In some scenarios where the users have need of running say Windows 7 and Windows Vista/Windows 7 locally on different partitions it is fully possible to do this using Configuration Manager 2007. The user could be local admin on the second partition, useful for software developers, engineers e.t.c. However you will not be able to manage the second installation as the configuration manager client already is installed on the other Windows installation and will obsolete/overwrite the second installations client.
To do this I found a cmd file to modify the bcd store somewhere on the web(sorry couldn’t find it again) and used that to start with. I assume in this case that there is a second formatted partition if you need to create it use Diskpart and the shrink command if you want to shrink the existing partition. The CMD file (will post a vbscript when I have the time to complete it) I use looks like this:
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REM CMD file used to add
for /F “tokens=3 delims= ” %%i in (‘bcdedit /create /d “Windows 7 -Second” /application osloader’) do set NEWGUID=%%i
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% device partition=D:
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% OSdevice partition=D:
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% path \windows\system32\winload.exe
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% nx OptIn
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% locale en-US
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% inherit {bootloadersettings}
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% systemroot \Windows
bcdedit /displayorder %NEWGUID% /addlast
REM CMD file used to add
for /F “tokens=3 delims= ” %%i in (‘bcdedit /create /d “Windows 7 -Second” /application osloader’) do set NEWGUID=%%i
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% device partition=D:
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% OSdevice partition=D:
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% path \windows\system32\winload.exe
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% nx OptIn
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% locale en-US
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% inherit {bootloadersettings}
bcdedit /set %NEWGUID% systemroot \Windows
bcdedit /displayorder %NEWGUID% /addlast
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I created a Task Sequence containing the following steps:
- Reboot to Winpe
- Apply the data image
- Reboot to the already installed and managed Primary OS
- Modify the BCD store using the script and the “Run Command line” step to make it possible to boot the the second OS
Some small modifications will make it possible to deploy a VHD file and add the necessary entries in the BCD store.
How would one after deploying the image to a second partition, boot to is using sccm to install software on it as part of a TS?
Hi,
That will be a hard nut to crack. The SCCM server will see that it is the same hardware ID and make the old SCCM object obsolete..
Hi, Jörgen Nilsson. Thanks for the great tips. I have a problem that bcdedit script does not active 2nd partition bootable. I confirmed that every single line is executed but it does not seem the command lines work successfully. When I run the same script, it does work. Am I missing something here? I assume it is something with permission or the way sccm execute scripting…