Dual boot question

[tbalazs]

I have one PC running Win2K Pro and another running Win95. Can I add the Win95 HDD, either as a channel 1 slave or as a channel 2 master (or slave) to the Win2K machine, and then edit boot.ini, so as produce a dual boot machine? The thing is, there's stuff on the Win95 machine I can't re-install, and simply putting the 2 HDDs into the same box seems the best option.
Thanks,
Tony.

 

[butchrecon]

I dont think you can do that without a boot manager. The problem stems from direction. You cant set the 95 HDD in the 2000 machine and edit the boot.ini to point to it. Windows 9x does not work that way. You will have to get a boot manager like System Commander or something like that. Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.


James Collins
Computer Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

 

[ajm2001]

Hi. I
As far as I understand OS boot code, Win95 can ONLY boot from the first partition of the first HDD. Win2K has much improved boot code and can boot from absolutely anywhere. In order to get what you want, I would install the Win95 HDD as a slave drive, then install a boot manager (such as BootMagic from PowerQuest) onto the bootable Win2K drive. This will allow you to boot win95 from a secondary drive. This approach has worked for me in the past when upgrading OS from Win95 to Win2K

Hope this helps

Alistair

 

[AJ1982]

As a further options

Edit the original boot.ini to find out the existing location of your NT/2000 partition

Make the Windows 95 partition your primary boot device.

Install windows 2000 to a blank area, when the system reboots, select to boot to 95

Add the boot.ini entry for the other partition, do not copy the file over.

Keep the other 2000 in there until both 2000 original and 95 run together, ditch the other partition

Hope this works. Let me know how you do

NO BOOT MANAGER REQUIRED

Fatz

 

[JJS720]

I have a dual boot win 98 se and win 2000 pro. 98 installed first, 2000 last on seperate partitions. i set up the boot.ini file w/ 30 sec delay to choose between 98 and 2000 with win 2000 as default if dont make a choice. this worked fine. now i am unable to get to 2000. 2000 is still on my second partition but will as soon as pc starts up 98 splash screen comes up and starts loading 98. i no longer have the option to choose which os, and ctrl or f8 only bring up the 1.normal 2. 3.safe mode etc. how do i bring back my dual boot????

John
Thanks

 

[ajm2001]

Hi JJS. It seems that something that you have done has overwritten the Win2000 dual boot code, which is why WIn98 is loading automatically. You will need to replace the boot code on your first HD with win2000 's boot code. you can do this with the repair installation option on the Win2000 CD

Hope this helps
Ali