QUESTION: Multi Boot??

[Steve]

Hi...

I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is 40gb. I
created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on the 80; then same
process on the 40... each works fine... however:

Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but installing on the
40... came up with "folder already exists". Checking further by going to
(either system's) My Computer... showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:. My
concerns are:

1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive... 80
always C:; 40 always E:... am I truly ever booting from the 40gb? Seems so
but confused as to why... when booting the 40... I would expect the 80 to
NOT show or, atleast, the 40 be the C:

2. Since the driver installed ONLY went to the C:/80gb... if I'm booted
from the 40 and (let's say) I installed some program... or I get a virus...
etc... would the 80 (showing a C be where this stuff goes?? Or the 40
(showing as E: but booted from in this instance) get all the files/changes?

3. XP (on BOTH drives) was easy... would putting Vista (ugh) or Win-7
on the second boot drive be as easy as with XP???

I've been leaving the side off the PC and (physically) changing drives...
and I thought "multi-boot" was THE answer but I don't like to boot from the
40 and the 80 still being the C:... I plan on using the 40 as a "test bed"
to screw around and I don't want to blow the 80 (where I want to program,
etc).

Any ideas, comments, etc would be super-helpful
Thanks in advance!
Steve

 

[Jim]

Windows mounts all drives that it finds. So, what you are seeing is
expected behavior.

The envirnoment variable "systemdrive" shows the drive letter for the
current boot device. Don't be surprised that each would be regarded as C
when they are the target of a boot.

A good way would be to put unique labels on each drive. Then, you can
determine which is which from the "My Computer" panel.

Jim

 

[John John - MVP]

Hi...

I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is 40gb. I
created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on the 80; then same
process on the 40... each works fine... however:

Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but installing on the
40... came up with "folder already exists". Checking further by going to
(either system's) My Computer... showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:. My
concerns are:

1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive... 80
always C:; 40 always E:... am I truly ever booting from the 40gb? Seems so
but confused as to why... when booting the 40... I would expect the 80 to
NOT show or, atleast, the 40 be the C:

Running the SET SYSTEM command at the command prompt will shed some
information on the matter.

2. Since the driver installed ONLY went to the C:/80gb... if I'm booted
from the 40 and (let's say) I installed some program... or I get a virus...
etc... would the 80 (showing a C be where this stuff goes?? Or the 40
(showing as E: but booted from in this instance) get all the files/changes?

With viruses and the likes there is no telling where they will go or
what they will do. With applications they will usually install in the
Programs Files folder of the current Windows installation, but some
older applications are not fully compliant and by default they look for
a C: drive, most of the time you can simply tell the application to
install to a different location. I suspect that is all that happened
with the Dell Driver package. If the application insists upon being
installed on C and if it doesn't allow you to select a different
location then you have little choice but to accept what the installer
wants to do if you want to install the application.

3. XP (on BOTH drives) was easy... would putting Vista (ugh) or Win-7
on the second boot drive be as easy as with XP???

Yes, it would be about the same as installing XP, the newer Vista or
Windows 7 will see the older Windows XP installation and create a boot
menu entry for it, however the newer Vista and Windows 7 will designate
their installation volumes as C:

I've been leaving the side off the PC and (physically) changing drives...
and I thought "multi-boot" was THE answer

It would have been easier to change the boot order in the BIOS...

but I don't like to boot from the
40 and the 80 still being the C:... I plan on using the 40 as a "test bed"
to screw around and I don't want to blow the 80 (where I want to program,
etc).

If you want both installations to have a C: drive designation disconnect
the present C: drive and then connect only the second drive and
reinstall XP on it and it will also have a C: drive letter. Then
reinstall both drives in the computer and edit the boot.ini file on the
drive that is booting the computer and add a line pointing to the disk
of the second Windows installation , typically:

[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="Windows XP" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP 2" /fastdetect

John

 

[dg1261]

I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is
40gb. I created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on
the 80; then same process on the 40... each works fine... however:

1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive...
80 always C:; 40 always E:.

You ended up with a Microsoft-style, pseudo-dualboot. Your two
installations aren't completely independent of each other. You can read
more about this on my webpage at
www.goodells.net/multiboot/principles.htm

If you dualboot two independent installations, you can hide them from
each other so one can't interfere with the other. But to do that you
have to start over and set them up to use a third-party boot manager.
(Details also on my webpage, www.goodells.net/multiboot)

Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but
installing on the 40... came up with "folder already exists".
Checking further by going to (either system's) My Computer...
showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:.

What that's highlighting is that you should be unpacking the driver files
to E: instead of C:. When you download a driver from the Dell site, it
downloads as a single self-extracting exe file (often named something
like Rxxxxxx.EXE). When you double-click the downloaded exe file, it
pauses with a prompt for the location to which it will unpack its files
-- usually something like "c:\Dell\drivers\Rxxxxxx". After it unpacks
the files, it launches the setup routine that it unpacked there.

Since your second OS is on E:, when you're booted into that one you
should be changing the driver location to "e:\Dell\drivers\Rxxxxxx". So
double-click the exe, change the "c:" to "e:" in the prompt, and let it
continue. (If both OS's are the same, this isn't really much of a
problem though because c: and e: will end up with the same drivers
anyway, but it would be an issue if you had two different OS's that
needed different drivers.)

Incidentally, this problem with programs that default to C: even when
you're booted into the other OS is one reason a true multiboot is cleaner
and better than a Microsoft-style multiboot.


Dan