installed on USBHDD by boot.ini then re-partitoned, how to detect/select them?

[zapp]

hi Elmar,

I have a USBoot XP on USBHDD that has one primary active FAT32 partition and one extended logical FAT32 partiton.

I have installed Plop with the boot.ini install method.

It boots into Plop and then into the USBoot XP fine, everything works.

now I have repartitioned it and added two new primary FAT32 partitions and installed new XP in each.


on reboot I still have only one boot option with Plop. how do I add the two new primary partitons into the Plop boot menu?

first I tried "clear partition data" then "reset partiton data" but I still only have the original partiton available as an option to boot.

I just need to add the new partitions into plop so I can boot them. I have been reading http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#bootmanager

but I am a novice and it is hard for me to understand. do I need to know the hexidecimal value of each partion for this?


I thought about reinstalling plop and mabey it would automatically detect the new partitons but since I used boot.ini I am not sure it is safe or possible to uninstall.


thanks

[Elmar]

is the boot manager now really on the usb hd or on the internal? did you change the destination drive during install?

[zapp]

yes, it really is on the USB HDD. I did not have to change the destination drive but I did not have an internall IDE HDD in the machine when I installed Plop on the USBoot XP USB HDD.

should it be detecting the new partitions or is this step allways manual?

[zapp]

I have use "short uninstall" then reinstalled but still only one "HARDDISK 1" option available in first plop boot window.

I just need to learn how to add these new primary partitions to this first boot window so I have the option to boot the original or either of the two new ones.

please advise.

[Elmar]

there are 2 ways
1) you add a new profile with the second os
2) you press "q" in the main menu and select hda2

[zapp]

I dont know how to add a new profile with the second OS

I pressed "q" and selected it but then only get a blinking cursor.


I guess this is an experimental area (Plop installed on USB HDD)


I found success booting USB on old PC that doesnt have USB booting support in BIOS with Plop. naturaly I want to learn more about Plop and other ways it can be used but there is very little documentation to read. what there is I dont understand so I ask here.


I think I will try grub4dos in combination with USBoot to see if I can dual boot a USB HDD that way. I find much more documentation to learn from with grub4dos.


I like your program and it does what no other can or has so far by booting USB without BIOS support. I just wish it was easier to learn more the other features.

[Elmar]

I pressed "q" and selected it but then only get a blinking cursor.

are you sure you have a working winxp on the second partition?

I guess this is an experimental area (Plop installed on USB HDD)

no its not experiental

I found success booting USB on old PC that doesnt have USB booting support in BIOS with Plop. naturaly I want to learn more about Plop and other ways it can be used but there is very little documentation to read. what there is I dont understand so I ask here.

its difficult to write a good docu for all levels of knowledge

I think I will try grub4dos in combination with USBoot to see if I can dual boot a USB HDD that way. I find much more documentation to learn from with grub4dos.

grub/grub4dos is a good choose to use it as boot manager on the usb drive

regards
elmar

[zapp]

yes, Im sure is working winXP on the second partiton. but is not a normal working winXP, it is a USBoot winXP.

the great thing that I have found with USBoot winXP is that once phase-III is done then you can simply copy it to another HDD or Flash and even internal IDE and SATA HDD and it will boot up! now WinXP does not need to be "installed" only copy it!

and just now I learned that I can adjust / alter the boot.ini on c:\ to point to other copys of USBoot winXP and they will boot.

I have only tried this with USBoot winXP copied to second primary partition.

now I am trying to learn if I can do this and boot it from folders in logical partitions.

I dont know if this is possible so now I study boot.ini methods.

I may not need grub4dos for this task after all but I still want to learn about it too.

what makes learning these things (Plop, grub4dos, USBoot, etc.) complicated for me is that I only have the internet to learn from. I dont have a teacher so my learning is not in any order. it takes longer to learn things and I end up taking one step forward only to take two steps back so I can repeat the process over and over. it is frustrating but it is progress no less.


mabey you can help me understand a little bit more on these bootmanager programs.. I know what Plop can do that grub4dos can not do (or any other for that matter) but if you dont mind me asking, what can grub4dos do that Plop can not do?

I have been refering to this link for that type of info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_boot_loaders

Plop is listed here but there is no data presented for Plop. mabey you can add there?

well anyway, thanks for all your help so far. I am really enjoying booting USB on my old computer now!

if/when you need help testing on SATA and AHCI equipment I will be glad to help if I can.

thanks again Elmar

[Elmar]

the great thing that I have found with USBoot winXP is that once phase-III is done then you can simply copy it to another HDD or Flash and even internal IDE and SATA HDD and it will boot up!

a simple copy will not work because you need a valid boot sector. i think the boot sector of the second partition is not valid, but i had to look at the harddisk to be sure.

updating the boot.ini of the second os is required too if you want to boot without the first os, or you update the boot.ini of your first os as you have done.

what makes learning these things (Plop, grub4dos, USBoot, etc.) complicated for me is that I only have the internet to learn from. I dont have a teacher so my learning is not in any order. it takes longer to learn things and I end up taking one step forward only to take two steps back so I can repeat the process over and over. it is frustrating but it is progress no less.

i had no teacher too, i was starting to learning how booting works without internet 16 years ago! only with ms-dos and a debugger and a book. i am not a good teacher.

if/when you need help testing on SATA and AHCI equipment I will be glad to help if I can.

ok, i will tell you when there are news.

regards
elmar

[zapp]

a simple copy will not work because you need a valid boot sector. i think the boot sector of the second partition is not valid, but i had to look at the harddisk to be sure.

updating the boot.ini of the second os is required too if you want to boot without the first os, or you update the boot.ini of your first os as you have done.

I need learn how to update the boot.ini of the second os, now.

this is not exactly what I need anyway because it is on seprerate partitions. I need to learn how to multiboot usboot xp from different folders in the same partition if possible.

i had no teacher too, i was starting to learning how booting works without internet 16 years ago! only with ms-dos and a debugger and a book. i am not a good teacher.

HAhaha! I should have stuck with it back then. my first system was a timex, it had 16mb ram (yes, MB) and storage was on audio cassette! but I learned very early that I could not finish learning programming language before the next language came along so I thought it was pointless to even try. I started with line codes and "hello word" but thats about as far as I got.


when I noticed how you install plop thru the boot.ini it really got me thinking there must be alot more you can do through boot.ini

[pumalife]

there are 2 ways
1) you add a new profile with the second os
2) you press "q" in the main menu and select hda2

whats the automatic option? load the PLoP installer and do a full install of the boot manager? a re-detect option would be a great feature.

thanks colin