Dual Boot Not Functioning

[Darcy]

Hello-
I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.

I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
(perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
OS is present.

Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
cannot run any programs from it.
To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Darcy

[Ken Christensen]

Hi Darcy,

Windows XP has the nice Dual-Booting feature from Windows 2000, so its
possible.
You do like this:
Goto: Control Panel - System.
Now find the tab named "Advanced".
Theres some buttons split in different areas
(http://kenman.hard-mods.dk/support/ms/system_adv.gif)
Find the one in the "Startup & recovery" field.
Now Press the Edit button in the "System Startup" area.
Now Notepad (or some other .txt editor), should open.
Here you add the folowing information:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows ME" /fastdetect

Then reboot your computer, and it should be working.
Explanation of the boot loader config:

[Bootloader]
timeout=30 - Sets the timelimit you have to select an other operating
system, before launching the default one.

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S - Sets the default
operating system

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect - The Windows XP Partition
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows ME" /fastdetect - The
windows ME partition

WARNING:
There might be some errors in the bootloader config i have written for you.
The bootloader will load like this:

At The booting harddrive it will startup windows in the folder Windows\
(if nothing else is chosen)
If you choose to load windows ME, it will startup windows in the folder
Windows\ at the 2. drive.

------------------------
Best Regards
Ken Christensen

www.kenman.tk
------------------------
"Darcy" > wrote in message
...
> Hello-
> I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
> posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
> situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
>
> I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
> Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
> OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
> refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
> (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
> feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
> OS is present.
>
> Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
> computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
> C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
> version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
> drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
> Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
> Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
> Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
> At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
> option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
> as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
> documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
> cannot run any programs from it.
> To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
> XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
> Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Darcy

[johnf]

Darcy,
Go to Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc
Right-click on your F:drive and change it to 'set active.'
On reboot, the boot.ini file should now be modified and the option given
during boot-up.
johnf

> Hello-
> I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
> posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
> situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
>
> I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
> Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
> OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
> refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
> (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
> feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
> OS is present.
>
> Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
> computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
> C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
> version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
> drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
> Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
> Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
> Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
> At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
> option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
> as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
> documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
> cannot run any programs from it.
> To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
> XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
> Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Darcy

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Do not do this, as the active partition needs to be the one containing =
the boot files, not the one that you want to boot. Doing this may lose =
the ability to boot either system, necessitating a session from the =
Recovery Console.

Darcy,

You will need a third party boot manager, as the WinXP system(C) is =
housing the boot files, and you are using NTFS. WinME cannot boot from =
an NTFS partition. You will need to either use one of the below =
programs, or start over and create a FAT32 to boot from.

Boot Managers and Partitioning programs:

BootIT NG www.terabyteunlimited.com
Partition Magic www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic
Partition Commander http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html
Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com/part/

--=20
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

"johnf" > wrote in message =
...
> Darcy,
> Go to Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc
> Right-click on your F:drive and change it to 'set active.'
> On reboot, the boot.ini file should now be modified and the option =
given
> during boot-up.
> johnf
>=20
> > Hello-
> > I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
> > posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
> > situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
> >
> > I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
> > Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
> > OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
> > refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
> > (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
> > feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
> > OS is present.
> >
> > Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
> > computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
> > C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
> > version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
> > drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
> > Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
> > Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
> > Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
> > At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
> > option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
> > as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
> > documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
> > cannot run any programs from it.
> > To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
> > XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
> > Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
> > appreciated.
> >
> > Thank you in advance,
> > Darcy
>=20
>

[johnf]

Rick, Isn't that only the case when both OS's are on the same HDD? (Darcy
has 2 separate drives)
That's the way I did it, but admittedly I did use Partition Magic.
Also if the second OS isn't set active as well, it doesn't show in C: Win
Explorer.

Ah, just noticed, he has both on one cable, - Master/Slave, whereas I have 2
cables, two Masters.

johnf

> Do not do this, as the active partition needs to be the one
> containing the boot files, not the one that you want to boot. Doing
> this may lose the ability to boot either system, necessitating a
> session from the Recovery Console.
>
> Darcy,
>
> You will need a third party boot manager, as the WinXP system(C) is
> housing the boot files, and you are using NTFS. WinME cannot boot
> from an NTFS partition. You will need to either use one of the below
> programs, or start over and create a FAT32 to boot from.
>
> Boot Managers and Partitioning programs:
>
> BootIT NG www.terabyteunlimited.com
> Partition Magic www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic
> Partition Commander http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html
> Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com/part/
>
>
> "johnf" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Darcy,
>> Go to Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc
>> Right-click on your F:drive and change it to 'set active.'
>> On reboot, the boot.ini file should now be modified and the option
>> given
>> during boot-up.
>> johnf
>>
>>> Hello-
>>> I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
>>> posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
>>> situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
>>>
>>> I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
>>> Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
>>> OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
>>> refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
>>> (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
>>> feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
>>> OS is present.
>>>
>>> Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
>>> computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
>>> C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
>>> version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
>>> drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
>>> Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
>>> Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
>>> Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
>>> At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
>>> option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
>>> as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
>>> documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
>>> cannot run any programs from it.
>>> To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
>>> XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
>>> Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
>>> appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance,
>>> Darcy

[johnf]

Rick, Isn't that only the case when both OS's are on the same HDD? (Darcy
has 2 separate drives)
That's the way I did it, but admittedly I did use Partition Magic.
Also if the second OS isn't set active as well, it doesn't show in C: Win
Explorer.

Ah, just noticed, he has both on one cable, - Master/Slave, whereas I have 2
cables, two Masters.

johnf

> Do not do this, as the active partition needs to be the one
> containing the boot files, not the one that you want to boot. Doing
> this may lose the ability to boot either system, necessitating a
> session from the Recovery Console.
>
> Darcy,
>
> You will need a third party boot manager, as the WinXP system(C) is
> housing the boot files, and you are using NTFS. WinME cannot boot
> from an NTFS partition. You will need to either use one of the below
> programs, or start over and create a FAT32 to boot from.
>
> Boot Managers and Partitioning programs:
>
> BootIT NG www.terabyteunlimited.com
> Partition Magic www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic
> Partition Commander http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html
> Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com/part/
>
>
> "johnf" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Darcy,
>> Go to Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc
>> Right-click on your F:drive and change it to 'set active.'
>> On reboot, the boot.ini file should now be modified and the option
>> given
>> during boot-up.
>> johnf
>>
>>> Hello-
>>> I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
>>> posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
>>> situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
>>>
>>> I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
>>> Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
>>> OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
>>> refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
>>> (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
>>> feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
>>> OS is present.
>>>
>>> Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
>>> computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
>>> C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
>>> version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
>>> drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
>>> Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
>>> Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
>>> Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
>>> At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
>>> option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
>>> as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
>>> documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
>>> cannot run any programs from it.
>>> To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
>>> XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
>>> Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
>>> appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance,
>>> Darcy

[Walter Clayton]

NT setup engines will add a single 9x instance, but only if you install
correctly.
From the sound of it, you installed the 120G drive as primary and moved the
80G to secondary prior to installing XP. If this is the case, then you did
things incorrectly. However you're in a bit of luck since that allows you a
third opportunity that most people lack. If not, ignore option 3.

Option 1: Leave the 120G drive as primary and use the BIOS to multiboot.
Option 2: Leave the 120G drive as primary and install a 3rd party
partition/boot management tool.
Option 3: Leave the 80G drive as primary and do a repair reinstall. This
method should work if my assumption regarding the exact order of hardware
and software install is correct, but I'm uncertain, since I've never done it
before, if a repair reinstall will detect the 9x instance correctly. If it
happens to step on the 9x boot strap code, just boot from 9x floppy and do a
"fdisk /mbr" followed by "sys c:"

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp


"Darcy" > wrote in message
...
> Hello-
> I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
> posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
> situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
>
> I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
> Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
> OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
> refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
> (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
> feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
> OS is present.
>
> Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
> computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
> C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
> version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
> drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
> Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
> Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
> Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
> At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
> option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
> as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
> documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
> cannot run any programs from it.
> To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
> XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
> Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Darcy

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

The only way your advice works is with Partition Magic and other
third-party boot/partition managers.

You have to use your partition manager to hide one drive and then
install XP on the other one. This disk will have the NT boot loader
installed. Then you use your partition manager to hide that disk and
install an OS on the other one. If that OS is XP, then you get another
instance of the NT boot loader installed. You can do this manually, of
course, by disconnecting IDE cables and then installing and
reconnecting.

Then you can boot either drive using your partition manager or you can
use the BIOS to select the drive/partition to boot. Your partition
manager can also change the MBR on the fly to hide partitions.

The only way a partition fails to show in Windows is if you have either
not entered that partition in the MBR (this is how PM hides it) or that
version of Windows doesn't understand the partition type (eg, 9x doesn't
read NTFS partitions).

You can't make partition changes to XP, if XP was installed on a
partition that isn't the primary partition on the boot drive. In other
words, if XP is on drive D: you can't move it to drive C: without a
repair-install or a clean-install to change all the path references.
(Wouldn't it be nice if all the registry entries were relative to
%windir% and you could just change %windir%?)

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows


"johnf" > wrote in message
...
> Rick, Isn't that only the case when both OS's are on the same HDD?
(Darcy
> has 2 separate drives)
> That's the way I did it, but admittedly I did use Partition Magic.
> Also if the second OS isn't set active as well, it doesn't show in C:
Win
> Explorer.
>
> Ah, just noticed, he has both on one cable, - Master/Slave, whereas I
have 2
> cables, two Masters.
>
> johnf
>
> > Do not do this, as the active partition needs to be the one
> > containing the boot files, not the one that you want to boot. Doing
> > this may lose the ability to boot either system, necessitating a
> > session from the Recovery Console.
> >
> > Darcy,
> >
> > You will need a third party boot manager, as the WinXP system(C) is
> > housing the boot files, and you are using NTFS. WinME cannot boot
> > from an NTFS partition. You will need to either use one of the below
> > programs, or start over and create a FAT32 to boot from.
> >
> > Boot Managers and Partitioning programs:
> >
> > BootIT NG www.terabyteunlimited.com
> > Partition Magic www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic
> > Partition Commander http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html
> > Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com/part/
> >
> >
> > "johnf" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >> Darcy,
> >> Go to Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc
> >> Right-click on your F:drive and change it to 'set active.'
> >> On reboot, the boot.ini file should now be modified and the option
> >> given
> >> during boot-up.
> >> johnf
> >>
> >>> Hello-
> >>> I did a search in this forum for dual booting and read the
> >>> posts, but I could not see how to apply them to my
> >>> situation. Hopefully this post is not too repetitive.
> >>>
> >>> I would like my computer to dual boot Windows XP and
> >>> Windows ME at start-up so that I have a choice as to which
> >>> OS to run (this is especially important since WinXP
> >>> refuses to acknowledge that my modem exists). I have the
> >>> (perhaps wrong)impression that Win XP should have some
> >>> feature that dual boots automatically when more than one
> >>> OS is present.
> >>>
> >>> Windows ME (the original OEM version that came with my
> >>> computer)is installed on an 80GB Maxtor hard drive (drive
> >>> C:) and I clean installed Windows XP Professional (retail
> >>> version) on a newly purchased Western Digital 120 GB hard
> >>> drive (drive F:). Win XP installed itself as NTFS.
> >>> Both hard drives are sharing the same IDE cable, with the
> >>> Win ME Maxtor hard drive as the "slave" and the Win XP
> >>> Western Digital hard drive as the "master".
> >>> At start-up, only Win XP boots, and Win ME is not an
> >>> option at all. Win XP treats the Win ME Maxtor hard drive
> >>> as an extra storage device. I can open pictures and word
> >>> documents in the Win ME drive (everything looks XP), but I
> >>> cannot run any programs from it.
> >>> To run the Win ME drive, I must physically unplug the Win
> >>> XP drive and make the Win ME drive the "master" drive.
> >>> Any advice on how to convince Win XP to dual boot is
> >>> appreciated.
> >>>
> >>> Thank you in advance,
> >>> Darcy
>
>