted into it. I tried adding the OS entry by hand but when I tried to boot, from that partition from boot loader, it couldn't read the boot file. Any ideas?

Jeff

Good job Jeff.

I hope you are happy.

Aren't computers great?

web site. I know my way and I don't like their way. Their way you are a complete total captive of microsoft and my way you have total freedom.

Microsoft set it up that way on purpose because they know my way I can save a drive image and install it three times on a computer and they can't tell the difference between them. Ditto for Vista and I am sure if they have read my stuff they are NOT happy.

Apparently there is an issue with this method and HP6000 series which has a predefined recovery partition. For these you need to do the following after you get to the Vista Boot Pro section

1. Reinstalled Vista bootlaoder.
2. Run Diagnostic.
At this stage I can see Vista and Hp recovery in my OS list.
3. Added windows XP as new legacy OS.
4) When selecting the Drive ... Select C: and now reboot
You can now boot either Windows Vista, XP or the recovery partition.

Jeff

"We only lose what we didn't backup."

While this discussion reveals ways to do this, are you ready in case it doesn't work?

Yes, I right clicked on the unallocated space but the only option I had is "New Simple Valume" and even that option didn't work!!
I used to create partition and back up drives quite easily through Partition Magic and Norton Ghost 9 but since both are not compatible with windows Vista I thought if I can make a partiotion and install windows xp insted of erasing or formating the hard disk I will save some time but I suppose that is not possible.
I really appreciate your help but I'm going to need some time to assimilate the new information and experiment.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
ajj_sa

Since you mentioned it, I'm going to need some help if you don't mind.
I wasted valuable time trying to avoid erasing the whole drive but I failed miserably. However, I played around a lot. I did succeed in making a new partition using windows vista disk management and installed the windows xp on the new partition but now Partition Magic wouldn't work and my computer only boots from windows xp. I reinstalled the windows vista in the other partition but then only windows vista would work. I repaired the windows xp but the vista and the Partition Magic wouldn't work!! My problem is that partition magic didn't work even in window xp I guess because the partitions were made by vista.
Anyways, I'll do it your way. Could you tell me how can I download Powermax 4.22 Drive Eraser? And why not just format the hard disk and install windows xp?
Sorry for the trouble.
Thank you.
ajj_sa

and had trouble so I found another VERY good download site.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Maxtor_Powermax_d1386.html


Make a floppy.
Cheers:
JC

The reason I like to use powermaxen.exe to erase my hard drive is because it writes it to zeros and it tells you if it is OK.

Just formatting leaves a lot of stuff on the disk.

Post back and let me know how it boots up using boot magic. I have yet to have any problems at all. Works perfect everytime.

Cheers:
JC