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I have an older Dell desktop that has 2 hard drives with Windows 98 loaded on each one. Now, when the computer boots up it gives me the choice of which hard drive to boot to. I want to put this machine back to 1 hard drive on IDE 1 and eliminate this choice every time the computer boots up. How would I do this or will it happen automatically when I go back to 1 hard drive on IDE 1?
Try it with the single HD arrangement.
If the boot manager still asks which HD to boot from, then get rid of the BM.
Ok, If the boot manager still asks what drive to boot from even with only 1 hard drive connected then how do I get rid of the boot manager? Is that something that is easy to do?
Make a Windows 98 boot floppy if you do not already have one. It can be made either in Windows(Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs/Startup Disk), or at www.bootdisk.com
Then, go into BIOS by pressing and holding the Del key(or whatever key is specified on the 1st or 2nd startup screen to 'Enter Setup', 'Enter CMOS', or similar), select 'Advanced BIOS Features'(or similar) from the main menu using the arrow keys, press the Enter key, make sure that the floppy drive is configured ahead of the hard drive as a boot device(if it's not, then simultaneously press the Page Up/Page Down/-/+ keys to select the FD ahead of the HD), press the Esc key to return to the main menu, select 'Save Changes and Exit'(or similar), press Enter, type Y to the prompt, insert the boot floppy, press Enter, select 'Start Windows Without CD-ROM Support' from the menu, press Enter, at the A:\> prompt type C: and press Enter, at the C:\> prompt type fdisk /mbr and press Enter, after the mbr(master boot record) has been replaced remove the boot floppy and press Enter.
Note - If you do not want the floppy drive to continue to be checked as a boot device ahead of the HD, then go back into BIOS, and reconfigure the HD ahead of the FD.
Ok, sounds easy enough. I will know tomorrow when I work on this machine whether or not I will need to do this. I will post back and let you know how I made out.
I don't even know if this is really considered a dual boot since there are 2 separate hard drives involved with their own independent operating systems. I always considered a dual boot set up when there were 2 operating systems on the same hard drive. I am hoping that when I disconnect the second hard drive that is on IDE 2 that this hard drive choice that pops up when the machine boots will disappear.
What is the boot manager. ie what bootm anager is being used
I don't know if there even is a boot manager involved here since I didn't do the original work. I am getting a computer that somebody else worked on that is not working correctly. Instead of cloning the new hard drive so that there would only be 1 hard drive involved they added a second hard drive to IDE 2. Now this lady is telling me that she has 2 hard drives that she can boot from when the computer starts up. She has to pick 1 or the other. I want to take this computer back to 1 hard drive on IDE 1. I was wondering if the option of choosing a hard drive to boot from was still going to come up once I take this machine back to 1 hard drive.
Edit the boot.ini file (in system root) to remove the unwanted OS after you remove the second HDD from the IDE cable. Check yours now, and you should find a reference to :default= (x) then another line, with a path to another OS entry. The timeout entry sets the time allowed to choose one or the other. I don't think the boot.ini will rewrite itself, so when you remove the unwanted OS you can remove the timeout line also.
Note: Do not make changes to the file until you've made a copy of it and renamed it. If you need to undo the procedure you always have the back-up copy to use.
I thought boot.ini was only set up when you create a dual boot with one of the NT based systems such WinNT, Win2000 or WInXP
For a dual boot using two installs of WIn98SE it must be using some sort of boot manager such as XOSL etc.
I think after removing the second hd, if a boot manager still appears you could just boot with a Win98SE EBD and type fdisk /mbr at the A:\> prompt.
I got this thing straightened out. I took the old hard drive and mirrored it to the new hard drive. Now I am only using 1 hard drive. It was set up with a boot manager but I just eliminated that.
Glad that things worked out ok.
How did you eliminate the boot manager?
Thats another story http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=198929
Hmmmm.......
That sounds familiar(See my 2nd post in this string).