mldtech

HELP INSTALLING OS IN SECOND HARDISK

Hello,
I am bit confused I am trying to install second hardisk in my computer I connected the old disk in the same IDE cable with new one and leave the older disk as “c” drive (master) and the new disk as “d” as (slave). I have also in my pc cd-rom and cd writer, which are connected together in same IDE cable. Now I have finished to do all that but my problems are: 1, how do I install operating software in the new drive which I want to install (XP) because in the old drive I have WIN98? 2, how to switch between these two disk say if am using win98 and I want to switch to XP.

jester22c

If all of your drives are being recognized by your Win98 install, then you have everything connected correctly. If this is the case, then you simply need to put in your XP cd (no need to boot from it if you have an existing OS on a separate drive), and select the (new) D: drive when it asks you which drive you want to install XP on. Let the installer format the new drive if it is not already formatted. The windows installation will modify your existing boot.ini file, which tells your computer where you have windows installed. After the installation is complete when you reboot your computer you will have a selection screen for a few seconds where you can select which windows install you want to boot to. I think the default time for this selection is 30 seconds. If you want to change how long the choices are displayed: boot into XP and open your system properties (Right click My Computer -> Properties) and go to the advanced tab. Now click on 'Startup and Recovery' there you will have your options for OS selection.

mldtech

Hello
I did as you said but didn’t able to install xp in my new drive (d), instead xp was installed to my old drive which has win98 (but now xp). So I decide to install win98 to the new drive I was able to install it fine but still when I power on my comp I still get the old (c) drive and don’t see anything that I can select which drive to use. I can see all the drives in my computer. Another problem when I installed win98 in the new drive the resolution changed not like the one I used in the old drive, I tried to change in the propertis-settings-diplay same problem.

jester22c

You need to edit your boot.ini, which is a hidden, system file on the root of any drive with a Windows OS installed, you can use notepad to edit it just fine.

Here is an example of a boot.ini file:



Note the timeout field listed, this is the time that the list of available operating systems is displayed (enabling you to choose one to boot to).

You may have two operating system listed, or you may have 2 seperate boot.ini files (one on each drive) each listing a different OS (one XP, one 98). If this is the case, open the boot.ini file on the drive that is booting up automatically (I believe you said drive C: - win 98 is booting up) and add in the line for the other OS (XP) from the other boot.ini file. If both operating systems are listed in 1 file, then you need to make sure that that timeout=## line is in there.

If I've confused you, just copy the contents of your boot.ini file(s) and post them here.

mldtech

what i really forgot to tell is that i am not an expert so i tried to do what you told me but didnt able to find the boot.ini files so PLEASE tell me step by step how to get the boot.ini files and how to edit them. hope i am not bothering you too much!

mldtech

well after a lot of trying fine i have been able to get to the boo.ini file this what i got:

[boot loader]
timeout =40
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" /fastdetect

from here what do i do? please its urgent

jester22c

Yeah that's what we were looking for. You should have another boot.ini file on the other drive, that you installed Win 98 on. Can you post that too? We need to combine the two into 1 file.

mldtech

well i tried to find the boot.ini for windows 98 but couldnt find coula PLEASE tell me how i can get to the boot.ini file in windows 98?

jester22c

The boot.ini file for your Win98 drive will be on the root of the drive itself (just as the other file was). If it isn't showing up, go into your folder options (open any folder and go to Tools > Folder Options) and go to the View tab. Make sure that "show hidden files and folders" is checked and make sure that "hide protected operating system files" is unchecked. The boot.ini file is both hidden, and a system file.