[BlackHorseman]

Hello saikee,

In method 1 you're dedicating a special boot partition (primary, right?) and separately install a boot loader onto that partition? Is there an option to do that in a Vista/Win7? Or do you need to use some third party bootable disk?

In that case, the MBR will have a link to the boot partition.
But if I try to install Win7 or XP, won't they just overwrite that section of the MBR? What is gonna make them comply with the boot manager?

As for method #2.... can you hide a partition on a physical disk during installation? Confused....

My ignorance tooth hurts.....

D.

[saikee]

BlackHorseman,

The MS Windows are backward compatible. If you have Win2k and install Xp the later version of NTLDR from Xp will take over dual booting the two. The Win2k's version of NTLDR can't boot Xp. The NTLDR will be in the first partition recognised by MS Windows and it can be a Dos partition. In fact it can be a floppy disc but that needs a bit of doing (by following MS web instructions).

When you install Vista its bootmgr will take over but it doesn't boot Win2k or Xp. Bootmgr simply boot the NTLDR. Therefore you will have both NTLDR and bootmgr in the same original boot partition when all your Win2k, Xp and Vista can be in logical partitions none of which has a boot loader inside.

The Win7 uses bootmgr also so it will form part of the bootmgr menu which Win7 installer will modify the configuration for you. Alernatively you can do it with BCDedit in the boot up Vista or Win7. I have this done in my PC.

As for method #2 you can use Grub, or any reputable boot loader, to do the hiding and unhiding of partitions before each system is booted. The hiding of a partition only changes the partition type number in a systematic fashion adopted by all OSes. For example a NTFS partition is 7 and a Fat32 is type C. The hidden equivalent is 17 and 1c respectively.

Since MS Windows do not support foreign partitions they won't mount them. This feature has been used by all third party boot loaders in the business. To unhide a NTFS partition is just alter its partition type from 17 back to 7. The partition type number is a reserved byte in the 5th position of every partition table. Linux supports all partitions so hidden partitions are visible and mountable in Linux