Need a boot manager

Status
Not open for further replies.

_WW_

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2002
3,166
0
20,780
I've got two versions of XP on seperate disks and would like to choose between them during boot up. Can anyone recommmend a good boot manager that will work with ntfs partitions and disks, preferably free.

....WW (4.0)
 

PCfreak15

Distinguished
Sep 27, 2003
55
0
18,630
I'm in a similar situation. I have a WinXP Home install on my master HD and a Win98 SE install on my slave HD. I'd like to have a boot manager that works on a floppy. This way anytime I want to boot to the Win98 drive I just need to pop in the floppy before I boot. I know there is a free boot manager that works like this but I cant remember its name or find it on the internet.

Pentium 4 2.4(B)GHz
i845PE, NO INTEGRATED 3D DECCELERATOR HERE!
512MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM CL2.5
Dual 80GB Hard Drives 7200RPM 2M/8M ATA100
ATi Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB 4xAGP
 

jihiggs

Splendid
Oct 11, 2001
5,821
2
25,780
you just need to add another entry in your boot.ini file. you should be able to change one of the numbers that coresponds with which disk.

wpdclan.com cs game server - 64.246.52.144:27015
now featuring (optional) cheating death!
 

_WW_

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2002
3,166
0
20,780
Hmm...this is a new area for me. I have XP Pro on C: and E: (That would be drives 0 and 2)and in both instances the OS is in the primary partition.
Both boot.ini files are the same:

<font color=red>[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 </font color=red>

Which line/s do I add or alter for each drive?

....WW (4.0)
 

_WW_

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2002
3,166
0
20,780
Well...after some research I discovered what to edit in the boot.ini file. The second OS still wouldn't boot, something about not being able to read the disk. That was when I remembered the E: drive was on the PCI card.

Installed a fresh OS to the D: on the secondary IDE, first partition. Edited the boot.ini file and everything works. I've got a five second timer set before it installs the default OS on drive C:

Here's what the boot.ini file looks like now:

<font color=red>[boot loader]
timeout=5
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(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional_2" /fastdetect</font color=red>

Now I've got thirty days to play with some alternate software before it requires activation.


....WW (4.0)
 

Codesmith

Distinguished
Jul 6, 2003
1,375
0
19,280
Dam product activation. Treating paying customers like criminals.

I think the activation is tied to the hardware, so you should be able to copy over the activation somehow, and have both copies activated.

I read something about it somehwere?
 

_WW_

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2002
3,166
0
20,780
Hey...I'm no lawyer and of course I don't understand the license agreement fully, but I seem to remember something about the license being tied to a single processor. Both installs are using exactly the same hardware, so maybe...

....WW (5.0)
 

confoundicator

Distinguished
Feb 15, 2002
814
0
18,980
Please post your results, I'm curious to see if this works.

He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it, hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart. -C.S. Lewis
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS