2 hard drives and 2 operating systems

smackfan761

Baseband Member
Messages
37
I was wondering if anyone can help me. I have 2 seperate hard drives and a different operating system on each of them. I was wondering if there is any way I can have some kind of menu or something come up to let me choose between the 2 hard drives. The only way I can do it now is to go into the setup and and change the boot order and let it boot from the drive that I want to use at the time. I know that if I had the 2 operating systems on the same hard drive, that I could have a menu come up, but I want to have the 2 seperate hard drives. Thanks for any help.
 
never tried it but:
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html



or if you wanna reload all to partitions om one drive m$ says:

You can install two or more operating systems on your computer, and then choose the one that you want to use each time you restart. This is known as multibooting. You can configure your computer to start Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and either Windows 95 or Windows 98.

Consider Disk Space, Type, and File System
Before using the multibooting feature, consider the tradeoffs: each operating system uses valuable disk space, and file system compatibility can be complex if you want to run Windows XP on one partition and an earlier OS on another partition. In addition, dynamic disk format introduced in Windows 2000 does not work with earlier operating systems. However, multibooting capabilities are a valuable feature providing the single-machine flexibility to run multiple operating systems.

In the past, some users installed multiple operating systems as a safeguard against problems with starting the computer. With Windows XP, you have more and better options for system recovery. For example, if you have a problem with a newly-installed device driver, you can use safe mode, in which the operating system restarts with default settings and the minimum number of drivers. Windows XP also includes compatibility mode, so you no longer need to keep an older operating system to run most of your older programs.

However, multibooting continues to be a useful feature if you are using Windows XP but occasionally need to replicate older computing environments. This article provides an overview of multibooting, beginning with a summary of disk requirements followed by guidelines for multibooting with Windows XP. It also addresses multibooting issues for running Windows XP with earlier operating systems including Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 9x, and MS-DOS®. Each section includes a checklist summary for easy reference.

Top of page
Does Your Disk Support Multibooting?
The following table shows the disk configurations on which you can install more than one operating system.

Disk configuration Requirements for multiple operating systems

Basic disk

This is the common name for the hard disk in your computer. You have a basic disk unless you have converted it to dynamic disk. MS-DOS and all Windows-based operating systems can access basic disks. A basic disk can contain up to four primary partitions. A partition is a section of the disk that functions as a separate unit. Each partition can have a different file format and different drive letter, for example, C: and D:. Each operating system must be on a separate partition.


Single dynamic disk

If you have one hard disk and you have converted it to dynamic disk, you can install only one operating system. You cannot multiboot.
To determine if you have a dynamic hard disk, click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools.
Double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management. In the right pane, your disk will be labeled as a basic or dynamic type.


Multiple dynamic disks

If you have two or more hard disks installed in your computer, each dynamic disk can contain one installation of Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2000. No other operating systems can start from a dynamic disk. Windows XP Home Edition does not support dynamic disks.


One OS Per Partition
Before installing Windows XP and an earlier version on the same machine, you must prepare your hard disk with different partitions.

When you install Windows on a new or reformatted hard disk, the Setup program typically does not partition your hard disk automatically. To create multiple partitions, choose Advanced Options during Setup and follow the instructions to create and name multiple partitions. You can also create partitions using Fdisk.

If you have already installed Windows, and you have only one partition, you must reformat and partition your hard drive before you can multiboot.

You can divide your hard disk into multiple partitions, and each partition can function as a separate logical drive. For example, logical drives C: and D: can both exist on the same hard disk, but function as separate disks. You should install each operating system on a different partition. Then install applications on the same partition as the operating system with which you run them. If an application is used with two different operating systems, install copies on both partitions. Placing each operating system in a separate partition ensures that it will not overwrite crucial files used by the other OS.

A basic disk can contain up to four partitions. Each partition can be formatted for use by a file system, such as FAT32 or NTFS.
 
Ot there is a simpler altenative of dual booting.
When you stsrt up, Press F2 and a little menu will come up asking you which HDD you want to boot up on. ( The F2 bit depends on your BIOS ) Choose the HDD with the wanted OS and then boot up
 
boombaby said:
Ot there is a simpler altenative of dual booting.
When you stsrt up, Press F2 and a little menu will come up asking you which HDD you want to boot up on. ( The F2 bit depends on your BIOS ) Choose the HDD with the wanted OS and then boot up

he already does that, i guess you have a prebuilt system seeing as you say F2 :p generally its Delete.
 
or maybe your just used to pressing Del. My F2 works aswell as del.
 
alas some bios' have multi options with f8 just for boot order f10 for raid control and so on :p
 
Theres a possibility you can go...

control panel, system, advanced, startup and recovery. Then hopefully it should display both operating systems and tick the box saying "display list for X seconds".
 
CoMpUtaFrEek said:
Theres a possibility you can go...

control panel, system, advanced, startup and recovery. Then hopefully it should display both operating systems and tick the box saying "display list for X seconds".


I still havent found anything that works. I tried doing this and it only shows one operating system.
 
press f8 as its loads.

Or you can change your boot time in the boot.ini file.
 
Back
Top Bottom