How to Install an OS to Its Own Partition

These steps will guide you through installing an operating system to a new partition. It assumes you already understand how to use BootIt BM to create a partition and access the other features. You should also have your OS installation media (diskettes, CD, DVD, etc.) available.

1. Create a partition for your OS using the Work with Partitions dialog.
   
   
2. Create a new menu item for booting the new partition. To do so, click the Boot Edit button on the desktop, then the Add button to add the new item to the boot menu. Once the new item is configured, click OK until you get to the BootIt BM desktop, then click Resume.
   
   
3. Choose the entry you just created from the boot menu. Depending on the partition (assuming no optional options were chosen), it will either display a message saying that there is no operating system installed on the partition or that the partition is not bootable and the option to boot from the floppy diskette drive instead. If you've chosen one of the one-time options such as Next BIOS Device, BIOS Sequence, or Floppy Drive, then you'd need to insert your installation media before choosing the item from the boot menu and skip the next step. Note that you can also use the one-time boot options by selecting the boot item, then pressing and holding the Alt key, and then pressing the N key (Alt+N) to perform a one-time boot Next BIOS Device, Alt+S to perform a one-time BIOS Sequence, or Alt+F to perform a one-time Floppy Drive boot.
   
   
4. Insert your installation CD/DVD, if you have one. If you have a floppy diskette, and depending on what message you got in the last step, boot from the floppy drive by either answering the question or pressing a key. The floppy will now be booted and you can begin installation to the C: drive. If you have a CD/DVD, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reboot and boot from it.
   
   
5. If you don't have partitions limited under settings, then you should usually use the advanced or custom installation choices to make sure the installation routine doesn't try to create a new partition. Remember that the OS and system tools only see the partitions that are in the MBR, so if it creates or moves a partition it may put it right on top of an existing one that is not currently in the MBR partition table. You can however create or move volumes in an extended partition provided that the actual extended partition doesn't get moved or expanded.
   
   

That's it, you're done. Some operating systems (such as Windows) will deactivate BootIt BM. If that is the case, once installation is complete, all you need to do is boot with your BootIt BM Setup media and choose the Reactivate BootIt Bare Metal option.