dual boot from dual harddisk??

[spyder]

Plz guys explain me how i can get booting options to boot into 2 (or 3) OSes on 2 diff. hard disks:
1.maxtor 40GB
2. seagate 160GB

(Thanks in advance for all suggestions)

 

[kalpik]

Which OS's do you want to dual boot? While installing them, just select the hard disk you want to put them on.. No special thing needs to be done to dual boot from two different hard disks..

 

[mayanksharma]

A separate boot loader must then be installed into the MBR and configured properly.Each operating system boots from and uses its own hard drives or disk partitions.
Still you can try this,
Grand Unified Bootloader,(GRUB)which is the best open source alternative for your related query though.
GRUB can be obtained from ftp://alpha.gnu.org:/gnu/grub/

By the way why are you keeping different OS'es on your different hard drives?? Which is your Master hard drive?

 

[spyder]

@kalpik
What I actually meant was that i already have 2 OSes installed(both XP pro) and I want to get option to boot into either at boot time.


@mayanksharma
I earlier had the maxtor hdd which has some software installed which i can't install now on new (seagate )hdd.Also 2 OSes help in case one is attacked by a virus.
the seagate one is the master.

 

[casanova]

Ok lets say your current boot.ini is like this

[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Just add another line to it.

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

Now your boot.ini shud look like this

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

PS: If it doesnt work, try changing the new line as
multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)...
or
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)

Further more, you shud have this boot.ini in the hdd u wud be booting from. U can even hav it both the hdds.

 

[kalpik]

If you are just keeping another copy of windows to recover from virus attack, i would suggest you go for an imaging program like true image.. Its a lot easier and faster!

 

[mayanksharma]

Yeah agreed to that, it is very good,in case you want to format your hard drive fast and with lots of ease. lol

 

[abhishek66]

even i got diff os installed on diif hardisks.

when i want to switch the os i go to bios and change the hardisk to the one from whicjh i want to boot....

no need of editing the boot.ini or installing any software

 

[casanova]

even i got diff os installed on diif hardisks.

when i want to switch the os i go to bios and change the hardisk to the one from whicjh i want to boot....

no need of editing the boot.ini or installing any software

spyder has already stated, he wants boot options.

Furthermore, as per bios changing goes, u can even press F8 on most mobos, and it wud give u the choice to boot from the specified device. No need for changing BIOS settings and then rebooting.

 

[Kniwor]

well i think editing the boot.ini is easiest method... that's what i do

 

[spyder]

thanks !

OK the results are out and CASANOVA recieves a big thanks ! ! ! !
I would like to confirm it to you it is:

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

I would also like to thank kalpik , Mayanksharma , abhishek66 for their suggestions.

Yes Kniwor you got the right method.I would also suggest abhishek to try this.
And I am sorry I got late in replying but I was busy yesterday and the digit site was down day before yesterday.