How to boot from other hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve
  • Start date Start date
S

Steve

I have XP installed on my SATA drive. I have Windows 2000 installed on
my other hard drive. The only way to boot between each is to change the
boot order in the BIOS. Can I add something to the boot.ini in XP so I
can boot from 2000 on the other drive too?
 
Steve said:
I have XP installed on my SATA drive. I have Windows 2000 installed on
my other hard drive. The only way to boot between each is to change the
boot order in the BIOS. Can I add something to the boot.ini in XP so I
can boot from 2000 on the other drive too?
Click to expand...

Maybe and maybe not. Assuming that both Windows XP and 2000
are set up with primary partitions on their individual hard
drives, the better alternative is a third-party boot manager
like System Commander. It will allow the user to choose the
physical drive from which to boot. Much more superior than
kludging something together through editing the boot.ini file.
If this were a true dual-boot setup, then using boot.ini is
perfectly fine.
 
You don't need third party software. Playing with the boot.ini won't correct
the registry entries since both are on c:.

You can setup a multiboot by simple choosing which you want to boot as
primary and then, with it set as primary in the bios, do a repair reinstall
of the other OS.

If you choose XP as primary, backup ntdetect and ntldr first, then do your
W2K repair install. Once complete you will only boot W2K because its boot
files can't boot XP. Boot into W2K and copy back the XP versions of
ntldr/ntdetect back to the root of c:. You will have your multiboot menu for
both and it will work.
 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/en-us
Make the XP disk the first boot disk.
Edit the boot.ini file to add the Windows 2000 line.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
/fastdetect

I am not sure what the multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1) values are for a SATA drive.

You have to use the XP boot files because XP won't boot using the Windows
2000 boot files.

It doesn't matter that each system was installed to C.
There is no reference to the operating system being on C in boot.ini.
The reference is to what partition the system is on.
--
Ron Sommer

:I have XP installed on my SATA drive. I have Windows 2000 installed on
: my other hard drive. The only way to boot between each is to change the
: boot order in the BIOS. Can I add something to the boot.ini in XP so I
: can boot from 2000 on the other drive too?
 
http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=3451
It seems that IDE and SATA drives use the same multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)
values.
--
Ron Sommer

: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/en-us
: Make the XP disk the first boot disk.
: Edit the boot.ini file to add the Windows 2000 line.
:
: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
: /fastdetect
: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
: /fastdetect
:
: I am not sure what the multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1) values are for a SATA
drive.
:
: You have to use the XP boot files because XP won't boot using the Windows
: 2000 boot files.
:
: It doesn't matter that each system was installed to C.
: There is no reference to the operating system being on C in boot.ini.
: The reference is to what partition the system is on.
: --
: Ron Sommer
:
: ::I have XP installed on my SATA drive. I have Windows 2000 installed on
:: my other hard drive. The only way to boot between each is to change the
:: boot order in the BIOS. Can I add something to the boot.ini in XP so I
:: can boot from 2000 on the other drive too?
:
 
The only boot.ini parameter in question is "rdisk()".
On some motherboards in which there is only one
IDE channel and 2 SATA channels (for a possible
total of 4 hard drives), with IDE set as the head of
the HD boot order, rdisk(0) and rdisk(1) refer to
the IDE drives, and rdisk(2) and rdisk(3) refer to
the SATA drives. IOW, the disk numbering extends
from one controller to the other. Sometimes,
enablement in the BIOS of the SATA controller
is necessary to accomplish this.

The partition() value is for the partition in which
the OS is found. It can be any partition on the
designated hard drive (even any logical drive within
an Extended partition). Partition numbering starts
with "1" for the 1st Primary partition, then proceeds
through the Primary partitions, then extends through
the logical drives if there is an Extended partition.
IOW if there is just one Primary partition on the HD,
then the value for partition() will be "1".

Otherwise, this is the most reasonable reply in this
thread. That is, no 3rd-party boot manager is
required, using WinXP's boot manager is not a
kludge, and no repair installation is necessary

*TimDaniels*.
 
Back
Top