i have 3 hard disk.the windows xp is installed on the 1st hard disk.the other os,windows 2000 is installed on the 2nd hard disk.i installed xp last,i have multilpe os before &it worked just fine.i recently added a 3rd hard disk before installing the 2os..
2007-03-22 21:20:39 · 5 answers · asked by dNxo 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
You can use the boot.ini file to bring up the black OS selection screen at startup to point to each HDD for the OS you want to boot.
Hopefully you did not overwrite the wrong HDD and wipe out your setup.
2007-03-22 21:25:26 · answer #1 · answered by Mr Ale 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
to install multiple OSs, u need to setup in a certain sequence depending on what OS u have. if u have XP and u want 2K - u need to play with the partitions. and if u r in this position, better read up more on how to create partitions for multiple os and how to setup system with muli-boot before attempt further. If system crash - maybe be trouble and time consuming to repair.
if u have 2000 and u want XP - just pop in the XP cdrom, boot up and do the setup. if u add another HD - it just serves as a storage media. no need to install OS on it. beside it will be a slave drive - and it won't be bootable as u can have only one bootable partition in a system. If u try to install XP again - in the new HD, it will take over the older XP. Windows2000 should still be there. If it is not there, try reload 2000 first then XP all over again.
Just wondering why do u want to have 2000 and XP? i can understand if it is Win98SE because of older software won't run under XP but 2K and XP are very similar. No point have two similar OS - it will mess things up.
if for some reasons u want to have both it would be better if u run them seperately - meaning u plug the cables on one hard for 2K and swop to the other HD for XP - leaving the 3rd hd as storage. a little leceh but it will not mess things up.
2007-03-23 06:43:11 · answer #2 · answered by Mr. Teng 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Look at your boot.ini file. Make sure that the 2nd or so line down DOESN'T read "timeout=0". If it does, change it to 5, 10, 20, or however many seconds you want the boot options to appear. So
timeout=5
will work. If you have multiple os installed and aren't seeing the option to boot to different os, this is most likely the reason.
2007-03-23 07:48:27 · answer #3 · answered by ruralcomputersolutions 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I dont have much experience with booting different OS's from different hard drives, typically I install them all to the same one. But the one time I did try it I had the same problem. Eventually I figured out that I had to change the boot order in bios and select which drive to boot from.
2007-03-23 13:30:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Aww,
thats easy
You need to edit the boot.ini file to reflect this change as to where th OSes reside.
Boot.ini is a hidden file in explorer, so you will have to show hidden files. after that, edit it with notepad, and save as .ini file.
it will then work fine.
make sure you tell it to search the number of driver you have per os. IE Boot=blblabla 1,2,3
2007-03-23 04:27:08 · answer #5 · answered by behindthemagic_8ball 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋