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How to make two independent XP drives dual-boot

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vtechv

Technical User
Feb 15, 2007
30
US
I've built dual-boot systems in the past using a second partition on a drive by just booting from another XP install disk, but this time I started without the intent of making my system dual-boot and have changed my mind.

I have a system running XP that is made up of three hard drives; c, d and e. I pulled the cable from the c drive and connected another hard drive (from a computer with a dead power supply). I reloaded the OS and have everything running just fine. I can switch hard drive to hard drive manually and all works great.

Now I decided I don't really need two systems running simultaneously and the hardware in the PC I'm using is much better than the other with the dead PS. What would I need to do to modify my NTLDR file and anything else to get both drives running in a dual-boot scenario? I'd like whatever boot drive that isn't the active OS drive to be a high, out of the way dive letter. By that I mean I'd like my d and e drives to stay as they are regardless of what drive I boot off of.

Thank you in advance.


V
 
Which operating system you boot to is controlled by the file Boot.ini, if you have both operating systems mentioned in there it will give you an option to choose one of them at boot time.

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses (Q291980)

HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP(Q305595)

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

The loaded operating system will probably grab the C: drive letter, the remaining drive letter assignment are based on this article.

Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

XP System Partition is NOT drive C:
thread779-641371
 
Thanks for the great info. Time to read and make some changes.
 
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