Need a boot manager

[_WW_]

I've got two versions of XP on seperate disks and would like to choose between them during boot up. Can anyone recommmend a good boot manager that will work with ntfs partitions and disks, preferably free.

....WW (4.0)

 

[PCfreak15]

I'm in a similar situation. I have a WinXP Home install on my master HD and a Win98 SE install on my slave HD. I'd like to have a boot manager that works on a floppy. This way anytime I want to boot to the Win98 drive I just need to pop in the floppy before I boot. I know there is a free boot manager that works like this but I cant remember its name or find it on the internet.

Pentium 4 2.4(B)GHz
i845PE, NO INTEGRATED 3D DECCELERATOR HERE!
512MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM CL2.5
Dual 80GB Hard Drives 7200RPM 2M/8M ATA100
ATi Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB 4xAGP

 

[jihiggs]

you just need to add another entry in your boot.ini file. you should be able to change one of the numbers that coresponds with which disk.

wpdclan.com cs game server - 64.246.52.144:27015
now featuring (optional) cheating death!

 

[_WW_]

Hmm...this is a new area for me. I have XP Pro on C: and E: (That would be drives 0 and 2)and in both instances the OS is in the primary partition.
Both boot.ini files are the same:

<font color=red>[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="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect </font color=red>

Which line/s do I add or alter for each drive?

....WW (4.0)

 

[_WW_]

Well...after some research I discovered what to edit in the boot.ini file. The second OS still wouldn't boot, something about not being able to read the disk. That was when I remembered the E: drive was on the PCI card.

Installed a fresh OS to the D: on the secondary IDE, first partition. Edited the boot.ini file and everything works. I've got a five second timer set before it installs the default OS on drive C:

Here's what the boot.ini file looks like now:

<font color=red>[boot loader]
timeout=5
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
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional_2" /fastdetect</font color=red>

Now I've got thirty days to play with some alternate software before it requires activation.


....WW (4.0)

 

[Codesmith]

Dam product activation. Treating paying customers like criminals.

I think the activation is tied to the hardware, so you should be able to copy over the activation somehow, and have both copies activated.

I read something about it somehwere?

 

[_WW_]

Hey...I'm no lawyer and of course I don't understand the license agreement fully, but I seem to remember something about the license being tied to a single processor. Both installs are using exactly the same hardware, so maybe...

....WW (5.0)

 

[confoundicator]

Please post your results, I'm curious to see if this works.

He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it, hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart. -C.S. Lewis