Boot record????

[Mark Godfrey]

I have a dual boot machine with 98SE on one hard drive and XP Pro on another
hard drive. Someone has told me that the boot record for both drives is on
the C: drive which is 98SE. They didn't think that was a good idea. So my
question is, can I have two boot records? If not, then should XP be the C:?
If so, can I and should I modfy the boot record? If so, how do I do it
carefully? I would like to get some opinions from a few experienced folks if
possible as this seems to be a delicate matter and figured I could combine
the thoughts of a handful rather than just one or two. Thanks for the
thoughts and the help.

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

One boot record per machine under normal circumstances, generally installed
to the root of the active partition. You can concievably setup each drive as
separately bootable, then switch between them using the BIOS, but that is a
real hassle. There is nothing wrong with leaving your system as is, this is
a normal dual boot configuration. XP does not have to be on C, and should
the boot files fail, you can still repair them from the WinXP recovery
console.

There is also an option to use swappable drives and insert the one you wish
to load at startup.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Mark Godfrey" > wrote in message
...
> I have a dual boot machine with 98SE on one hard drive and XP Pro on
another
> hard drive. Someone has told me that the boot record for both drives is on
> the C: drive which is 98SE. They didn't think that was a good idea. So my
> question is, can I have two boot records? If not, then should XP be the
C:?
> If so, can I and should I modfy the boot record? If so, how do I do it
> carefully? I would like to get some opinions from a few experienced folks
if
> possible as this seems to be a delicate matter and figured I could combine
> the thoughts of a handful rather than just one or two. Thanks for the
> thoughts and the help.
>
>

[Alex Nichol]

Xref: kermit microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers:82725

Mark Godfrey wrote:

>I have a dual boot machine with 98SE on one hard drive and XP Pro on =
another
>hard drive. Someone has told me that the boot record for both drives is =
on
>the C: drive which is 98SE. They didn't think that was a good idea. So =
my
>question is, can I have two boot records?=20

That is the way a dual boot gets set up when you install XP from 98 into
a new partition. It puts initial boot in with the 98, so that if you
choose to boot that it can switch to its normal boot files and find it
is on the correct partition. It is nothing to be bothered about - get
used to having XP on D: or wherever - the letter is not really of any
importance. To separate the boots you would need to install some
separate Boot Manager, like BootIT NG, and then arrange the XP to retain
its present letter. I would leave things alone


--=20
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Just remember not to delete the C: partition when you are done using 9x,
or else you'll wipe out your NT boot loader to load XP. You can keep the
C: drive around for storing user data.

If I was starting out from scratch, I would use a third-party partition
manager and boot loader like BootIt Next Generation (www.bootitng.com).
Then I would install XP on the second hard disk while temporarily
unplugging the other disk so that the XP boot loader and XP would end up
on the same hard drive. Then I would reinstall the old disk and use BING
to choose between them instead of the BIOS setting.

Now, if I ever want to get rid of the 9x disk or use it for some other
purpose, I can easily do it, since the NT boot loader is on the XP disk.

Doug Knox has good advice for how to multi-boot if you install 9x
*after* installing XP instead of before. See www.dougknox.com.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows

(Sorry, Rick, I keep finishing your sentences for you. :-)

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> One boot record per machine under normal circumstances, generally
installed
> to the root of the active partition. You can concievably setup each
drive as
> separately bootable, then switch between them using the BIOS, but that
is a
> real hassle. There is nothing wrong with leaving your system as is,
this is
> a normal dual boot configuration. XP does not have to be on C, and
should
> the boot files fail, you can still repair them from the WinXP recovery
> console.
>
> There is also an option to use swappable drives and insert the one you
wish
> to load at startup.
>
>
> "Mark Godfrey" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I have a dual boot machine with 98SE on one hard drive and XP Pro on
> another
> > hard drive. Someone has told me that the boot record for both drives
is on
> > the C: drive which is 98SE. They didn't think that was a good idea.
So my
> > question is, can I have two boot records? If not, then should XP be
the
> C:?
> > If so, can I and should I modfy the boot record? If so, how do I do
it
> > carefully? I would like to get some opinions from a few experienced
folks
> if
> > possible as this seems to be a delicate matter and figured I could
combine
> > the thoughts of a handful rather than just one or two. Thanks for
the
> > thoughts and the help.
> >
> >
>
>

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Kent,

> (Sorry, Rick, I keep finishing your sentences for you. :-)

Have you seen me complain yet? <g>

I agree completely with your additional information.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Kent W. England [MVP]" > wrote in message
...
> Just remember not to delete the C: partition when you are done using 9x,
> or else you'll wipe out your NT boot loader to load XP. You can keep the
> C: drive around for storing user data.
>
> If I was starting out from scratch, I would use a third-party partition
> manager and boot loader like BootIt Next Generation (www.bootitng.com).
> Then I would install XP on the second hard disk while temporarily
> unplugging the other disk so that the XP boot loader and XP would end up
> on the same hard drive. Then I would reinstall the old disk and use BING
> to choose between them instead of the BIOS setting.
>
> Now, if I ever want to get rid of the 9x disk or use it for some other
> purpose, I can easily do it, since the NT boot loader is on the XP disk.
>
> Doug Knox has good advice for how to multi-boot if you install 9x
> *after* installing XP instead of before. See www.dougknox.com.
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> (Sorry, Rick, I keep finishing your sentences for you. :-)
>
> "Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hi,
> >
> > One boot record per machine under normal circumstances, generally
> installed
> > to the root of the active partition. You can concievably setup each
> drive as
> > separately bootable, then switch between them using the BIOS, but that
> is a
> > real hassle. There is nothing wrong with leaving your system as is,
> this is
> > a normal dual boot configuration. XP does not have to be on C, and
> should
> > the boot files fail, you can still repair them from the WinXP recovery
> > console.
> >
> > There is also an option to use swappable drives and insert the one you
> wish
> > to load at startup.
> >
> >
> > "Mark Godfrey" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > I have a dual boot machine with 98SE on one hard drive and XP Pro on
> > another
> > > hard drive. Someone has told me that the boot record for both drives
> is on
> > > the C: drive which is 98SE. They didn't think that was a good idea.
> So my
> > > question is, can I have two boot records? If not, then should XP be
> the
> > C:?
> > > If so, can I and should I modfy the boot record? If so, how do I do
> it
> > > carefully? I would like to get some opinions from a few experienced
> folks
> > if
> > > possible as this seems to be a delicate matter and figured I could
> combine
> > > the thoughts of a handful rather than just one or two. Thanks for
> the
> > > thoughts and the help.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>