Thread: dual hard drives boot selection?

  1. #1
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    dual hard drives boot selection?

    hey fellas, i've taken over another hard drive in the house and i've added it to the computer im on now just as some extra storage space. im running xp on one and 98 on the other.

    is there a way to pick which one i want to boot from w/o having to adjust IDE cables and jumpers every time? i can get it to boot just fine but want the option to select wich os to use .... ? any suggestions?

    thanks in advance
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  2. #2
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    if you cant install some kind of boot manager,
    then you may need to install winxp, then win98,
    but if i were you id just format the 98 drive and use
    it as backup storage.

  3. #3
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    i dont know the exact line but in c:\boot.ini


    [boot loader]
    timeout=30
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws Server 2003, Enterprise" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn



    that what mine looks like, you could possible add


    multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws 98"


    but i dont know if that iwll work, but it might be worth a try
    and as long as you dont mess with the otehr stuff, if it doesnt
    work it shouldnt affect anythign in a bad way.

  4. #4
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    w/that boot.ini thing, if i just change mine to look like yours, what happens at startup????

    well i guess, even if you knew a way i could "boot" it through XP? maybe that would even work.

    i checked into a boot manager but im not sure what would happen if i ever deciced to get rid of it, or change drivers...?
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  5. #5
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    yea the boot.ini would be on your xp drive, im pretty sure
    anyways its been months since ive used xp.
    it should have it because i use to use a red hat / xp dual boot
    but i think i ended up using red hats boot manager.


    the line above not perfect it might take some tweaking ot make it
    work but i do think it would work

  6. #6
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    i guess my question is, what happens at startup, do you choose which hard drive to boot from?

    what do you think about adding this

    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws 98"


    im just kind of afraid to change anything cause if i mess something up im afraid i wont be able to boot back to xp
    Last edited by dP munky; 08-15-2005 at 07:11 PM.
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  7. #7
    I am he who is the man! Stan100's Avatar
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    Run->MsConfig->Boot.INI

    Check that out. What you'll have to do is set your XP to master (probably what it is now anyway), and fix what you have so far. And yes, at startup it will ask you to choose with the arrow keys which you will want. My computer has always had this screen, I've got the recovery console installed.

    But yeah if it were up to me I'd either format the 98 into ntfs for extra space, or play with a linux distro
    Stan The Man. Beatles fan

    When I was a child,
    I spoke as a child,
    I thought as a child,
    I reasoned as a child.
    When I became a man,
    I put childish ways behind me"
    (the holy bible, Paul, in his first letter to the Cor. 13:11)

  8. #8
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    never mind, i got it figured out now. now i've just got to get drivers for all the goodies in my computer....thanks guys
    Last edited by dP munky; 08-15-2005 at 09:14 PM.
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

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