Adding a bootable drive under XP

[Marci]

In theory, to create a multi-boot system under XP without having to wipe and reinstall each OS in a specific order, you should be able to add lines in boot.ini which point your system to the physical location of the disk you wanna boot off, and present a menu upon booting so you can choose. The only problem I have is what does each number refer to?

Here is the last line of boot.ini off my kr7a-raid machine, with it's bootable drive hooked up to the raid controller.

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

So, say for example that drive had another partition, on which I installed Windows 2000, duplicating the line and changing the partition number as below should add an option to the boot menu to load Windows 2000.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000" /fastdetect

SO, how would I do it for a different physical disk rather than a partition? I've tried changing multi number, disk number and rdisk number to no avail

Basically, my setup at home on my Epox board with the boot drive hooked up as master on channel 1 on my highpoint is as the top entry above. I want to set it so that the disk connected to the secondary master on the highpoint (which contains win2k) is bootable via selecting from OS boot menu...

Logic says it should be a matter of changing boot.ini to the following:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000" /fastdetect

But that doesn't work either...

HEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!

[Dramen]

The multi reference means you shouldn't have to signify the disk, only on scsi drives do you need to do this.

But go ahead and run this to see the output and any changes you need to make.


Bootcfg

Use the bootcfg command for boot configuration and recovery (boot.ini for most computers).

The bootcfg command with the parameters listed below is only available when you are using the Recovery Console The bootcfg command with different parameters is available from the command prompt.

Usage:

bootcfg /default

Set the default boot entry.

bootcfg /add
Add a Windows installation to the boot list.

bootcfg /rebuild

Iterate through all Windows installations and allow the user to choose which to add.

note Note

* You should first make a backup copy of your boot.ini file by using bootcfg /copy before using bootcfg /rebuild.

bootcfg /scan

Scan all disks for Windows installations and display the results.

note Note

* These results are stored statically for this session. If the disk configuration changes during this session, in order to get an updated scan, you must first reboot the computer and then rescan the disks.

bootcfg /list

List the entries already in the boot list.


Install cmdcons if you haven't already so you can run this proggie. Hope that helps.

[Marci]

Will try all that out friday nioght.... cheers (got a gig tonight :( wanna play wiv my puta!! )