QUESTION: Multi Boot??

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]
timeout0
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