How do i get bios to dual boot 2 op systems..help!

[martian1]

I have xp pro installed on 2 different drives on 2 different partitions i would like pc to fire up and ask me what install to use so i can basically pick which one at boot. At the moment it just fires up with one or the other depending on boot order selection in bios its a pain having to go into bios and switch them is there an easier way.
Thanks all :thumbsup:

[Boon72]

i have mine boot into 3 OS (1x Vista 2 x XP)

this is the boot.ini file which tells windows which OS is on which disk.
as i have 3 disks my 2 XP belwo are on disk 0 + 2 if you only have 2 disks then the 2 would be 1.

the name in the quotes can be anything, the default speaks for itself
it basically boots into a menu with the choice of both but if you do nothing it will use the default.


timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk([B]2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Gamer" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /PAE /3GB

[martian1]

Ok...But how do i get this menu myself what do i need to do exactly..sorry not that pc savvy :confused: do i need to create a boot.ini i have 3 harddrives 2 have a 10gig partition on each with xp pro on, i sort of hoped there was a setting in bios that enabled a dual boot menu as you have stated

[MarkE19]

Dual boot has nothing to do with the BIOS. It is all controlled by the bootloader on the HDD.
The easiest way to get a multiboot menu at startup is to download the free tool EasyBCD and run that from any working version of Windows. This will create the menu and let you set default OS etc.

More details on EasyBCD and a download link can be found Here (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml)

Mark.

[martian1]

Thanks i will give it a try

[martian1]

Easy boot didn't work after it installed it wanted vista in order to work i ended up uninstalling it...:(

[nburg01]

Can you post your boot.ini then we can look at manually editing it to enable dual boot.

[martian1]

Ok nburg01 i will try and post that info tonight when i get a chance thanks i am not familiar with editing the boot but i should pick it up hopefully.
Thanks :smashin:

[martian1]

Here is the boot.ini

[bootloader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disc(0)disc(0)partition(1)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft windows xp professional"/fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn"

When i click on check boot paths it states this path invalid and asks if i want to remove it !

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft windows xp professional"/fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn"

Sorry if its hard to understand posted best i could
Thanks :thumbsup:

[nburg01]

I would add the following line to boot.ini:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft windows xp professional"/fastdetect"

This assumes your 2nd XP installation is on a different partition. I would back up boot.ini before you make any change.

[martian1]

Just to make it clear i have 2 seperate drives each has a 10g partition with xp pro on i will try the new line if thats still ok

Oh..and how do i actually add line to the boot.ini

Thanks

[nburg01]

This should work, rdisk dictates what disk on the controller is used, so for 2 separate disks (not partitions) you'd need to set rdisk to 0 in the first line, 1 in the second. Give it a go and see what happens.

Backup boot.ini by copying it somewhere, then right-click boot.ini and remove the system and read only attributes. You can then edit it like a normal text file.

[martian1]

Need more help i am afraid i don't know how to do this, when i posted boot.ini info i got it by using run>msconfig then BOOT.INI tab i basically just copied it out and posted ,were is the file to edit ? "then right-click boot.ini and remove the system and read only attributes" system and read only attributes :confused:

[Boon72]

start>right click'my computer'>properties>advanced>startup settings>edit

[martian1]

Thanks guys i can get that, so do i basically just add the line [see below] on the end but make sure i save a copy of current boot incase it goes t.ts up. If it does is it just a case of replacing it again with original ?
:thumbsup:

[bootloader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disc(0)disc(0)partition(1)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft windows xp professional"/fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn"

[martian1]

Just a quick update i now have an option to either boot "default" or xp pro 2 the default is main system and xp2 my new install. I did have a problem in that i had a corrupted boot path which i remember was from a major crash i had. When i checked boot paths it gave me an invalid entry which i could only get rid of using the boot.ini edit facility.
I can post my new boot.ini if you guys think i still need to tweak it as i am not sure the default option is correct if you know what i mean.

Thanks all :thumbsup: