dual boot 2 HD's

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

I Installed a 2nd HD and cloned my first HD to it as a backup
and would like to be able to dual boot. This is XP Pro.
I cannot boot from the 2nd hard. If I disable the primary
drive by removing the power plug I am able to boot from
the 2nd HD. The computer sees everything and I can use
all the partitions. In dual if I try and use the 2nd drive I
get this message:

Windows could not start because of a hardware configeration
problem. Could not read from selected boot disk. check boot
path and disk hardware.

In the boot.ini I use this setting

[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" /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional BACKUP" /fastdetect

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:07:03 -0700, herbiee wrote:

> I Installed a 2nd HD and cloned my first HD to it as a backup
> and would like to be able to dual boot. This is XP Pro.
> I cannot boot from the 2nd hard. If I disable the primary
> drive by removing the power plug I am able to boot from
> the 2nd HD. The computer sees everything and I can use
> all the partitions. In dual if I try and use the 2nd drive I
> get this message:
>
> Windows could not start because of a hardware configeration
> problem. Could not read from selected boot disk. check boot
> path and disk hardware.
>
> In the boot.ini I use this setting
>
> [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" /fastdetect
>
> multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
> Professional BACKUP" /fastdetect

When you clone a drive, it is with the intention that it will be replacing
the original. It is after all an exact copy and complete with all internal
references of "where" this copy is supposed to operate. If your original
drive is C: and it is master on the primary IDE, then that's where the
clone needs to go to be usable and useful. In other words, you can't do
what you want with the methods you're using.

A third party boot manager that would hide the original installation drive
should work, letting the cloned copy think it is the only drive on the
system and that it is on "C:"

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User