[setbon]

I am considering purchasing DualBootPro Business license if it will allow me to do the following:

- I have 1 320 GB HDD located in a Sony Vaio VGN-1720D.
- I have a ghost image of Windows 7 pro 64 bit and a ghost image of XP pro SP3

I would like to know which image to restore first. The advantage of restoring Windows 7 first is that it will allow me to shrink the partition and create a second partition within the HDD. XP does not have this capabilities to the best of my knowledge so then I'd have to jump through more hoops to partition the HDD into two partitions. Therefore installing Windows 7 first is preferred. However, I once was told by Sony tech support that the XP should be installed first so if I could get steps for both scenarios that would be even better!

My objective is that once I have created the dual boot, I wish to be able to use Symantec ghost to clone the complete HDD or create an image of the complete HDD as well the ability to select the individual partitions and clone those. My ghost app currently does at great job at this and I want to make sure that by installing DualBoothPro this will not prevent me from using ghost to either create disk or partition images or clones.

If the above is feasible then I would much appreciate the step by step to achieve the dual boot for my specific situation.

Thank you and best regards,
J.

[yeshuas]

Is there any OS on the 320 GB harddrive now or is it a new clean Harddrive?

[setbon]

Thanks. So I located the three boot files and placed them in a folder ready to copy to the Win 7 root dir once I have the second partition ready.

I tried looking up the Gdisk32 switch to create a second partition and came accross:

. Known Issues: Windows 7 System Reserved Partition
Ghost by default does not save the System Reserved Partition which is created during Windows 7 operating System installation. An image of this partition has to be created separately.
During the system restore, the System Reserved Partition has to be restored before restoring the OS partition.

BEST PRACTICE: Take a disk image (default create image task settings) of a Windows 7 machine.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH111216

1. Should I be concerned with this ?

2. Also, based on http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2002112213111525?Open&docid=1998077023117366&nsf=ghost.nsf&view=4bfcbd4eda243a6c85256ee600554cb2

In Windows PE, the command should look like: gdisk32 [disknumber] /cre /pri /for /ntfs
This does allow me to format a partition, so do I just type in the same thing a second time so that it creates the second primary partition ?

[yeshuas]

the reserved partition they are talking about is where the system files and boot folder are stored, so yes you will need it and should be concerned. That should have been one of the first things listed in there instructions as a warning, but probably wasn't, because if you created a clone of your drive a lot of the times it is for restoring after an incident like a virus etc and you would most times format the drive including the reserved partition and start over, but since you didn't know maybe to created an image of the reserved partition you are out of luck

[setbon]

Could you please clarify what you mean with "you're out of luck" ?

Will I not be able to create a dual boot that I can then with Ghost choose either to create a disk image of both partitions or clone the drive or individual partitions ?

[yeshuas]

If you do not have a ghost image of the reserved partition, which is where the system files that are used among other things, to boot the operating system then the ghost image of the operating system partition that you have will not be able to boot, that is unless it contains the reserved system partition.

When you created that ghost image, did you create an image of the Drive, which included all partitions or an image of the partition containing the operating system or do you know, because you can't always see the reserved partition because it is hidden.

[setbon]

Oh okay, so basically I either can create an image of the Win 7 HDD or clone the HDD where win 7 is installed. The one thing I should avoid is creating an image or cloning individual partitions in Win 7, correct ?

I am starting from scratch with operating systems so I am free to configure based on best practice as long as I am told the steps to follow.

[yeshuas]

I believe that is correct. another thing comes to mind as well, what computer is the the harddrive in that already has windows 7 on it, is it the same computer?

[setbon]

I'm not sure if I understood the question correctly but I have a ghost image of a fresh install of win 7 on an external HDD and an image of XP on another external HDD. I had done a G-disk wipe of the HDD in the Vaio Z720D, installed the operating systems from disk and the made an image of the Windows operating system 7 to an external HDD. Then I repeated same process for XP operating system. So I have individual images that can be restored in which ever order I like.

If I first install Win 7, then I would shrink the partition in disk management and create a second partition when I could restore the XP image. That's pretty easy to do.
I'm just concerned about what I've read that it's better to install XP first - but I don't know if that holds true in my case.

installing XP first would be more difficult as I did not understand what Gdisk32 switch to use to create 2 partitions after doing another disk wipe with Gdisk32.

What should my next step be ?

[yeshuas]

now I'm confused, if you are able to do fresh installs, why don't you install 7 first then shrink the free space to create a second partition and install XP you will lose ability to access 7 until you move the 3 files, boot.ini ntdetect and ntldr to the hidden reserved partition and use DBP to create a dual boot scenario, there is a guide in the guides section to do that