"Default Operating System" Box

[Bill Keeler]

I have two (2) hard drives. I have win XP Home installed on each drive. How
can I get both operating systems listed in the "default operating system"
list. My objective is to be able to Multi Boot. And to have the option
screen show up on start-up.

 

[Rich Barry]

Bill, you can probably achieve that by having both drives connected and
then boot from the WinXP CD in order to get to
the Recovery Console. Once there use the Bootcfg command. Here is more
info on the R.C.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/EN-US/ The command you
are interested in is bootcfg /add

 

[george]

I have two (2) hard drives. I have win XP Home installed on each drive. How
can I get both operating systems listed in the "default operating system"
list. My objective is to be able to Multi Boot. And to have the option
screen show up on start-up.

It kind'o depends. The advice Rich has given you will certainly add a second
boot-choice to the BOOT.INI file, but that is no guarantee it will work.
Incidentally, to add that second option there is basically no need to go
into the Recovery Console.
Just use notepad to add to your existing BOOT.INI file in the root of C: and
make it look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="First disk Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Second disk Microsoft Windows
XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin


As you have not stated how that second disk came about, I should point out
the following.
If the second disk was in the system, ie. the second XP copy was installed
while the first one was also 'known' to the system then the above file will
work and the second copy XP will work as well, because at the time of
installation that disk had driveletter D: and all references for the second
installation will be to D:.

If, however, during the installation of the second copy the first disk was
not in the system, then setup would have been unaware of the 'final' setup.
That means that during setup the second disk would have been named C: and
hence all references in that system would be to C:.
Now, re-introducing the original first disk into the system will throw off
all references for the second install and you will just end up with a mess
(at best) or a non workable second system (at worst) or, even worse a crummy
second install that corrupts your first.

hope I didn't confuse the issue too much. )

george

 

[Bill Keeler]

George, There was one HD installed with WinXP Home. The drive was beginning
to be suspect. I installed a second HD and installed a clean install of the
same, Win XP Home. When the system boots it boots to the drive I just
installed, which is fine. Now, I want to made the original drive an option
at start-up for the time being. There might be some info I want to get off
of it. Thanks for your help and the other gentleman, also. Bill K

I have two (2) hard drives. I have win XP Home installed on each drive.
How can I get both operating systems listed in the "default operating
system" list. My objective is to be able to Multi Boot. And to have the
option screen show up on start-up.

It kind'o depends. The advice Rich has given you will certainly add a
second boot-choice to the BOOT.INI file, but that is no guarantee it will
work.
Incidentally, to add that second option there is basically no need to go
into the Recovery Console.
Just use notepad to add to your existing BOOT.INI file in the root of C:
and make it look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="First disk Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Second disk Microsoft Windows
XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin


As you have not stated how that second disk came about, I should point out
the following.
If the second disk was in the system, ie. the second XP copy was installed
while the first one was also 'known' to the system then the above file
will work and the second copy XP will work as well, because at the time of
installation that disk had driveletter D: and all references for the
second installation will be to D:.

If, however, during the installation of the second copy the first disk was
not in the system, then setup would have been unaware of the 'final'
setup. That means that during setup the second disk would have been named
C: and hence all references in that system would be to C:.
Now, re-introducing the original first disk into the system will throw off
all references for the second install and you will just end up with a mess
(at best) or a non workable second system (at worst) or, even worse a
crummy second install that corrupts your first.

hope I didn't confuse the issue too much. )

george

 

[Rich Barry]

George, if both drives were in the system when the second instance or
WinXP was installed wouldnt it see the first WinXP
and add it to boot.ini?

 

[Rich Barry]

Bill, you can add the first drive to your system in a Master-Slave or
Cable Select configuration. You can then access and
obtain any files or info off the drive. You may have to rt click
MyComputer>select Manage>Disk Management and rt click
the drive and assign it a drive letter.

 

[Bill Keeler]

Rich, The original drive was and is C:. The new drive I added took the
letter F:
I had, a while ago, on my own computer Win ME originally, and added Win XP
Pro later on. I did see the option when I installed XP to set up Multi -Boot
and did. I don't know If I just missed it this time or what.