Dual Boot XP from two drives

[Don]

I have a bootable XP system on each of two drives (c: and e.

Today I have to change the master/slave jumper to change the drive I want to
boot from, making the boot drive master and the other drive slave. This
works good, but it's awkward as I have to open the case and move those
little jumpers without dropping them.

Is there an easier way to alternate between these two drives?

 

[peter]

Does your BIOS list boot order?? change the boot order so that the device
you wish to start from is 1st...or 2nd after a floppy or CD.
I guess you installed XP the 2nd time with the 1st drive
disconnected.......as XP would have seen the 1st installation and created a
dual boot menu which would show when you boot wih the choice of which XP to
start with.
You could still accomplish this by doing a repair installation.
peter

 

[Guest]

Hi Don,

You could try editing the boot.ini file on C when you have it jumpered and
cabled for Master. At the Desktop, right-click on My Computer, select
Properties and then Advanced tab. In the Startup and Recovery section, click
on the Settings button and then in the System startup section click on the
Edit Button. This will open the Boot.ini file in a Notepad window. Edit it to
reflect the XP (I have assumed Home Edition of XP, but you can change the
Home to Professional if that is the case) on the second drive (i.e.,
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn). It
would then look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn

The name of the operating system appearing in italics can be altered, as
this displays how the name will appear on the boot menu. You could change
them to something like:
"XP Home C"
and
"XP Home E"
to reflect the drive letter for distinguishing between the two, if necessary.


Another option would be to check the boot device order in the system BIOS to
see if it allows you to boot from a hard drive other than C drive, and they
may be listed like this:
HDD-0
HDD-1

HDD-0 being the Primary drive and HDD-1 being the secondary drive. You could
change the boot order to HDD-0 or HDD-1 depending on which XP you want to
boot into at any given time.



Regards,

 

[Don]

Thank you Peter and Patti.

I looked at my BIOS and I don't think it has the capability needed.

Next I'm going to look at Patti's BOOT.INI suggestion.

I'm avoiding the reinstall suggestion, because I am hoping this situation is
temporary. I am migrating to a new hard drive by doing a complete new
install. My original Windows (home XP) system has problems and doing a
repair did not work.

Thanks again to all.

Don

Hi Don,

You could try editing the boot.ini file on C when you have it jumpered and
cabled for Master. At the Desktop, right-click on My Computer, select
Properties and then Advanced tab. In the Startup and Recovery section,
click
on the Settings button and then in the System startup section click on the
Edit Button. This will open the Boot.ini file in a Notepad window. Edit it
to
reflect the XP (I have assumed Home Edition of XP, but you can change the
Home to Professional if that is the case) on the second drive (i.e.,
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn).
It
would then look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn

The name of the operating system appearing in italics can be altered, as
this displays how the name will appear on the boot menu. You could change
them to something like:
"XP Home C"
and
"XP Home E"
to reflect the drive letter for distinguishing between the two, if
necessary.


Another option would be to check the boot device order in the system BIOS
to
see if it allows you to boot from a hard drive other than C drive, and
they
may be listed like this:
HDD-0
HDD-1

HDD-0 being the Primary drive and HDD-1 being the secondary drive. You
could
change the boot order to HDD-0 or HDD-1 depending on which XP you want to
boot into at any given time.



Regards,

--
Patti MacLeod
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

I have a bootable XP system on each of two drives (c: and e.

Today I have to change the master/slave jumper to change the drive I want
to
boot from, making the boot drive master and the other drive slave. This
works good, but it's awkward as I have to open the case and move those
little jumpers without dropping them.

Is there an easier way to alternate between these two drives?

 

[Don]

Patti,

I tried your Boot.ini suggestion and I got the following error when
accessing the E disk: "could not read from the selected boot disk. Check
boot path and disk hardware".

It booted okay from the "C" disk.

I changed the master/slave jumpers and was able to boot from the "E" disk
(now "C" of course).

Any ideas?

BTW, your instructions were amazingly clear.

Don

Hi Don,

You could try editing the boot.ini file on C when you have it jumpered and
cabled for Master. At the Desktop, right-click on My Computer, select
Properties and then Advanced tab. In the Startup and Recovery section,
click
on the Settings button and then in the System startup section click on the
Edit Button. This will open the Boot.ini file in a Notepad window. Edit it
to
reflect the XP (I have assumed Home Edition of XP, but you can change the
Home to Professional if that is the case) on the second drive (i.e.,
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn).
It
would then look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home" /NoExecute=OptIn

The name of the operating system appearing in italics can be altered, as
this displays how the name will appear on the boot menu. You could change
them to something like:
"XP Home C"
and
"XP Home E"
to reflect the drive letter for distinguishing between the two, if
necessary.


Another option would be to check the boot device order in the system BIOS
to
see if it allows you to boot from a hard drive other than C drive, and
they
may be listed like this:
HDD-0
HDD-1

HDD-0 being the Primary drive and HDD-1 being the secondary drive. You
could
change the boot order to HDD-0 or HDD-1 depending on which XP you want to
boot into at any given time.



Regards,

--
Patti MacLeod
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

I have a bootable XP system on each of two drives (c: and e.

Today I have to change the master/slave jumper to change the drive I want
to
boot from, making the boot drive master and the other drive slave. This
works good, but it's awkward as I have to open the case and move those
little jumpers without dropping them.

Is there an easier way to alternate between these two drives?

 

[Guest]

I'm glad that my instructions were clear for you

Well, editing the boot.ini file was a shot in the dark but I thought, for
the few minutes it takes to do, it might be worth it to give it a try. You
may have to do a repair installation yet, but you could give running the
bootcfg command from the Recovery Console a go, just to see, if you
want........

In case you're not familiar with Recovery Console, here is the MSKB article
that describes it, including how to boot into it:

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/en-us

Here is a description of bootcfg:

A discussion about the Bootcfg command and its uses
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980/en-us

I would run the bootcfg /scan command first, to see if it picks up on both
Windows installations or not. If it does and lists them as both being on
drive C, I would not continue any further and would highly consider the
repair install option. If it lists them with different drive letters, then
you could run the bootcfg /rebuild command.
In the bootcfg /rebuild instructions, it says:
Enter Load Identifier: (Custom description for an operating system loading
from the Boot menu)
What is being referred to is the name for the operating system that is in
quotation marks (I mistakenly said "in italics" in my first post), for
example from my first post:
"XP Home C"
and
"XP Home E"
When using the Bootcfg command, I would name them a little differently (eg.,
XP Home 1 and XP Home 2), just in case the C and E entries remain, that way
you can distinguish between your manual edit and the bootcfg one.

it also states:
Enter Operating System Load Options: (that is: /fastdetect)
Here you could use:
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn



Regards,

 

[Don]

Patti,

Thank you, I'll give it a try.

Don

I'm glad that my instructions were clear for you

Well, editing the boot.ini file was a shot in the dark but I thought, for
the few minutes it takes to do, it might be worth it to give it a try. You
may have to do a repair installation yet, but you could give running the
bootcfg command from the Recovery Console a go, just to see, if you
want........

In case you're not familiar with Recovery Console, here is the MSKB
article
that describes it, including how to boot into it:

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/en-us

Here is a description of bootcfg:

A discussion about the Bootcfg command and its uses
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980/en-us

I would run the bootcfg /scan command first, to see if it picks up on both
Windows installations or not. If it does and lists them as both being on
drive C, I would not continue any further and would highly consider the
repair install option. If it lists them with different drive letters, then
you could run the bootcfg /rebuild command.
In the bootcfg /rebuild instructions, it says:
Enter Load Identifier: (Custom description for an operating system loading
from the Boot menu)
What is being referred to is the name for the operating system that is in
quotation marks (I mistakenly said "in italics" in my first post), for
example from my first post:
"XP Home C"
and
"XP Home E"
When using the Bootcfg command, I would name them a little differently
(eg.,
XP Home 1 and XP Home 2), just in case the C and E entries remain, that
way
you can distinguish between your manual edit and the bootcfg one.

it also states:
Enter Operating System Load Options: (that is: /fastdetect)
Here you could use:
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn



Regards,

 

[Guest]

Keep us posted as to how you are faring with this!



Regards,

 

[Don]

Patti,

Again, your instructions were crystal clear.

However, when trying to boot from the slave disk I get the same error as I
got with your manual edit suggestion. That error is:"could not read from the
selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware".

The Recovery Console identifies the two disk as "C" and "D" (slave disk as
"D"), but when XP boots from the Primary disk ("C") it identifies the slave
disk as "E".

The error message says "check the boot path" and I wonder if the two
different identifiers (D and E) for the slave disk might be the problem?

Don

P.S. I decided to try the Recovery Console again and now it shows both
windows systems on the "C" drive like you warned me about. Should I try and
install the Recovery Console on my hard drive and try and apply updates? I
found the following Microsoft article that seems to explain the process
(although it is confusing).

 

[Guest]

I think the problem has a lot to do with both XPs being installed on C drive
(even though whichever is hooked up as Slave is recognized as E drive in XP
on the current Master drive).
Since you stated in an earlier post that this is a temporary situation, you
may want to look into a third-party boot manager, such as:

GAG, the Graphical Boot Manager (freeware)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gag/
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p12.htm

XOSL2 (freeware)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl2/

OSL2000 (shareware)
http://www.osloader.com/

Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 OS Selector
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/multibooting.html
Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 trial version
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/diskdirector/

I have not used any of the above, so do not have any recommendations or
install/usage tips. The only third-party boot manager that I have used is
Boot Magic, which comes bundled with Partition Magic, and I used it years ago
when it was still Powerquest (is now a Symantec/Norton product).



Regards,

 

[Rich Barry]

Don, try a Repair Install with both drives connected as Patti suggested.
Check here at Michaels site for more info
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Don]

Patti,

Thanks, I'll check out GAG.

Don

I think the problem has a lot to do with both XPs being installed on C
drive
(even though whichever is hooked up as Slave is recognized as E drive in
XP
on the current Master drive).
Since you stated in an earlier post that this is a temporary situation,
you
may want to look into a third-party boot manager, such as:

GAG, the Graphical Boot Manager (freeware)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gag/
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p12.htm

XOSL2 (freeware)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl2/

OSL2000 (shareware)
http://www.osloader.com/

Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 OS Selector
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/multibooting.html
Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 trial version
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/diskdirector/

I have not used any of the above, so do not have any recommendations or
install/usage tips. The only third-party boot manager that I have used is
Boot Magic, which comes bundled with Partition Magic, and I used it years
ago
when it was still Powerquest (is now a Symantec/Norton product).



Regards,

 

[Don]

Patti,

I figured I had better undo the multiple boot configuration before trying
any new boot manager software.

So I ran the Recovery Console and did a bootcfg /rebuild. When it asked to
select the systems I only selected one (the "C" drive).

When I rebooted to my surprise it presented the boot menu with three
alternatives to boot from. The "C" drive was listed twice and the "D" drive
once. I selected the 1st "C" drive and it booted okay.

I then went back to the Recovery Console and did a bootcfg /list and it
showed four drives ("C" listed 3 times).

Any ideas on how I can go back to a normal single drive boot configuration?

Don

 

[Don]

Rich,

Thanks, but I was hoping to avoid reinstalling all the MS updates
necessitated by the repair install. I guess if I have no other choice, I can
do so.

Do you think I can use boot manager software without first undoing the
Windows dual boot setup?

My need for dual boot is temporary and when I no longer need it I can do the
repair install then.

Don

 

[Guest]

That was a good idea on your part, to get rid of the previous multiboot
configuration attempts before attempting to use the third-party boot manager


When presented with the boot options during normal startup, ensure that you
can still boot into the first menu item in the boot menu listing (I am
assuming that when you said "I selected the 1st "C" drive and it booted okay"
that the 1st C drive was the first menu item). If so, then go back to my
first posting to you, the one about editing the boot.ini file. The order that
the menu items appear on the boot menu screen is the order in which they are
listed under [operating systems] section in the boot.ini file, so it is
important for you to take note of which menu item in the boot menu allows you
to boot okay. In your case, the first menu item is probably something like
this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home C" /NoExecute=OptIn

If I am correct in my assumptions above, then leave the above entry in the
[operating systems] section and delete the others that are listed beneath it.



Regards,

 

[Don]

Patti,

Thanks.

If I get a solution I'll post it. So far GAG, the first boot manager I
tried, doesn't seem to detect my slave disk, neither does the recovery
console. I can read and write to it, but apparently it's not detectible by
GAG or RC when they are scanning for installed systems. Funny, when I first
ran RC it seemed to find it okay.

Incidentally, lately it's showing up in windows explorer as "F" (it was
"E"). Just for the record when this drive was initially installed it was the
C drive. When I got my new drive I just made this a slave and at that point
it showed as "E".

One more point, as a result of my bootcfg commands the boot.ini file had the
following line item for my slave drive:
scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="old XP 160gb"
/fastdetect/noexecute=optin

Because it's an IDE drive, not a scuzi, and after reading some articles on
Google I changed it to:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="old XP 160gb"
/fastdetect/noexecute=optin

No luck, still having the same error "cannot read from the selected boot
disk. check boot path and disk hardware".

Anyway, seems like this quest of mine to make a dual boot system is getting
to be a real can of worms.

No need to reply (of course any suggestions are appreciated).

Again, if I ever get a solution I'll post it, but I hope nobody is holding
their breath :>)

That was a good idea on your part, to get rid of the previous multiboot
configuration attempts before attempting to use the third-party boot
manager


When presented with the boot options during normal startup, ensure that
you
can still boot into the first menu item in the boot menu listing (I am
assuming that when you said "I selected the 1st "C" drive and it booted
okay"
that the 1st C drive was the first menu item). If so, then go back to my
first posting to you, the one about editing the boot.ini file. The order
that
the menu items appear on the boot menu screen is the order in which they
are
listed under [operating systems] section in the boot.ini file, so it is
important for you to take note of which menu item in the boot menu allows
you
to boot okay. In your case, the first menu item is probably something
like
this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home C" /NoExecute=OptIn

If I am correct in my assumptions above, then leave the above entry in the
[operating systems] section and delete the others that are listed beneath
it.



Regards,

--
Patti MacLeod
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Patti,

I figured I had better undo the multiple boot configuration before trying
any new boot manager software.

So I ran the Recovery Console and did a bootcfg /rebuild. When it asked
to
select the systems I only selected one (the "C" drive).

When I rebooted to my surprise it presented the boot menu with three
alternatives to boot from. The "C" drive was listed twice and the "D"
drive
once. I selected the 1st "C" drive and it booted okay.

I then went back to the Recovery Console and did a bootcfg /list and it
showed four drives ("C" listed 3 times).

Any ideas on how I can go back to a normal single drive boot
configuration?

Don

 

[Rich Barry]

Don, your Bios doesnt have as an option to select hdd0, hdd1, SCSI as boot
device?

 

[Don]

Rich,

No, my BIOS does not have the capability to define which drive to boot from.

However when poking around the BIOS to answer your question, I realized that
it did not recognize my 2nd (slave) hard drive. So I configured it to
recognize the slave drive and my dual boot immediately started working.

Holy cow! The slave drive worked perfectly (except for the boot problem)
without the BIOS recognizing the drive. Live and learn.

Thank you to all who gave me suggestions. I never would have had the
perseverance to follow through without the help of all of you.

Don

 

[Guest]

YAY!! I guess since Recovery Console was not having a problem recognizing
that there were two drives it never occurred to me that the BIOS was not
recognizing both of them. You've just made me think of a time, a few months
ago, when I was fixing a coworker's PC (wanted it reformatted, etc., but they
did not know how to perform those operations).....after getting XP
reinstalled and updated and installing a few other software packages that
they wanted installed, I ran CHKDSK/Defrag before returning the PC to them.
CHKDSK was reporting bad sectors, so I d/loaded and attempted to run the hard
drive diagnostic from WD, but it did not detect that there were any hard
drives installed. Going into BIOS setup, the hard drive was not detected, and
when I'd change the setting to Autodetect it would immediately return back to
unknown device (or however it was worded) and yet Windows had no problem
loading, I just could not get the WD diagnostic to run.

Just out of curiosity, how is the dual boot being performed, via the
boot.ini file or via one of the third-party boot managers?

btw, you're welcome for all the help
Though I'm sure it was very frustrating for you at times, I hope you look
back on it as a good learning experience.



Regards,

 

[Don]

Patti,

I am using the Boot.ini file not the third party boot software. So far it's
working great.

BTW, I went back and re-ran the Recovery Console Bootcfg /scan command and
it still did not detect the slave drive. Then I repeated the same test with
the GAG 3rd party boot software and it also still does not recognize the
slave disk. Kinda surprising I figured for sure that the BIOS configured to
recognize the slave would solve the recognition problem, but it did not.

Incidentally, when I initially configured the slave drive in the BIOS the
only choice was to change the associated slave drive entry from "off" to
"autodetect". When I did that it still did not detect the slave drive it
just said "unknown device". After scratching my head for a while I decided
to quit the BIOS and then re-start the BIOS and then it did recognize the
slave drive. So apparently with Dell machines (at least my model) you have
to re-boot the BIOS to force it to autodetect a drive. Maybe your
"autodetect" problem has a similar solution?

Thanks, again for your help.

Don