My PC Hard Disk config is:

- HD 1 (250 GB) - C: (First/ Primary/ Active Partition) has current Windows XP install 
(working & using this)

- HD 2 (500 GB) - C: of this HD (Primary/ Active partition of 2nd HD) has installation 
of Win XP, but I can't access this (dual boot) from the first HD.

How to edit boot.ini such that the 2nd Win XP install is shown in boot menu ?

Thanks,

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Dual-boot Windows XP w/ Win XP on same PC Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 5:36 am Posted by bob wells (1636 messages posted) See if this helps. http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/bootini.htm You cannot Run XP(2) from XP(1) only from the boot menu. On Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 3:20 am, zmdmw52 wrote: >My PC Hard Disk config is: > >- HD 1 (250 GB) - C: (First/ Primary/ Active Partition) has current Windows XP install >(working & using this) > >- HD 2 (500 GB) - C: of this HD (Primary/ Active partition of 2nd HD) has installation >of Win XP, but I can't access this (dual boot) from the first HD. > >How to edit boot.ini such that the 2nd Win XP install is shown in boot menu ? > >Thanks, [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dual-boot Windows XP w/ Win XP on same PC Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 8:33 am Posted by C K (6910 messages posted) Editing the boot.ini won't help if both physical drive's copy of Windows was installed to a C enumerated drive. You can't boot the second disk's Windows drive as D if it was originally C. If you want to have Windows boot managar have the option to do this from the first drives boot.ini, you will have to run a repair install on the second drive so that the registry of the second drives WIndows will be "repaired". This is necessary so that Windows and Apps that looked for everything on a C drive, will now look for the new drive letter which will be the D drive now. To dual boot with 2 drives with installs to a C designated drive, you can use the BIOS to select the drive to boot first. That's the way some of us dual boot. More cumbersome, but if one drive is lost, it doesn't depend on the other drive to boot. Losing your original C drive with the Windows boot manager would mean that both Windows installs would become non operable. The disadvantage till you get used to it or name your drive volumes so that you know which is which, is that the booting drive (as set in the BIOS) becomes C, and the other drive becomes D so you don't want to make changes to system files on either drive when it is not actively running it's install of Windows. The article Bob mentioned doesn't take in to account the current way your installs were enumerated so won't help you in this situation. It assumes that only one drive was installed as C and the other was installed as D, E, F etc originally. In that case, you can use the boot.ini to point to a second install as long as the drive letter that is assigned at boot time is correct for that particular install of Windows. If it isn't, then you run a repair install to change the drive letter and repair the registery for that copy of Windows as it was looking for at boot time. Sounds complicated, but it really isn't once you learn what the boot.ini does and what it can not do in a situation such as this. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dual-boot Windows XP w/ Win XP on same PC Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 2:15 pm Posted by Steve (23810 messages posted) There is also a Hardware solution, called a Hard Drive Selector Switch. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum