Boot Menu

[Seekermeister]

I tried using BOOTCFG /REBUILD in the Recovery Console to modify the boot menu to include all of my Windows OSs. I have x64 and MCE on one SATA connected to the onboard controller, and a new copy of MCE on another HD connected to a controller card. I had thought that the new install would have seen the old and made a new boot menu including all of them, but it didn't...thus the reason that I tried the procedure mentioned previously.

Since I had never worked with this before, I had no idea of what to do, so I just went by trial and error. The result was that I ended up with 2 entries for each of the old OSs, with a total of 5. But this menu is viewable only if I boot to the HD with the old OSs, even though I had logged into the new OS in the Recovery Console when I did the editing. However, it will not allow me to select anything, it always boots to the old MCE, which was the first OS on the old boot menu.

I thought that I might be able to edit this from the boot.ini tab in msconfig, but booting into both old and new MCE, I found that they had not been modified at all by what I had done. This leaves me confused about where the modified boot.ini actually is? I guess that the only thing that I can do to change anything is by going through the Recovery Console again, but I am hoping that someone can shed some light on this, so that my trial and error doesn't just cause more errors. Anyone?

 

[Seekermeister]

I found the boot.ini on the x64 partition, which I couldn't boot into and edited it, so that part of my question is solved. I still need to figure out why the timeout=30 is being ignored and that the boot menu only appears for a split second?

 

[Seekermeister]

I found an article HERE, which suggests several aspects which may be the reason for the timeout problem. My problem is the terminology...I think that I might understand, but I want to be certain.

First, it says that multi(x), only works with a maximum of 4 IDE drives. I have 2 PATA and 3 SATA, but I'm not sure if IDE includes all of these? In some places, SATA is equated to SCSI, and in others, to IDE. How should these be defined in the boot.ini?

In the same fashion, I'm not sure how to define the 2 SATA controllers, because in the Device Manager they are listed as SCSI and Raid Devices.

Even with these properly labeled, it appears that the boot.ini should be located in C:, but it is in L:. Can I simply copy it to C:?

Lastly, since C: is on the controller card, rather than onboard, shouldn't it be either multi(1) or SCSI(1) instead of (0)?

I may find answers to these questions by Googling, but I'm getting nowhere at this so far.

 

[bsobel]

While I try to ignore all your posts, I'll be nice for the holidays.

Even with these properly labeled, it appears that the boot.ini should be located in C:, but it is in L:. Can I simply copy it to C:?

At boot time the system has no concept of C: drive vs your L: drive, those are constructs the OS puts on the hardware. The boot.ini and bootloader need to be on the first drive which the BIOS is going to treat as your primary HD boot device.

 

[Seekermeister]

Thanks, but I wouldn't want to impose on your "kindness".