I'm a dual boot dummy, somebody help me!

[zeon]

Hey, hoping someone can help me with an issue i'm having dual booting windows xp.

Here's the deal: I've recently reformatted by box and i've partioned my only HDD into two partions using norton partition magic 8. I installed win xp on both partitions but for some reason when i boot up i'm not presented with the option to choose wich partition i'd like to boot to (wich is how i had it set up when i was dual booting two versions of win2k)

Partion magic is supposed to have a tool called "boot magic" that lets me set up the dual booting thing, but bootmagic is grayed out in partion magic.

The two partions are both NTFS, it says in partionmagic that the second partition is "hidden." Also in the second drive letter does not show up in my computer in the partition i'm booted into now. I've read somewhere that the two versions of XP the computer name has to be different (if so how do i change the computer name?)

As it stands not when i want to switch to my other partition i have to use partition magic wich is getting sort of anoying. Also i can't transfer files between partitions, wich i'd like to be able to do.

Anyway, if anyone has any insight please let me know what i'm doing wrong and how i can set it up so that i can choose which partition/install i want to boot into on a restart.

 

[Alex]

i'm not sure but a lot of ppl will prolly ask why you want to choose between 2 wxp installs??

anyway here's a bump..

 

[CaptnKirk]

Try starting in 'Safe Mode' (from the F8 key when boot starts) then from 'My Computer'
click MANAGE - then go to 'Disc Managment' and see if there are partitions shown where you can assign names and letter codes to those partitions.
You may have to 'Activate' 0r 'Initialize' the other partition if it is shown.

If you can, name the C:/ as 'OpSys' & call the 2nd partition D:/ as 'SysTwo'.
You may have to change the CD-ROM drive letters around, unless you can
take some other drive letter assignment for the 'SysTwo'.

 

[ColKurtz]

Ideally, you should have partitioned your drive as one primary and the rest extended/logical. It eliminates many promblems like this. I thought the days "mutually exclusive" active primary partitions died with DOS, but Partition Magic is a funky beast sometimes (I use it, too).

I also wonder why you need more than one XP partition. If it's to test things, then having both XP partitons viewable at the same time is probably going to create headaches for you in the long run. But if it worked out for you with W2K then it should work fine for XP.

BUT, to test you should be able to add a line to your boot.ini (it's hidden on C:\). First, make a copy of your boot.ini. Next, edit the file and take whatever line is already there. For example, if you see (under [operating systems] ):

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

Copy/paste this line under [operating systems] and change the partition number to a 2 and give it a new label in quotes, like so:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP #2" /fastdetect

Give that a try.

 

[zeon]

Thanks for the replies guys, i'll give your suggestions a shot.

As for why i need two conncurrent winxp boots i use my computer as a DAW (digital audio workstation) so i like to have one clean partition with very few programs installed for my audio work and then another partition i can clutter up with all the crap i use for all my day to day stuff.

 

[Navid]

I don't know why one of the partitions are hidden.
You can re-install and make sure that both partitions are visible and it should set up the dual-boot options screen for you.

However, if you have a dual-boot screen, you will have one OS on drive C and the other on another drive letter (can be D).
Is that what you want?

One problem with having both partitions visible is that if you are booting the one on D and you put in a CD to install a new program, the default place for installing programs is on drive C. Every time you install a program, you have to remember to change the drive letter to D. Otherwise, it will install it on the wrong partition.

I have purposely set up my dual boot the way you have it. One OS is always hidden. The OS that I use is always on drive C regardless of which partition it is on.

The only disadvantage is that to change the boot, I have to unhide a partition, which cannot be done at the turn-on of the computer. I can live with that.

 

[CaptnKirk]

I have heard that WinXP and XP64 do NOT like to coexist on the same hard drive - even if on different partitions.