hi
I have 2 hard disks - one setup for XP and the other setup for Vista but
at
the moment I am unplugging one or the other
depending on which O/S I want to use - what is the easiest way be able to
start the computer with both
drives enabled in order to offer me the choice of operating system to use
0. The XP disk will be made the system disk for both XP and Vista.
This involves creating the Vista boot files on the XP disk (steps 6.
and 9.), adding XP to the Vista boot configuration data (step 17.),
and making the XP disk, when booted, run Vista's bootmgr instead of
XP's ntldr (step 14.).
1. Install both disks and configure the motherboard bios to boot the
XP disk by default. Boot the computer and verify it boots into XP.
After booting XP from the hard drive, the boot files on each disk
should look similar to the following:
C:\>dir /ah
Volume in drive C is WinXP
Volume Serial Number is 8C9C-B4A5
Directory of C:\
03/01/2008 03:50 PM 211 boot.ini
03/01/2008 03:58 PM 0 IO.SYS
03/01/2008 03:58 PM 0 MSDOS.SYS
08/03/2004 01:38 PM 47,564 NTDETECT.COM
08/03/2004 01:59 PM 250,032 ntldr
03/01/2008 04:20 PM 2,145,386,496 pagefile.sys
03/01/2008 04:12 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
6 File(s) 2,145,684,303 bytes
1 Dir(s) 4,830,666,752 bytes free
C:\>dir d: /ah
Volume in drive D is Vista
Volume Serial Number is 9C04-42B8
Directory of D:\
03/01/2008 02:47 PM <DIR> $Recycle.Bin
03/01/2008 02:33 PM <DIR> Boot
11/02/2006 01:53 AM 438,840 bootmgr
11/02/2006 05:00 AM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings
03/01/2008 02:39 PM 2,147,016,704 hiberfil.sys
11/02/2006 05:00 AM <DIR> ProgramData
03/01/2008 04:13 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
2 File(s) 2,147,455,544 bytes
5 Dir(s) 23,533,060,096 bytes free
2. Boot the computer from the Vista DVD, and select Repair your
computer.
A popup showing the following information should appear:
System Recovery Options
Windows found problems with your computer's startup options.
Do you want to apply repairs and restart your computer?
View Details
|Repair and restart| |No|
3. Select |No|.
4. Select |Next>|.
5. Select Command Prompt.
6. Execute the command bootrec /rebuildbcd, and answer yes to adding
installation to boot list. This command creates the Boot folder and
the BCD file within it.
H:\sources\x86\Sources>bootrec /rebuildbcd
Scanning all disks for Windows installations.
Please wait, since this may take a while...
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total indentified Windows installations: 1
[1] D:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A):y
The operation completed successfully.
H:\sources\x86\Sources>dir /ah c:\
Volume in drive C is WinXP
Volume Serial Number is 8C9C-B4A5
Directory of C:\
03/01/2008 05:12 PM <DIR> Boot
03/01/2008 03:50 PM 211 boot.ini
03/01/2008 03:58 PM 0 IO.SYS
03/01/2008 03:58 PM 0 MSDOS.SYS
08/03/2004 01:38 PM 47,564 NTDETECT.COM
08/03/2004 01:59 PM 250,032 ntldr
03/01/2008 05:12 PM 2,145,386,496 pagefile.sys
03/01/2008 04:12 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
6 File(s) 2,145,684,303 bytes
2 Dir(s) 4,808,060,928 bytes free
H:\sources\x86\Sources>
7. Select |Restart|, and boot from the Vista DVD and select Repair
your computer again.
System Recovery Options
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate 29999MB (D
Vista
|Load Drivers| |Next>|
8. Select |Next>|
9. Select Startup Repair. This command creates file bootmgr, and adds
additional files in folder Boot.
10. Select |Finish|, and boot from the Vista DVD and select Repair
your computer again.
11. Select |Next>|
12. Select Command Prompt.
H:\sources\x86\Sources>dir /ah c:\
Volume in drive C is WinXP
Volume Serial Number is 8C9C-B4A5
Directory of C:\
03/01/2008 05:24 PM <DIR> Boot
03/01/2008 03:50 PM 211 boot.ini
11/02/2006 01:53 AM 438,840 bootmgr
03/01/2008 03:58 PM 0 IO.SYS
03/01/2008 03:58 PM 0 MSDOS.SYS
08/03/2004 01:38 PM 47,564 NTDETECT.COM
08/03/2004 01:59 PM 250,032 ntldr
03/01/2008 05:34 PM 2,145,386,496 pagefile.sys
03/01/2008 04:12 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
7 File(s) 2,146,123,143 bytes
2 Dir(s) 4,793,851,904 bytes free
H:\sources\x86\Sources>
13. Change directory to \boot.
H:\sources\x86\Sources>cd \boot
H:\boot
14. Execute bootsect /nt60 sys command.
H:\boot>bootsect /nt60 sys
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
C: (\\?\Volume{ad0c894a-e806-11dc-8253-806e6f6e6963})
Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode.
Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
H:\boot>
15. Select |Restart| and boot from the hard disk into Vista.
16. Open a Command Prompt window as Administrator, and execute bcdedit
command:
C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=H:
default {current}
displayorder {current}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {e5b8f907-e7f9-11dc-83c9-806e6f6e6963}
C:\Windows\System32>
17. Execute the following four bcdedit commands to create dual boot:
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=H:
default {current}
displayorder {current}
{ntldr}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {71be6e6a-e883-11dc-bf08-806e6f6e6963}
Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device boot
path \ntldr
description Windows XP
C:\Windows\system32>
18. Reboot the computer. Dual boot menu should appear.
