2 HD with different OS. How to choose which one to boot.

[VincentDesrd]

I have 2 HDs, one with XP(mine) and one with Win Me(parents) and everytime we want to use the PC we have to unplug one and plug the other one.

Is there anything I can do with the BIOS or something so it would give me an option at startup to be able to choose which one I want to boot and not have to constantly unplug and plug? I don't think it's very good for the hardware...

Thank you for your help.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

You have several options. Basically, you need a boot manager.

Both hard drives should be connected, one as the primary, the other as a slave. Then the boot manager is installed and a menu would appear at boot. Had you installed XP second AND left both drives connected, XP would have done this for you.

It may be possible to go into BIOS - but for non-savvy people, I would not recommend this.

Better question - why are your parents using Me?

If you setup the computer so that the Me Hard drive is the slave drive, then if XP is NTFS, you should be able to create such a boot menu.

Have a look at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q306559/

 

[VincentDesrd]

Thank you, I'll try what you said and tell you if it works.

As for why my parents use Win Me well, I've been trying to figure that out for a while... My mother uses my HD with XP to go on the web and play card, but no matter how hard I try to convince my father to use XP he doesn't want to. I guess it's just to complicated for him and he's used to Win Me since it came out.

 

[wolluf]

recommended boot manager -

http://www.boot-us.com

(if you use the option to create menu on floppy, free version will work for you, and as using floppy, will not actually update your hard drives at all - which is a good idea). I've been using this software for 5+ years with no problems.

You won't be able to create an XP boot menu without doing something like suggested here:-

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

or running a repair reinstall of XP. Ie, you can, but you have some procedures to go through.

You can use the bios - but its a bit of a faff going into bios settings every time you want to change the boot drive.

 

[VincentDesrd]

Oh so there's no option in the BIOS to permanently enable a HD boot choice menu?

 

[wolluf]

No - but the bios should have a boot order option - eg, hard drives 1-n, CD drives, floppy drives, Zip drives, USB drives, network etc (depending on bios type this can take a number of forms) - ie, you can't create a boot menu in the bios, but you should be able to access the relevant part of the bios (which as I said is a bit of a faff).

boot-us will generate a nice menu, which I suggest is best loaded to/from floppy drive (so machine set to boot from floppy of course). Just install it in one of the operating system, and run it to generate menu (its got other options too, but is straightforward to use).