How to make XP drive bootable?

[XB77]

I installed XP as a dual boot via the XP setup/installation CD. I had Me on
the C:drive and installed XP on the D:drive. Now the C:drive has the toggle
between the two OS's and the D:drive has XP, but the D:drive is not bootable
(by MS design). To get to it one must go through the toggle on the C:drive.
I understand that this is how it is supposed to work. Yet it would be nice
if the D:drive was also bootable in case the C:drive goes down. (I would
have to instruct the BIOS to substitute the D:drive for the C:drive in the
boot sequence.) Is there any way to fix the XP installation on the D:drive
to make it bootable?

 

[Jerry]

If there are two hard drives in a computer only one, the C:\ drive, can be
'made' bootable.

This is because FDISK will make the first partiton on the first drive
active - that makes it bootable.

If D:\ is 'made' bootable then it will become C:\ and that will screw up
your installation of Windows big time because it 'thinks' it, and everything
else is on D:.

 

[XB77]

I thought that FDisk would be run at installation, not generally upon boot
up. Perhaps what you are saying is that if I change the boot sequence from
A:drive, cd:drive (not assigned C: or D, C:drive to A:drive, cd:drive,
D:drive, even if I have a bootable installation of XP on the D:drive and
have assigned drive letters appropriately in XP, somehow due to the change
in the boot sequence, it will think that it is the C:drive or become
confused as to whether it is the C:drive or the D:drive? I do not believe
that the only bootable HD can be the C:drive, but if I am wrong, let me
know.

My question is how can I fix the installation of XP on my D:drive to
make it bootable? Are you saying that even if I create or modify the boot
record on that drive, unless I rename it C:, it will not work?

 

[Donald McDaniel]

I thought that FDisk would be run at installation, not generally upon
boot up. Perhaps what you are saying is that if I change the boot
sequence from A:drive, cd:drive (not assigned C: or D, C:drive to
A:drive, cd:drive, D:drive, even if I have a bootable installation of
XP on the D:drive and have assigned drive letters appropriately in
XP, somehow due to the change in the boot sequence, it will think
that it is the C:drive or become confused as to whether it is the
C:drive or the D:drive? I do not believe that the only bootable HD
can be the C:drive, but if I am wrong, let me know.

My question is how can I fix the installation of XP on my D:drive
to make it bootable? Are you saying that even if I create or modify
the boot record on that drive, unless I rename it C:, it will not
work?

Your installation of XP on D: is already "bootable". It's boot files
(boot.ini and ntoskrnl.exe) are on C: instead of D:, however, while it's
boot sector is on D:.

At the previous poster wrote, you cannot have two system drives on a
computer using Microsoft software. Only one volume can be "active" at a
time.

If you want, you can set one volume at a time as the boot volume in the
BIOS.

Another drive letter cannot be reassigned as C:

--
Donald L McDaniel
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[XB77]

The D:drive installation of XP is not independently bootable. Perhaps I am
using "boot" incorrectly here, but what I mean is that if my C:drive (which
has XP's boot files on it) becomes inoperable, I will not be able to enter
my BIOS and usefully tell it to go to the D:drive instead of the C:drive,
because the D:drive is not independently bootable as the boot files are on
C. I do not want to simultaneously run two OSs. I would like to be able to
boot to either XP on my D:drive or Me on my C:drive. Can I simply copy the
two boot files referenced (boot.ini and ntoskrnl.exe) to the appropriate
place on the D:drive or are there other files that would need to be created
on the D:drive, as well. I presume that I would have to edit the boot.ini
file also. I assume that if I were able to successfully make the D:drive
independently bootable, the boot toggle on the C:drive (where it asks which
OS one wants) wouldn't work anymore for the XP selection and I would have to
select booting XP on the D:drive via reassignment of boot sequence in the
BIOS, from C: to D:--correct?

 

[XB77]

I have been writing that I would or could substitute the D:drive for the
C:drive in the BIOS specified boot sequence (which drives and what order
they are checked for bootable media, typically the floppy, a CD drive, then
an internal HD). Alternatively, I could just add the D:drive to the boot
sequence so that the BIOS points to the A:drive (floppy) first, the G:drive
(CD/DVD) next; the C:drive (internal HD w/ Me and XP-Me boot toggle) next,
and the D:drive (second internal HD currently w/ non-independently bootable
[must go through dual boot toggle on C:] XP installation) last. If no media
in A:, G:, and C: absent or non-operational, D: would boot if it had
independently bootable installation of XP. I can't believe that others
haven't figured out a workaround or how to fix the XP dual boot so that the
XP installed volume can be independently bootable.