MULTI-BOOTING VARIOUS WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEMS

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................2
1.1 What IS this document about? ........................................................................................................2
1.2 What IS this document NOT about?................................................................................................2
1.3 First Things First.............................................................................................................................2
2. UNDERSTANDING THE BOOTING PROCESS........................................................................................................2
3. UNDERSTANDING THE PARTITIONING PROCESS.................................................................................................3
3.1Primary Partition..............................................................................................................................3
3.2Extended Partition............................................................................................................................3
3.3Logical Partition...............................................................................................................................3
4. EXPLOITING THE ACTIVE PARTITION CONCEPT.................................................................................................4
5. LIMITATIONS OF ROM-BIOS ROUTINES AND VARIOUS OS’S...........................................................................4
6. MULTI BOOTING IN WIN NT/98/ME/2P/XP/XP-HOME ON SAME M/C.............................................................4
7. MULTI BOOTING USING IMAGE-SERVER..........................................................................................................5
7.1 Editing the Boot.ini file....................................................................................................................6
8. FEEDBACK..................................................................................................................................................7

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 1. Introduction

1.1 What IS this document about?

The document deals with the problem of making various Windows operating system
coexist together on a single x86 machine. It provides, however, general information
that might be used for setting up any two, or more, operating systems per a machine.

1.2 What IS this document NOT about?

The document is not intended to be a guide or manual for setting up any specific
operating system. It contains no details on how to install any particular operating
system. Only general hints and suggestions on installation are given, with focus on
various Windows operating system.

1.3 First Things First

When we purchase a new Hard-disk, then we have to follow three steps to install an
Operating system.

These steps are

• Create Partitions on the Hard-Disk.
• Format the Partitions.
• Install the Operating System

If we want to Multi-Boot among various operating systems, then we need to plan the
partitioning process according to your OS requirements and limitations of the Intel
Bios/PC systems. For this we will need to understand Booting process and
Partitioning process.

2. Understanding the Booting Process

When you turn on the power of your computer, the central processing unit (CPU)
takes control. The CPU immediately executes the instructions built into the
computer’s ROM- BIOS, a program that contains the startup procedures. The last part
of the BIOS instructions contains the boot routine. This routine is programmed to
read the master boot record from the first sector of the first physical hard disk. The
master boot record (MBR) contains a master boot program and a partition table that
describes all of the hard disk’s partitions. The BIOS boot routine executes the master
boot program, which then continues the boot process. The master boot program looks

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 at the partition table to see which primary partition is “active”. If there is only one
primary partition, that partition’s OS is loaded and booted into operation. If the hard
disk has more than one primary partition, each bootable partition (i.e., containing an
OS) has its own boot record stored in its first sector. This boot record holds a boot
program designed specifically to start that partition’s installed OS. This OS-specific
boot record is usually written to the partition when the partition is installed in that
partition. After identifying the active partition, the master boot program starts that
partition’s boot program. In turn, the boot program loads the necessary OS files and
starts the OS.

3. Understanding the Partitioning Process

To understand the partitioning process we need to understand the different types of
partitions and their use. There are three types of partitions: Primary, Extended and
Logical. Primary and extended partitions are the main disk divisions; “one hard disk
may contain up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one
extended partition”. The extended partition can then be further divided into any
number of logical partitions.

3.1Primary Partition
A primary partition may contain an operating system along with any number of data
files (For example, program files or user files). Before an OS is installed, the primary
partition must be “Set Active” and logically formatted with a file system compatible
to the OS.

Note: By default the first primary partition is active partition. And

an OS always boots from an active partition.

3.2Extended Partition
The extended partition was invented as a way of getting around the arbitrary four-
partition limit. An extended partition is a container in which you can further
physically divide your disk space by creating an unlimited number of logical
partitions. An extended partition does not directly hold data. You must create logical
partitions within the extended partition in order to store data. Once created, logical
partitions must be logically formatted, but each can use a different file system.

3.3Logical Partition
Logical partitions may exist only within an extended partition and are meant to
contain only data files and OS’s that can be booted from a logical partition (Windows
2K/XP/XP-Home).

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 4. Exploiting the Active Partition concept
The active partition is the partition from which an OS is booted at computer startup.
Now during the installation of the OS, the OS’s boot files are copied to the first sector
of the partition which is currently active. To Multi-Boot successfully among different
OS’s in one machine we need to exploit this concept of active partition. So, before
installing any OS we will be following the additional steps of making a partition
active and then installing the OS in the partition. What this process will do is that it
will keep the boot information of different OS’s in their respective partitions. With
this setup, you can have multiple OS’s in different partitions (each installed after
setting their respective partition active). At the time of startup, the OS installed in the
current active partition will boot up. Now, if we want to boot to some other OS, we
will need to make its respective partition active. This can be easily done using
“fdisk” command in Win 98/Me or by going to “Control Panel ->Administrative
Tools-> Computer Management->Disk Management” in Win 2k/XP. This will open
the “Computer Management” window, in this window right click on the partition
which you want to make active and choose “Mark Partition as Active”.
This process of going to “Control Panel” or using “fdisk” to make the partition
active can get cumbersome. This can be easily handled by a boot manager which
come up at startup and will prompt you to choose the Primary partition from which
you want to boot. What this boot manager does internally is that it marks the primary
partition selected by user at startup as active and transfers the control to the boot
loader of the OS installed in that partition.

5. Limitations of ROM-BIOS routines and various OS’s

Following are the limitations that we need to consider while planning to Multi-Boot
among various Operating systems in one machine:
• You can have only 4 primary partitions.
• Only Primary partitions can be set active, i.e. logical partitions cannot be set
active.
• Win NT, Win 98 and Win Me can only boot from Primary partitions.
• If you have 4 primary partitions you cannot create more partitions in the
system.(the only way to have more than 4 partitions is to convert one primary
partition to Extended partition and then creating any number of logical
partitions in this partition)
• If you want to install Win 2K/XP/Xp-Home in logical partitions then you
must set any of the primary partition as active (this is because logical
partitions cannot be set active).

6. Multi Booting in Win NT/98/Me/2P/XP/XP-Home on same

m/c

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 To have more than four OS in one m/c, first we will need to make more than 4
partitions. The way to do this is via Extended/Logical partitions. Once we have
converted a primary partition to extended partition we can create logical partitions in
it. Now our plan is to make four primary partitions (P1, P2, P3 …). After this we will
convert 4th partition to extended partition. In this extended partition we can create any
number of logical partitions (say L1, L2, L3 …)

Now according to our limitations we can have following Partition-OS assignment.

P1Win NT
P2Win 98
P3Win ME

L1 Win 2K
L2 Win XP
L3 Win XP-Home

Now Before installing each OS we will have to do follow following steps:

1. Boot to DOS using bootable floppy.
2. On command prompt run the ‘fdisk’ command.
3. For Win NT/98/Me select the primary partition( P1,P2 or P3) and make it active
Or,
4. For Win2K, Win XP and Win XP-Home select P1 as active Partition (Win NT
partition).
5. Install the OS.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for installing each OS.
7. After installing Win NT, install a Boot loader.

8. Now when you will boot your m/c, boot loader will give you option to boot from
P1, P2 and P3. Choose P2 and P3 to boot to Win 98 and Win Me respectively.
9. When you will choose P1 again a sub-menu will come prompting you to choose
among Win NT/2K/XP/XP-Home to boot from the OS.

7. Multi Booting using Image-Server

The process of multi-booting test lab m/c’s using Image-Server is even simpler. For
this follow the following steps:
1. In BIOS settings enable the boot from Image-svr option.
2. Prepare partitions (three 2 GB primary partitions & three 2GB logical partitions).
3. Boot the m/c from Image-svr.
4. Select the OS you want to install.
5. Select the partition on which you want to install the OS.
6. Dump the image on the selected partition.
7. If the Os installed is Win NT/2k/XP/XP Home, then edit their boot.ini (for details
read the section below on how to edit the boot.ini)
8. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for each OS you want to have in test m/c.

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 9. Install a Boot loader program to set the partitions as active on the fly as needed.

7.1 Editing the Boot.ini file

Now if the OS installed through Image-svr is Win 98/Me, then it can be booted by
simply making the corresponding partition active. If the OS installed is Win
2k/XP/XP-Home then you have to first edit their “boot.ini” file to reflect the partition
on which it is installed.
e.g. when you installed 2K/XP, then their “boot.ini” will be having following text

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=30
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Now before setting these partitions as active we have to change the boot.ini to reflect
the partition from which w have to boot the OS. If the OS is installed in partition
number 3, then we will have to indicate this in the boot.ini by changing the partition
number to 3(see Yellow to Magenta transition in the sample boot.ini above and below
this text)

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=30
3. default=multi(0)disk(0) rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Again if we want to Multi-boot in more than 4 OS then before installing OS from

image, we have to create Extended-Logical partitions (remember only Win
2k/XP/Xp-Home can boot from logical partitions).

Also we cannot set logical partition as active, so we will have to set any NT based
(NT/2K/XP/Xp-Home) primary partition as active. Then in this primary partition’s
boot.ini we will have to enter the entry for booting the OS’s from logical partitions.
The typical entry that we will add at the end of boot.ini will have the format like

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(n)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Here, replace the ‘n’ in partition(n) with the partition number of the OS. Again if the
partition whose “boot.ini” you are modifying is Win NT (not Win 2K and Win XP)
then copy “ntldr” and “ntdetect.com” from the root of the 2K or XP or XP-Home and
replace the corresponding files in the root of the Win NT partition( We are doing this
because NT OS’s “ntldr” and “ntdetedt.com” cannot load Win 2K and Win XP,
whereas Win 2K and Win XP OS’s “ntldr” and “ntdetct.com” can boot Win
Nt/2K/XP).

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 8. Feedback
All suggestions, comments and corrections are welcome. If you find misspelled word,
unclear phrase, or your experiences related to the topics of the document are different
please let me know. Please also do not hesitate to ask for help in case of problems.
Just mail to hgilani@adobe.com

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