Topic: How can I boot from different disks ?

[Thumbsup]

Hello there,

I have a W98 system set up with two different hard disks, each with a Primary DOS partition with W98 installed.The disks are currently set up as Master and Slave.

Is it possible to set the system up so that I can boot from either system?

Secondary question:

I will be setting up a secondary DOS partition on one drive to install XP. What do I have to do to get dual boot on that disk too ?

Thanks.

[WhiteDevil]

The link below is to a tutorial. It provides info. on getting your system to dual boot Windows 9X-ME and 2000 PRO but setting it up to dual boot XP should be almost the same...

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software/windows/dual/

[Sandra]

I will be setting up a secondary DOS partition on one drive to install XP. What do I have to do to get dual boot on that disk too ?

It is unwise to dual boot on one hard drive Andy,unless I have misunderstood your question you want to end up with one hard drive with 98 on and a second hard drive with 98 on the primary partition with XP on a secondary partition on that drive.
Can you explain why you would want the same OS on 2 different drives  
If I have misunderstood and you meant that you wanted to create a second primary partition on drive 2 for XP then that makes more sense  
If you do dual boot its better to start with a clean install on both drives.
Always install the older OS first so it would be 98 on IDE o and XP on IDE 1
Bear in mind that if you want to access files that have been stored while using the XP OS by your 98 OS then make sure that you format both drives in FAT 32  

[Thumbsup]

Hi, Sandra.

You did understand my requirement correctly.

I have my original system on hard disk, 1. I have installed a new secondary hard drive, 2, which I have now changed to be the Master and am re-installing Windows98 from scratch. But, I still want the option of booting from my original system, 1, to be able to check items as part of the re-build for my new W98 version, without having to reset the Master/Slave switches.

Finally, I want to install XP, on another partition on Drive 2, but as this system is only a PII 500 Mhz, and XP tells me that there are some incompatibilities, I will keep both versions of W98 and XP on Drive 2.

Does that make sense and can I do it ?

   

[Sandra]

I can see your reasoning Andy but think that it is inadvisable to dual boot on one drive.
I know it can be done but I have read somewhere that it can cause problems.
What size drives have you got by the way?
Would you not be better off installing your new drive as a single master and installing 98 on it and checking that all is ok then wiping your original drive setting that as a slave and installing XP on it  

[Thumbsup]

Like the thinking Sandra and it might work. But, can we start at the beginning. As I have W98 on drive 1, and a new version on drive 2, can I set up dual boot for that config. prior to any XP install ?

[Sandra]

Have you already got 98 on both drives Andy?
If so did you install the second one with the first one disconnected from the PC?
If it detects an existing OS then it sets the dual boot process up as its installing the second system.
I dont think you can tell it to dual boot later as it adds stuff to the first boot drive to give you the option of which OS you want to boot into on starting up  

[Thumbsup]

Yes, I have over the Bank Holiday weekend installed W98 on to the new drive, which I had reset to be the master, but with the old drive set as slave. I thought that I had to do it like that as W98 installs on the current C: drive.

How can I tell if dual boot was installed ?

[Sandra]

I dont think it has Andy  
You should have left the new installation on the slave drive so it wont have added anything to the boot sector of the slave which was the original OS.
I dont know if theres anything you can do now but to either wipe the slave and install XP on that or reverse the master and slave as they are now,wipe the new 98 installation and reinstall it on the slave.
Some one may know of a way to do it but unless theres a program that can write to the boot sector to tell it to dual boot I cant see how it can be done with the installation as it is now  

[Sandra]

I have just come across this :

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

I am not sure but from a quick look at the site it seems that this may enable dual booting with the OSs already installed,there may be over progs that are cheaper or maybe free Andy as well so maybe someone may have come across one  

[Sandra]

This is a freebie that you could try Andy :

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/

It says it searches for all bootable partitions and drives so that should enable you to boot from either OS as its set up now.
I still think that if I was you then I would just wipe the current slave drive and install XP on it.
I hope it works if you decide to try it  

[WhiteDevil]

hiya,
you could always try this program, its a bootloader and should allow you to choose where to boot from. Ive only experience it working with a Linux/Windows dual boot, but theoretically it should work with two versions of windows also.

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/

[Thumbsup]

Sandra,

So your suggestion is that I need to install the operating system onto the slave drive with the original drive in situ. Probably a silly question but how do I do that, because I thought that the CD tried to install the software onto the C: drive ??

Thanks,

Andy

[Adept]

Hi Andy,

I think Windows is clever enough to work out that it needs to install a dual boot system in this situation.

Or reeboot, you then get a startup menu from which you can choose a drive/OS to boot from.

[Simon]

Would that boot menu come up every time Sean, or can you set a 'default' boot, and be able to change it at will?