Dual Bootign with multiple HDD's

[Guest]

I have a question about Dual Booting as well. I prefer to use seperate drives. Forinstance I have an 80gb HDD with NTFS and Win2k or XP Pro (depending on the machine), and a 30 gb FAT32 on Win98SE. I know there is a check box n 2k about displaying other bootable OS's, but it doesnt list any, but I can goto the Bios and select the other drive as primary boot , and I can bouce back and forth between OS's just fine that way. Is there a way to do this without going into BIOS everytime? Also alot of my NT based systems are using SCSI or IDE RAID, and 98 are solo IDE HDD's if that info matters. Can someone offer me some step by step advise for both XP Pro and 2k-Pro? Thanks
Dave B.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a question about Dual Booting as well. I prefer to use seperate

drives. Forinstance I have an 80gb HDD with NTFS and Win2k or XP Pro
(depending on the machine), and a 30 gb FAT32 on Win98SE. I know there is a
check box n 2k about displaying other bootable OS's, but it doesnt list any,
but I can goto the Bios and select the other drive as primary boot , and I
can bouce back and forth between OS's just fine that way. Is there a way to
do this without going into BIOS everytime? Also alot of my NT based
systems are using SCSI or IDE RAID, and 98 are solo IDE HDD's if that info
matters. Can someone offer me some step by step advise for both XP Pro and
2k-Pro? Thanks

Dave B.

Some third-party boot managers can do this type of thing, XOSL being one of
them. It's free.

 

[Michael Stevens]

I have a question about Dual Booting as well. I prefer to use seperate
drives. Forinstance I have an 80gb HDD with NTFS and Win2k or XP Pro
(depending on the machine), and a 30 gb FAT32 on Win98SE. I know there is a
check box n 2k about displaying other bootable OS's, but it doesnt list any,
but I can goto the Bios and select the other drive as primary boot , and I can
bouce back and forth between OS's just fine that way. Is there a way to do
this without going into BIOS everytime? Also alot of my NT based systems are
using SCSI or IDE RAID, and 98 are solo IDE HDD's if that info matters. Can
someone offer me some step by step advise for both XP Pro and 2k-Pro? Thanks
Dave B.

Dave,
Your best bet for your situation would be third party software. It can be
done with the XP's boot loader, but is seems like you are looking for more
option tan the native software provides. Check out BootIt NG from
http://www.bootitng.com/. BootIT NG is a shareware application that you can
download a fully functional trial version that never cripples the software,
but it does add a very annoying nag screen procedure for the users not
willing or able to purchase a license.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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[Guest]

Can these be installed on existing drives without damaging OS's or installed software? Also which one is recommended, specifically one that I can buy retail, is Partition commander going to do what I need?

 

[Guest]

What full version retail software would be recomended for doing this, Partition Commander? Something that is retial, and something that I can get good support for, that I dont need to worry about damaging already installed software.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The recommended option for XOSL is to install it
in its own partition of 15 MBytes. If all partitions on
your existing disks are committed then you need
a partition manager such as Acronis PartitionExpert
to repartition one of your disks on the fly.

Installation of a boot manager can be done non-
destructively, if you know what you're doing.
Beginners should practise with an old disk before
attacking a live disk.

XOSL is the only boot manager I have tried. I know
that it would work in your environment.

Can these be installed on existing drives without damaging OS's or

installed software? Also which one is recommended, specifically one that I
can buy retail, is Partition commander going to do what I need?