QUESTION: Multi Boot??
in [Setup and Deployment]
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From: Steve on 23 Jan 2010 12:23 Hi... I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is 40gb. I created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on the 80; then same process on the 40... each works fine... however: Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but installing on the 40... came up with "folder already exists". Checking further by going to (either system's) My Computer... showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:. My concerns are: 1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive... 80 always C:; 40 always E:... am I truly ever booting from the 40gb? Seems so but confused as to why... when booting the 40... I would expect the 80 to NOT show or, atleast, the 40 be the C: 2. Since the driver installed ONLY went to the C:/80gb... if I'm booted from the 40 and (let's say) I installed some program... or I get a virus... etc... would the 80 (showing a C:) be where this stuff goes?? Or the 40 (showing as E: but booted from in this instance) get all the files/changes? 3. XP (on BOTH drives) was easy... would putting Vista (ugh) or Win-7 on the second boot drive be as easy as with XP??? I've been leaving the side off the PC and (physically) changing drives... and I thought "multi-boot" was THE answer but I don't like to boot from the 40 and the 80 still being the C:... I plan on using the 40 as a "test bed" to screw around and I don't want to blow the 80 (where I want to program, etc). Any ideas, comments, etc would be super-helpful Thanks in advance! Steve
From: Jim on 23 Jan 2010 12:43 Windows mounts all drives that it finds. So, what you are seeing is expected behavior. The envirnoment variable "systemdrive" shows the drive letter for the current boot device. Don't be surprised that each would be regarded as C when they are the target of a boot. A good way would be to put unique labels on each drive. Then, you can determine which is which from the "My Computer" panel. Jim "Steve" <abc12345(a)aol.com> wrote in message news:uRnQLDFnKHA.5524(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... > Hi... > > I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is 40gb. I > created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on the 80; then same > process on the 40... each works fine... however: > > Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but installing on > the 40... came up with "folder already exists". Checking further by going > to (either system's) My Computer... showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:. My > concerns are: > > 1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive... 80 > always C:; 40 always E:... am I truly ever booting from the 40gb? Seems > so but confused as to why... when booting the 40... I would expect the 80 > to NOT show or, atleast, the 40 be the C: > > 2. Since the driver installed ONLY went to the C:/80gb... if I'm > booted from the 40 and (let's say) I installed some program... or I get a > virus... etc... would the 80 (showing a C:) be where this stuff goes?? Or > the 40 (showing as E: but booted from in this instance) get all the > files/changes? > > 3. XP (on BOTH drives) was easy... would putting Vista (ugh) or Win-7 > on the second boot drive be as easy as with XP??? > > I've been leaving the side off the PC and (physically) changing drives... > and I thought "multi-boot" was THE answer but I don't like to boot from > the 40 and the 80 still being the C:... I plan on using the 40 as a "test > bed" to screw around and I don't want to blow the 80 (where I want to > program, etc). > > Any ideas, comments, etc would be super-helpful > Thanks in advance! > Steve > >
From: John John - MVP on 23 Jan 2010 13:06 Steve wrote: > Hi... > > I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is 40gb. I > created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on the 80; then same > process on the 40... each works fine... however: > > Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but installing on the > 40... came up with "folder already exists". Checking further by going to > (either system's) My Computer... showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:. My > concerns are: > > 1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive... 80 > always C:; 40 always E:... am I truly ever booting from the 40gb? Seems so > but confused as to why... when booting the 40... I would expect the 80 to > NOT show or, atleast, the 40 be the C: Running the SET SYSTEM command at the command prompt will shed some information on the matter. > 2. Since the driver installed ONLY went to the C:/80gb... if I'm booted > from the 40 and (let's say) I installed some program... or I get a virus... > etc... would the 80 (showing a C:) be where this stuff goes?? Or the 40 > (showing as E: but booted from in this instance) get all the files/changes? With viruses and the likes there is no telling where they will go or what they will do. With applications they will usually install in the Programs Files folder of the current Windows installation, but some older applications are not fully compliant and by default they look for a C: drive, most of the time you can simply tell the application to install to a different location. I suspect that is all that happened with the Dell Driver package. If the application insists upon being installed on C and if it doesn't allow you to select a different location then you have little choice but to accept what the installer wants to do if you want to install the application. > 3. XP (on BOTH drives) was easy... would putting Vista (ugh) or Win-7 > on the second boot drive be as easy as with XP??? Yes, it would be about the same as installing XP, the newer Vista or Windows 7 will see the older Windows XP installation and create a boot menu entry for it, however the newer Vista and Windows 7 will designate their installation volumes as C: > I've been leaving the side off the PC and (physically) changing drives... > and I thought "multi-boot" was THE answer It would have been easier to change the boot order in the BIOS... > but I don't like to boot from the > 40 and the 80 still being the C:... I plan on using the 40 as a "test bed" > to screw around and I don't want to blow the 80 (where I want to program, > etc). If you want both installations to have a C: drive designation disconnect the present C: drive and then connect only the second drive and reinstall XP on it and it will also have a C: drive letter. Then reinstall both drives in the computer and edit the boot.ini file on the drive that is booting the computer and add a line pointing to the disk of the second Windows installation , typically: [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="Windows XP" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP 2" /fastdetect John
From: dg1261 on 24 Jan 2010 05:24 "Steve" <abc12345(a)aol.com> wrote in news:uRnQLDFnKHA.5524(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl: > I set up an PC today... first drive on cable is 80gb; second is > 40gb. I created a multi-boot system by installing WinXP Pro on > the 80; then same process on the 40... each works fine... however: > > 1. Since BOTH drives are showing when booting in EITHER drive... > 80 always C:; 40 always E:. You ended up with a Microsoft-style, pseudo-dualboot. Your two installations aren't completely independent of each other. You can read more about this on my webpage at www.goodells.net/multiboot/principles.htm If you dualboot two independent installations, you can hide them from each other so one can't interfere with the other. But to do that you have to start over and set them up to use a third-party boot manager. (Details also on my webpage, www.goodells.net/multiboot) > Installing the Dell drivers on the 80 went as expected but > installing on the 40... came up with "folder already exists". > Checking further by going to (either system's) My Computer... > showed the 80 as C:; the 40 as E:. What that's highlighting is that you should be unpacking the driver files to E: instead of C:. When you download a driver from the Dell site, it downloads as a single self-extracting exe file (often named something like Rxxxxxx.EXE). When you double-click the downloaded exe file, it pauses with a prompt for the location to which it will unpack its files -- usually something like "c:\Dell\drivers\Rxxxxxx". After it unpacks the files, it launches the setup routine that it unpacked there. Since your second OS is on E:, when you're booted into that one you should be changing the driver location to "e:\Dell\drivers\Rxxxxxx". So double-click the exe, change the "c:" to "e:" in the prompt, and let it continue. (If both OS's are the same, this isn't really much of a problem though because c: and e: will end up with the same drivers anyway, but it would be an issue if you had two different OS's that needed different drivers.) Incidentally, this problem with programs that default to C: even when you're booted into the other OS is one reason a true multiboot is cleaner and better than a Microsoft-style multiboot. Dan
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