How to dual boot harddisks?

[Andy]

I have 2 harddisks. Both have xp pro on.

Anyone know of a way i can put both of these into my pc and choose which
drive to use/boot from?.

Currently i have to keep pulling the ide cable in and out depending on which
drive i want to use.

Any ideas?

 

[CS]

I have 2 harddisks. Both have xp pro on.

Anyone know of a way i can put both of these into my pc and choose which
drive to use/boot from?.

Currently i have to keep pulling the ide cable in and out depending on which
drive i want to use.

Any ideas?

Several ways to do it.

1. If your PC has a modern BIOS, then it should offer a way to choose
boot devices. Go into CMOS setup and look for that option. Not
exactly a convenient way to choose which drive to boot from but it's
far better than what you're doing now.

2. Best way is to use a good boot manager which has the ability to
"hide" an entire drive and boot from any drive or partition. My
favorite is BootIt Next Generation. Shareware ($35) try before you
buy.

Go to: www.terabyteunlimited.com

 

[Andy]

Several ways to do it.

1. If your PC has a modern BIOS, then it should offer a way to choose
boot devices. Go into CMOS setup and look for that option. Not
exactly a convenient way to choose which drive to boot from but it's
far better than what you're doing now.

2. Best way is to use a good boot manager which has the ability to
"hide" an entire drive and boot from any drive or partition. My
favorite is BootIt Next Generation. Shareware ($35) try before you
buy.

Go to: www.terabyteunlimited.com

Thanks for the input.

1) I have an Asus P4PE board but the bios wont let me select the master
slave as 1st boot device
2) Ideally i was looking for a zero cost solution.

 

[Andrew O. Hodges]

Answer lies in the boot.ini file. type msconfig.exe from the run menu and
it gives you a tab where you can edit it.

 

[Andy]

Answer lies in the boot.ini file. type msconfig.exe from the run menu and
it gives you a tab where you can edit it.

lol, it may lie in there but its not clear what needs to be done.
Ive put one harddisk as master and one as slave.
I cant see how i can get my pc to boot using the slave only and ignore the
master by editing that boot.ini file

 

[CS]

lol, it may lie in there but its not clear what needs to be done.
Ive put one harddisk as master and one as slave.
I cant see how i can get my pc to boot using the slave only and ignore the
master by editing that boot.ini file

Hi Andy:

Answer is you can't do it by editing boot.ini as you stated. Since
your motherboard BIOS won't allow you to select boot sequence between
master/slave, there isn't much you can do except try to use a boot
manager.

There are several free boot managers that can be downloaded from the
web. Do a Google search and see if you can find one. Someone else
may be able to lead you to one. Good luck.

 

[Andy]

Hi Andy:

Answer is you can't do it by editing boot.ini as you stated. Since
your motherboard BIOS won't allow you to select boot sequence between
master/slave, there isn't much you can do except try to use a boot
manager.

There are several free boot managers that can be downloaded from the
web. Do a Google search and see if you can find one. Someone else
may be able to lead you to one. Good luck.

Thanks for confirming this. Will try to find a boot manager.
Thanks again CS

 

[Michael Stevens]

Thanks for the input.

1) I have an Asus P4PE board but the bios wont let me select the
master slave as 1st boot device
2) Ideally i was looking for a zero cost solution.

Make sure both drives are set as active, and with BootITNG, you have a 30
day full functional trial and after the 30 days, it still works, but you
have a registration nag that requires you to input a new code on each boot
up. It's still a great deal, if you are cash poor.
Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address box
if accessing the newsgroups from the web based newsgroups.
BootIT NG from Terabyte has a full function 30 day trial.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/
PartitionMagic from PowerQuest
http://www.powerquest.com/
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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