Adding 10k RPM SATA for Triple Boot????? Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss Adding 10k RPM SATA for Triple Boot????? in the Windows Vista forums; Hi Gang: I have a dual boot--XP Pro on drive 0 and Vista Ultimate on drive 1. I have a good disk image of the Ultimate installation on drive ...

[Znod]

Hi Gang:

I have a dual boot--XP Pro on drive 0 and Vista Ultimate on drive 1. I have a good disk image of the Ultimate installation on drive 1. Here is what I would like to do.

1. Add a 10k RPM SATA to on my desktop;
2. Install a different product key/Vista on the SATA hoping that my boot menu will allow booting to all three drives (at least temporarily);
3. Restore my disk image to the SATA drive;
4. Change my boot menu, if necessary, so that I boot automatically to the SATA drive; and
5. Format drive 1.

Help. I have no idea if what I want to do can be done by one with no real technical knowledge, what procedures might be involved, and what the pitfalls might be.

[crabby]

Soory for the poor reply, but I am so very ill right now.. my brain isn't functioning. You are suggesting adding another drive... installing Vista to it... then copying over ther install with an image from another drive?

Instead I would suggest copying the image first and then doing a repair install on the new drive with the other drive disconnected. This would mean you require no extrta work to be done on the boot menu.

crabby

[Znod]

I am sorry that you are ill crabby. I'd stay away from those Brit birds (bird flu you know). And, thanks for the reply. Please check out my questions/issues below. But, take your time replying. I need your full attention since I don't know what I am doing on this frontier.

You idea sounds good, maybe. I have been thinking of using some sort of "drives-unplugged" procedure as a result of advice you gave me once before. I assume that you mean that you would plug the other drives in once the image is restored and then do the repair install using the new key. Am I correct? Otherwise, how would all three installs end up in the boot menu. Please recall that I am talking about a triple boot. And, I assume the new key would take precedence over the key from my other Vista install (i.e., the key in effect when I made the disk image).

Thanks again.

[Snuffy]

You can add the 3rd drive to your BCD easy enough, and if you use the image from drive 1 to make drive 2 then you can use the manual command to change the key or use welcome center to change the key...
You can then format drive 1 and install what ever OS you want.. then manually change the BCD to reflect correctly.

For detailed command and option information, type bcdedit.exe /? <command>. For
example, to display detailed information about the /createstore command, type:

bcdedit.exe /? /createstore

For an alphabetical list of topics in this help file, run "bcdedit /? TOPICS".

Commands that operate on a store
================================
/createstore Creates a new and empty boot configuration data store.
/export Exports the contents of the system store to a file. This file
can be used later to restore the state of the system store.
/import Restores the state of the system store using a backup file
created with the /export command.

Commands that operate on entries in a store
===========================================
/copy Makes copies of entries in the store.
/create Creates new entries in the store.
/delete Deletes entries from the store.

Run bcdedit /? ID for information about identifiers used by these commands.

Commands that operate on entry options
======================================
/deletevalue Deletes entry options from the store.
/set Sets entry option values in the store.

Run bcdedit /? TYPES for a list of datatypes used by these commands.
Run bcdedit /? FORMATS for a list of valid data formats.

Commands that control output
============================
/enum Lists entries in the store.
/v Command-line option that displays entry identifiers in full,
rather than using names for well-known identifiers.
Use /v by itself as a command to display entry identifiers
in full for the ACTIVE type.

Running "bcdedit" by itself is equivalent to running "bcdedit /enum ACTIVE".

Commands that control the boot manager
======================================
/bootsequence Sets the one-time boot sequence for the boot manager.
/default Sets the default entry that the boot manager will use.
/displayorder Sets the order in which the boot manager displays the
multiboot menu.
/timeout Sets the boot manager time-out value.
/toolsdisplayorder Sets the order in which the boot manager displays
the tools menu.

Commands that control Emergency Management Services for a boot application
================================================== ========================
/bootems Enables or disables Emergency Management Services
for a boot application.
/ems Enables or disables Emergency Management Services for an
operating system entry.
/emssettings Sets the global Emergency Management Services parameters.

Command that control debugging
==============================
/bootdebug Enables or disables boot debugging for a boot application.
/dbgsettings Sets the global debugger parameters.
/debug Enables or disables kernel debugging for an operating system
entry.

[Znod]

Thanks very much for your reply Snuffster. I will attempt to digest it all. I especially like the idea of how to change the key. I will be leaving XP on drive 0 and Vista/key1 on drive 1.

What would happen if I:

1. Installed Vista/key 2 on drive 2 with all my drives plugged in (i.e., would I end up with a boot menu showing all 3 installations?);
2. Restored my image to drive 2 (with the other drives plugged in or not); and
3. Changed the key for drive 2 to key 2?

[Snuffy]

commands should be ran as Admin

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk

-ipk <product key> replaces existing key
-upk uninstall key
-ato Activate Windows
-dli Display license info (all)
-dlv display lic info
-xpr expiration date
advanced
-cpky clear key from reg
-ilc install license
-rilc re-install license
-rearm reset license status
-dti display ID offline activation
-atp Activate pro with confirmation ID

[Znod]

Oh oh!!! No no for me!!! Too far too fast for me without someone sitting in my office with me. Thanks though.

[Snuffy]

Actually you can have all 3 drives with Vista and the same KEY for like versions. You simply can not log on with 2 same Keys at a time.

Swapping keys is very easy... really.. I was for a bit dual booting Ultimate and Premium.. used the Ultimate Key when I upgraded Premium to Ultimate. swap worked fine, since I was not booting online with 2 same versions at the same time..
It was a no no when I used desktop premium Key1 and laptop premium Key1.
so tested by swapping Premium Key with Premium Key 2... all went AOK and I could upgrade both systems at the same time... currently desktop is single boot Ultimate.. deleted all the other boots using BCDedit..manually.. and laptop is back to Premium Key 1. Premium will be in older desktop with Key 2.

The real problems was deleting the #2 and #3 boot versions of Vista..
was more fun than simply FORMAT the drive...

[Znod]

I am not sure you are right about using the same key more than once on the same computer. It seems to me that a device (physical hardware system) might include a single drive in the specification of the device being used under the Vista EULA (see snip below). In this regard, the EULA indicates, for example, that a "hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device." I found out that a blade is as follows (Wikipedia):

"In computing marketing-speak, the term blade designates a standardised module which one can plug in to a computer system - after the manner of a changeable blade in a kitchen appliance.

Physical server blades supplement processing power; virtual software blades add specialised processing.

Physical blade servers have the advantage of increasing the processing density that can be housed in a standard 19-inch rack designed for electrical equipment and can also reduce cabling complexity. They comprise several processing units, each with one or more CPUs that plug into a blade chassis that in turn is mounted in a 19 inch rack. The blade chassis typically also houses one or more power supplies and additional technology to connect to networks and storage devices.

Hardware vendors such as IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard, and software vendors like Informix (with its DataBlades) have attempted to popularise the blade approach.

Compare the concept of a RAID device as a sort of computer storage blade."

[Znod]

crabby any more thoughts? Felix any thoughts?