2 hard drives 1

[drummond]

I have 2 hard drives in my computer, I want one for my boy and one for me at the moment one is "C" and the other "G" both have winXP on, can I do anything like dual boot to have 1. Michael 2. John when booting up.Thank you in advance for your help............John

 

[jrbarnett]

Just create seperate user acounts.

John

 

[bcastner]

Yes you can get a boot option at start between the two intallations.

You could make the edits by hand: MSCONFIG has a boot option tab that allows you to edit the boot.ini file.

An easier way is to use Recovery Console, and the bootcfg command.

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp&NoWebContent=1

In recovery console type:
bootcfg /rebuild

The bootcfg will scan all of your hard disk devices and identify Windows installations. The end result will be an edit boot.ini file with a selector for each individual installation.

Note: add Recovery Console as a formal installation option to the menu. See my link above.

 

[linney]

When you say both hard drives have XP on them, do you mean you have installed XP twice on your machine?

Is this then a question about identifying which XP operating system is loaded at boot time?

Are you actually offered a choice of operating systems at boot? This article may help you with some of what you want.

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q291/9/80.asp

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

You may end up with the hidden and system file Boot.ini looking similar to this.

[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="DRUMMOND XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="MY BOY XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q289/0/22.asp

HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP (Q306559)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q306/5/59.asp

 

[bcastner]

linney,

Nice job. (I note you added Recovery Console as a boot option, as would I).

It was my read the user would like to end up with: a boot configuration menu allowing access to either to two installations of XP. (and Recovery Console).

Let me take the moment to comment on these lines:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="DRUMMOND XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="MY BOY XP Professional" /fastdetect

These lines indicate a single disk, with two partitions. The user has two physical disks, and the result of the bootcfg /rebuild process would likely be to create lines like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="DRUMMOND XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="MY BOY XP Professional" /fastdetect

(If you want to win a Windows trivia contest, remember that this naming method is called "ARC"), and was a very good move for users as a choice by Microsoft. It does however lead to the often seen on Forums NTLDR or other errors if there is an issue with boot.ini.

 

[linney]

Quite correct Bill, it is easy to forget what machine you are working on when you copy the boot.ini file. I was wise enough to use the terms "may" and "similar" but not clever enough to not need them.

 

[drummond]

Thank you for the reply guys,yes bcastner thats exactly what I want to end up with, lets see if I can do it.......drummond

 

[bcastner]

linney,

I am tossing another Star on your pile. I have saved a link to your response as it is a much more thorough discussion of the issue than my responses in this thread.

Again, nice job.
Bill

 

[drummond]

Ok guys now my setup allows me to choose which hard drive to go to to but now I am getting this message
"windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from selected boot disk. check boot path and disk hardware."

Should I have both disks as master or some other configuration. Again thank you for all the help......drummond

 

[bcastner]

Master/Slave is an ide issue, if the drives report correctly through the BIOS discovery then you should be okay.

Boot from the XP CD, and enter Recovery Console:
fixmbr c:
fixboot c:
exit

Please advise if this does not resolve the issue, and include a printout of boot.ini from Drive C

 

[drummond]

In Bios 1 is a master and the other is slave. Sorry what you said next about booting from cd is double dutch to me.Thank you.................John

 

[linney]

Let's see your Boot.ini file. The earlier examples were just that, examples, they still might not be correct. I checked on a computer with 2 drives and a Partition on each drive, and it was the rdisk parameter that was directing which drive was being used to load XP from.

Two Drives and Two Partitions Example.

With the rdisk parameter used to indicate different hard drives.



[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="DRUMMOND XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="MY BOY XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

http://www.sourcemagazine.com/articles/viewer.asp?a=597

Let's hope we get it right this time!

 

[drummond]

Here is my boot.ini 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=" MICHAEL XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="JOHN SR XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Again thank you for your help...........John

 

[bcastner]

drummond,

John,

It was my hope that bootcfg /rebuild would not force me to look again at my imperfect knowledge of ARC pathing in a BOOT.ini

1. unless you have all SCSI drives, the "multi" as the beginning statement is correct. The first value under multi should be 0, and increment only with additional drive adapters. Your settings at least this far are firne.

2. disk(#) reflects the SCSI device number. It should be alway 0 under IDE drives, (note: this is a correction to my post above).

3. rdisk(#) the hard disk drive number on the same adapter when using the "multi" as the prefix to the ARC enumeration. This is were linney's post above becomes very important in your case. I think linney is absolutely right (and my earlier version absolutely wrong) that these two lines in boot.ini should read:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=" MICHAEL XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="JOHN SR XP Professional" /fastdetect

This is assuming a Master/Slave on the same IDE disk channel.

4. The partition values seem correct to me.

Thank you linney for your attention to this issue. It is not of small moment.

Bill Castner

 

[drummond]

Thank you bcastner that done the trick. One more thing is it normal for the "c" and "G" drive (my 2 hard drives) to be present on both.Thanks...............John

 

[bcastner]

The Windows plug and play enumeration has baffled many brave individuals, particularly as it is different in XP than previous Windows releases.

What you are observing on your system is "normal" for both drives to be shown, and enumerated as Drives C and G.

I will provide a link to explain what is happening, but honestly I had to read the article at least 10 times before it made any sense to me. I hope you prove much quicker than myself on drive letter enumeration issues:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q825668

It sounds like you are close to having XP work as you intended. Your thread raised some very vabluable points, and I wanted to thank you John for the questions. Good stuff.

Bill

 

[drummond]

Thank you for all the help guys.