How to avoid XP's dual boot utility?

[jkr]

I will be loading Win98 and XP Home (upgrade) on a fresh drive (into
separate logical drives for two independent OS's) and want to use a
third party boot manager.

How do I keep XP from loading its resident boot manager when I install
XP? Or if I can't stop it from doing that, what files do I need to
remove/edit to remove the resident manager?

TIA
JKR

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I will be loading Win98 and XP Home (upgrade) on a fresh drive (into
separate logical drives for two independent OS's) and want to use a
third party boot manager.

How do I keep XP from loading its resident boot manager when I install
XP? Or if I can't stop it from doing that, what files do I need to
remove/edit to remove the resident manager?

TIA
JKR

Boot managers are invoked by a small piece of code in the Master
Boot Record. When you load your third-party boot manager then
it will first run its own code, giving you a selection menu. It will then
pass control to the boot sector of the chosen OS, e.g. WinXP.
At that stage you will see the WinXP boot menu. You must not
remove it - if you do then you can no longer boot into WinXP.
If you don't want to see its selections, simply set "timeout=0" in
the hidden file c:\boot.ini.

 

[jkr]

Boot managers are invoked by a small piece of code in the Master
Boot Record. When you load your third-party boot manager then
it will first run its own code, giving you a selection menu. It will then
pass control to the boot sector of the chosen OS, e.g. WinXP.
At that stage you will see the WinXP boot menu. You must not
remove it - if you do then you can no longer boot into WinXP.
If you don't want to see its selections, simply set "timeout=0" in
the hidden file c:\boot.ini.

Thank you for this and for your other reply a few strings back as well.
I very much appreciate your help.

I'd like to clarify: if I eventually remove Win98 all together, [simply
delete it and re-format/reclaim the volume for XP's use] XP will still
be looking for the other OS... which is why I didn't want to invoke its
resident *dual* boot mgr. If I use a third party boot mgr., when/if I
ever remove Win98, I can simply delete it (the boot mgr) and boot
normally into XP.

IAC I don't want to *invoke* the XP dual boot mgr at all for reasons
other than just seeing it on screen [which you rightfully point out I
can avoid by setting timeout to 0). I just want XP to remain "dumb" and
boot normally when the 3rd party mgr. passes off to XP's MBR.

It sounds like I'm going to have to load XP first... then Win 98
afterwards, if I want to avoid the XP dual boot mgr.

Thanks again.
JKR

 

[jkr]

Pegasus:

I found this in Google archives:

---paste----

From: Alex Nichol ([email protected])
Subject: Re: Removing XP Dual Boot Manager

Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Date: 2004-01-04 05:32:19 PST

Installed XP on my multiple OS system. XP loaded a boot
manager into the MBR. I already had Partition Magic as
boot manager. Now, the XP boot manager has positioned
itself to function following Partition Magic. How to
remove the XP boot manager from the MBR?

XP does not put any boot manager in the MBR - it has a stage in its
own boot process in its own partition that provides for a dual boot.
This is controlled by the Boot.ini file. To edit that go to Control
Panel - System - Advanced. Click Settings in Startup and error, then
click Edit. Delete the lines in each section referring to systems other
than the XP you want it to boot - when reduced to a single system the
menu will no longer appear

--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (e-mail address removed)8E8L.org (remove the D8 bit)

---end paste ---

I think that answers my question.

Thanks again...
JKR