Soup Recipes

Continuing from previous post…

So, my installation of Windows Server 2008 on 2nd partition, on top of existing Windows XP was fine. No hiccup whatsoever. I proceeded with running the Windows update, and then the adding server role. So far so good. Then it requires restart. No problem, until the Windows Server 2008 was loaded successfully. Hey, where’s my dual-boot screen?

Following the KB, if I install the older Windows first, then the newer Windows, the dual boot screen should be available. This is confirmed by this KB article. So, quick check on the boot sector shows that indeed, my Windows XP entry was gone. My “displayorder” was referencing to only the Windows Server 2008 path.

So, following the KB, I tried to re-create the entry:

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “Windows XP OEM”

“The specified entry already exists”??? Hmm… Let’s dig it out:

bcdedit /enum {ntldr}

Hey, It’s there! But, wait, it’s pointing to “C:\”. Ohh, when I installed the Windows Server 2008, the new partition was assigned letter C, and the other partition (that contains the Windows XP files) was assigned letter D.

Easy then. So I’ll just need to change the path, and set it back to “displayorder”.

bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=d:

bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Restart, and voila!

(What? You’ve never seen a CRT monitor before?)

Due to low hardware specs that I have (mostly with 1-2GB RAM specs, with a 3GHz processor) I was usually quite reluctant to run many virtual machines. (I was looking for a way to setup something like a grid of PC/laptops though, like Google’s grid of “cheap”-PCs which hosted their Google File System. Not sure if it’s even economically feasible for consumer like me. :D) But now, I need to setup a BizTalk Server 2009 development environment, so, die die also must do now.

Anyway, I was reading about Windows 7 dual-boot from VHD from Keith Combs’ blog, and was getting all excited of the thought of being able to setup Windows Server 2008 on my existing XP machine. Then, I realised that it’s only possible on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2! I discovered it the hard way, when I tried (and failed with unrecognised command) to create a new virtual disk using diskpart. :( I suspect that it’s because Windows XP diskpart is still on version 5.1.3565, and Windows Server 2008 is on version 6.0.6002. And, Windows Server 2008 R2 is currently only available in 64-bit edition. Arghh!!!! My machine is only 32bit, and I need Windows Server 2008! (I still need to verify this though, as I read some articles mentioned about creating vdisk using diskpart available in Vista and Windows Server 2008. Pointers or comments are welcomed.)

So, next plan was to do the old school way. Partition my harddisk, and install Windows Server 2008 on the new partition, on dual-boot configuration with the current Windows XP. (Sorry lah, company asset, still on Windows XP.) So, first step, obviously is having installation disk. But instead of burning a DVD, I used my 2GB SanDisk USB drive, with reference to Dennis Chung’s blog. Well, enough with surprises, WinXP diskpart does not recognise USB drive, so I have to create my installation USB drive using my Windows Vista.

All set, time to install. To be continued…