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Longhorn and XP Dual-Boot

After a dead-hd replacement (I dread hearing hard drives start to click), I have finally got XP and Longhorn to cooperate.  Longhorn still doesn't seem to like the RAID, but at least I can have XP on the RAID and Longhorn on a normal drive.  The trick is install XP first, install Longhorn, then boot off of the XP CD.  Run the recovery console off the CD, and “FIXMBR“, “FIXBOOT”, and “BOOTCFG /rebuild“, adding the XP install back to the boot menu.  All should be well at this point!

For reference, a full list of recovery console commands is available here. Now I can play with cool longhorn effects again (albeit through a dual-boot).

7 Comments

  • Handy trick for you:



    To install the recovery console on yoru machine so you don't need the CD, boot into Windows, and run d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons (where D: is your CD-ROM drive).

  • hey thanks for this posting! I was divided about giving Longhorn a machine onto itself or going for dual-boot.. There must be a tech note somewhere in the MSDN about dual-booting with Longhorn & XP or at least, there should be..

  • From what I understand, MS has never really supported dual-boot situations, especially with a beta (alpha) OS. Anyway, if you have any issues, please post 'em!

  • Have you ever considered using Windows XP and hosting Windows Longhorn in Microsoft Virtual PC or VMWare?



    --

    Luciano Evaristo Guerche

    Jacarei, SP, Brazil

  • "My laptop only has 512mb of ram...I think I need the full gig"



    Aaaargh! I only went over 100mb a little while ago...



    When w2k was released didn't Bill say that 640mb would be enough for anyone? :)

  • A bit of a misquote, the saying goes that when writing dos, Bill Gates said: "640KB should be enough for anyone." However this is largely stated to be a misquote (although I could not find hard evidence either way).

  • Yeah it was a misquote, he never said that.

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