Multi-boot Questions

[SpeeDTraP]

I have dual drives on my machine with Win98 installed on the slave and
Win2000 Pro and Win XP Pro on the master ... I had Win2000 Pro
installed on master drive first and installed Partition Magic and boot
magic ... everything worked fine until I used Partition Magic to add
Win XP Pro onto the master drive .... XP installed fine in its
designated partition but when I rebooted the machine XP had hikacked
boot magic ... now, the only thing that will boot-up is Win XP !!!
I'm looking for the way to put a multi-boot setup into boot.ini via
Win XP .... my questions are :
1. Where do I find boot.ini in Win Xp and,
2. What is the exact syntax to put in boot.ini to be able
to selectively boot at start-up with Win2K and XP on
the master drive and Win98 on the slave?

I propose doing it this way so I can access Win2K (where Partition
Magic is installed) ... I made-up the Partition Magic boot disks but
did not make up the Boot Magic start-up disk as I was planning on
doing that after the XP installation was complete.

If I can access Win2K I can possibly uninstall Partition Magic and
re-install it fresh with all three OS's already installed on the two
drives or just use the Windows multi-boot optionif it works okay
...... TIA for any help.

 

[SpeeDTraP]

I have dual drives on my machine with Win98 installed on the slave and
Win2000 Pro and Win XP Pro on the master ... I had Win2000 Pro
installed on master drive first and installed Partition Magic and boot
magic ... everything worked fine until I used Partition Magic to add
Win XP Pro onto the master drive .... XP installed fine in its
designated partition but when I rebooted the machine XP had hikacked
boot magic ... now, the only thing that will boot-up is Win XP !!!
I'm looking for the way to put a multi-boot setup into boot.ini via
Win XP .... my questions are :
1. Where do I find boot.ini in Win Xp and,
2. What is the exact syntax to put in boot.ini to be able
to selectively boot at start-up with Win2K and XP on
the master drive and Win98 on the slave?

I propose doing it this way so I can access Win2K (where Partition
Magic is installed) ... I made-up the Partition Magic boot disks but
did not make up the Boot Magic start-up disk as I was planning on
doing that after the XP installation was complete.

If I can access Win2K I can possibly uninstall Partition Magic and
re-install it fresh with all three OS's already installed on the two
drives or just use the Windows multi-boot optionif it works okay
..... TIA for any help.

To follow-up , I found how to access boot.ini through system
properties/startup & recovery/edit and here's what's in the file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

I need to know how to adjust the file to make it multi-boot under the
previously posted parameters - 30 second delay is fine - Win2k Pro and
Wim XP Pro on master drive and Wni98 SE on slave drive ..... TIA

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

From what I can see, you won't be able to do what you want. It looks like some remnant of Boot Magic is still in play. I say this because you say Win2K was already installed on the Master drive, and I'm assuming in the first partition. If that's the case, then the:

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

line in BOOT.INI would point there. You may have no option but to reinstall PQ Boot, to make it the active boot manager, instead of XP's built in boot manager.

 

[SpeeDTraP]

From what I can see, you won't be able to do what you want. It looks like some remnant of Boot Magic is still in play. I say this because you say Win2K was already installed on the Master drive, and I'm assuming in the first partition. If that's the case, then the:

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

line in BOOT.INI would point there. You may have no option but to reinstall PQ Boot, to make it the active boot manager, instead of XP's built in boot manager.

Hi Doug .... Thanks for the response ... the problem is that I can't
boot to Win2K where Partition Magic is installed ... I don't think I
want to attempt installing PM & BM twice on the same drive - ie.,
installing it on Win XP also .... Obviously the XP install has done
something to Boot Magic but I don't see how I can remedy that unless I
can boot to Win2K and get access to the BM program ... I can see all
three OS's in XP windows explorer and can access all other partitions
but just can't boot to either of the other two drives .... TIA, again