[badben25]

on my pc i have this 160gb sata-2 HDD divided into 3 partitions [80-40-40, all NTFS]. i have only 1 OS, Win 2k pro sp4, installed on my C drive [80gb]. now i have this old IDE hdd [a 40gb ultra ata] divided into 2 partitions [all FAT32] with Win xp pro sp2 installed on the first partition. the problem is that when i have both drives plugged into my pc, instead of giving the OS choices menu, my pc directly boots into win xp. i do not want it to do so, and instead give the OS choices menu. why isnt it happening as i want it to? is it because the drive with win xp on it is set to master instead of slave?or is it some other problem? plz tell me how to make the OS choices menu to appear. all my drivers are fully updated and installed on both HDDs. also, i wanted to know what wud have happened if i had win 98 se instead of win xp. would i have had the same problem?
i wud also like to tell u that i am very good at tech stuff [even though i am hardly 15!].
i need help ASAP, n i hope u understand.
thanx

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Hi,

The fact that XP boots instead of w2k is because you XP hard disk is set as master. Put it on slave and put the w2k disk as master
If you plugged in the second HD (with win XP) after you installed the w2k, you can't get a dual boot because the boot.ini hasn't been modified. You need to install the XP again.
Put the XP CD in, start your PC. Make sure you boot from CD.
Win XP will start to install. Make sure you choose another partition then your w2k installation. That new partition has to be formatted as NTFS. (FAT is obsolete anyway - unless you use win9x)
After that, all should work fine.
If you want dual boot with win98, you need to install that first (on your first partition, WITH FAT)
After installing win98, you can install win2k or XP on another partition which has to be NTFS.

Hope this helps
Greetz

[Caracas]

Hi,

The fact that XP boots instead of w2k is because you XP hard disk is set as master. Put it on slave and put the w2k disk as master
If you plugged in the second HD (with win XP) after you installed the w2k, you can't get a dual boot because the boot.ini hasn't been modified. You need to install the XP again.
Put the XP CD in, start your PC. Make sure you boot from CD.
Win XP will start to install. Make sure you choose another partition then your w2k installation. That new partition has to be formatted as NTFS. (FAT is obsolete anyway - unless you use win9x)
After that, all should work fine.
If you want dual boot with win98, you need to install that first (on your first partition, WITH FAT)
After installing win98, you can install win2k or XP on another partition which has to be NTFS.

Hope this helps
Greetz

[Caracas]

lol, seems like i got some comp probs myself... my post got in here 2 times

Edited by Caracas, 06 July 2006 - 02:36 AM.

[badben25]

thanks caracas, those were nice tips. but now i've got another question. here's the situation:
i unplug the sata hdd [the one with win 2k pro] and plug in the 40gb ide hdd [the one with win xp]. both partitions of this hdd are formatted and the file system is FAT32. so now my pc has an empty hdd and has booted in DOS. i install windows 98 se on the hdd & all the other necessary drivers and software. now i switch off my pc, plug in the sata hdd [the one with win 2k pro] and switch it on again (the ide hdd is set to master). now which of the 3 will take place:
=the pc boots into win 2k pro
=the pc boots into win 98 se
=the OS choices menu appears

now i set the ide hdd to slave. what happens now?
=the pc boots into win 2k pro
=the pc boots into win 98 se
=the OS choices menu appears

thanx

[Caracas]

When the IDE is master, your Win98 will boot.
When the SATA is master, the w2k will boot.

In both cases, there will be no boot menu. You will not be able to chose any OS.

[badben25]

man i badly want to have win 98se and win 2k pro as multi-boot. and i dont want to do anything to my win 2k [i.e. my sata hdd] cuz all my software and data and drivers are on it.
nyways, i was thinkin if sumthin cud be done by editing boot.ini or sumthin......... where there's a will there's a way, aint it?
thanx a lot nyways
P.S. love the response rate of this forum!

[Caracas]

I fear it won't be possible to have a win98 and keeping the current w2k installation.
In order for that to work, you first need to install win98 on the first partition and that partition has to FAT(32)
After that you have to install w2k on another partition (with NTFS).
When you're installing w2k, your boot.ini gets automaticaly modified in order to dual boot.
I'm not sure if you can change it manualy to make it dual boot.
If you would install win98 on the IDE disk, and then connect your SATA disk, you would have to change the drive letter for the w2k partition on the SATA disk because it is also C ... that might work, I'm not sure

Interesting test case though

greets

[gerryf]

the problem here is not just boot.ini....the windows 2k install also modifies the boot sector.

If both drives were fat32, you might try :

leave ide as master and install win98
now, run win2k setup and choose a repair installation....win2k setup will search your other drives and if it finds them, the repair will write a new boot sector on the win98 drive, which will give you the boot menu you desire,

might also try a third party boot manager

[badben25]

caracas, you've really helped me a lot man. thanks a bunch.
gerry, thanks to u too, great tips. but wat i want is that the sata has only win 2k and runs on ntfs, and the ide has only win 98 and runs on fat32. guess i'll try a 3rd party boot manager n then let u guys know wat happens [tell me some names or links if possible].
thanx a lot once again