Simple dual-booting question...

[Sulaco]

Hey guys,

I recently received my copy of Windows Vista and decided to take it for a test drive on a spare 100Gb HDD I had, while Windows XP remains my real, working OS on my 200Gb drive.

The XP drive is my SATA master drive, and Vista is installed on the IDE Master.

BIOS and Windows both read the drives just fine, but I'm wondering what is the best way to be able to chosoe which OS/HDD I want to load? As of right now, I have to go into BIOS and manually set which one to load in "Boot Device Priority", and it's kind of a hassle, especially since I go back and forth between the two alot.

Does anyone have a better way? Thanks in advance!

 

[stevty2889]

When you installed Vista did you have your HD with XP installed enabled?
My roomate just set up basicly the same thing. He left his XP drive active, while installing vista to the second hard drive. He set the vista drive as the first boot drive, and then when it's booting up, it gives him the option of choosing Vista or XP.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my HDD with XP connected when I installed Vista. I just reconnected it afterwards. But they are both connected now.
The option of choosing between Vista and XP is exactly what I'm looking for. Do you have to have the XP drive connected when installing Vista to get that option?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Sulaco
Do you have to have the XP drive connected when installing Vista to get that option?

Yep. But there are also some 3rd party applications that will also do what you want it to(give the option to select the os as bootup), not sure of any off hand, but you can try a google search for boot managers.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks alot, I'll look into those.

Would it be easier to reinstall Vista, though? I've only had it installed for less than 12 hours, and I hadn't activated it yet.

 

[Sulaco]

well, I reinstalled Vista with my XP HDD connected and recognized, but it never gave me the option to select an OS at start-up...anyone have any ideas?

 

[Palms]

i have xp and vista like the other guy posted, it sounds like your boot.ini is not correct, go to the run command and typre in msconfig, click on boot in to see if both are in there.

mine looks like this
;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

I did a little reseach because i didn't know what these warning were, if it aint broke dont fix i say plus it's a little out of my depth. here is a link plus what it said to do

Multiboot Environments
Can I install Windows Vista on a computer that already contains an operating system?
Yes. You can install Windows Vista on a different partition. It is best to install Windows Vista after you install the older operating systems. Older operating systems will continue to use Boot.ini for boot configuration.

Should I replace the code that used to work with Boot.ini to now use BCD on Windows Vista?
No. You will need to alter your code so that it uses Boot.ini for the older operating systems, and so that it uses BCD on Windows Vista.


http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVi...7c-b035-c2719d4af7781033.mspx?mfr=true

I also found this link, this could be my answer and yours, check out the forums here, i have found some good help regarding my move to Vista.

http://vistabootpro.org/

good luck



palms

 

[Smitty308]

To me, the simplest way is to have a removable rack in your computer and have 2 removable trays, each with a hard drive and an OS, and just put in the hard drive to which you want to boot. That is what I am doing at the moment. I have Ubuntu on one drive. which I am using right now, and 2000 PRO on the other. That way there is no danger of messing up either one.


Good Luck
Smitty