Multibooters, Vista Dual and Multibooting

Multibooters
Dual and Multibooting with Vista

This site’s main aim is to understand Vista’s boot requirements,
particularly with regards to third-party boot managers and cloning.

Home

Vista Quirks and Bugs

Vista's new Partitioning
Rules

Vista's MBR DIsk
Signature

Vista's Boot Files
bootmgr and BCD

Installing Vista

Cloning Vista

Drive Letter Problems

Vista Tested
Boot Managers

Vista Boot Floppy

The Multiboot Process

The Windows System
and Boot Partitions

Links
Feedback
Windows Seven

WINDOWS
SEVEN
At first glance it appears there will be little difference between Vista and 7 in the areas covered on this web site. Full testing won’t begin until the final release but significant changes noticed to date will be explored on the new Win-7 page.

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Home Page
Multibooters - January 2007

This page last reviewed or updated - May 2009.

DISCLAIMER:
The information on this site is offered in good faith and no responsibility can be accepted for misuse that leads to loss of data or damaged hardware. There are any number of ways that the slightest mistake in procedure could trash a system. If you have a mission critical OS that you cannot restore, or data that is not fully backed up, then you should not be experimenting with such things.

This web site was never intended as a complete how-to guide on the subject of multibooting or cloning. The focus has been to publish information about Vista that was not seen elsewhere. Effort has been made to keep articles as non-technical and concise as possible.

Vista Changes The Rules

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Vista has re-written many of the established rules in the areas of multibooting, cloning, moving and deploying a Windows install. Almost none of this was highlighted or adequately documented and there is still very little accessible official information to be sourced on the subject. Here you will find some articles covering the main changes from previous Windows versions.

Vista Quirks and Bugs
A brief summery of the main issues that it is worth being aware of before you install Vista. A few are just annoying, but others can lead to lost partitions and data.

Vista's New Partitioning Rules
Details on the new partitioning scheme and how it can cause problems with dual or multibooting and imaging and cloning.

Vista's MBR Disk Signature
The Disk Signature is now an integral part of the Vista boot process and so needs to be maintained, particularly when imaging or cloning to other hard drives.

Vista's Boot Files - bootmgr and BCD
An examination of how the bootmgr and BCD files operate and how they find the OS to be booted. The disk signature and the offset of a Vista partition are crucial to their operation.

Installing Vista
How and when Vista decides to configure its own bootmanager with other OSes on the computer. What changes are made to another Windows OS and how to reverse these changes. How to install Vista as a fully independent OS without its bootmanager being placed inside another Windows install.

Cloning Vista
Solutions to the problems of cloning or moving Vista to other partitions or drives.

Drive Letter Problems
How to recover a Vista clone or image that won’t boot to the normal full desktop because the Windows drive letter has become changed.

Vista Tested Boot Managers
Details on some third-party bootmanagers tested with Vista.

Vista Boot Floppy
How to make a Boot Floppy that works for Vista.

Guide to the Multiboot Process
A straightforward introductory guide to the boot process in general and the Vista dual and multiboot method of operation. Goes on to cover how to avoid the pitfalls of the Microsoft way of multibooting and how third-party bootmanagers operate.

System and Boot Partition
Just a brief explanation of what the Windows System and Boot partitions are and how to determine which is which.

These pages are not guaranteed to be free of errors. I cannot offer support but if you can answer any of the questions on this site, or correct any mistakes, then please let me know by using the feedback form. McTavish_January_2007

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