[RESOLVED] dual boot?

Hi peeps,

Sorry I am not sure which forum this post should be in ... ...

I have a hard drive that I would like to use in another computer ... this hard drive has files and programs that I would like to still be able to use, but I also want to be able to use the existing hard drive that is already in the computer. I am assuming this is what dual boot is all about.

But ..... how do I go about making this happen? If I install the second hard drive into the computer ....what do I need to do to make it accessible? The system that is live is running win ME and the hard drive I want to add is loaded with win98SE.

Does this make any sense? What other information do I need to give here?

VP

The Win98 drive has all the wrong drivers on it since it's coming from a different machine....So getting that to work will be a challenge all by itself;)

You'll have to find a "boot manager" type program to dual boot these two OS's which won't be easier...

"Normally," to dual boot, you install the oldest OS first....

How to Multiple Boot Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, and MS-DOS

Slave it in, that will give you access to the files and will allow you check to see if program will run. I have a couple programs installed that way which work just fine.
But must admit, there are a lot of them that will not work that way either.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Will the loading of the drivers be any more messy than a clean installation of win98 on the exisiting hard drive? I only just recently installed winME on that one and could easily put back win98. It's the data and programs on the second hard drive that I want more than anything, but the computer that is in has been used for spares.

VP

If you don't care about booting from the 98 HDD, Train's on the right track ( :D couldn't resist)--just slave the drive. ME will still boot fine. The nice thing is almost any program that will run on 98SE will run fine in ME. If ME's missing a driver, you don't need an install disk--just give ME the driver location inside the 98 drive and it can borrow-&-install from there.

ty for the reply

I will try that first thing in the morning and post back here to let you know what happens.

VP

ok .... I was impatient .... I just installed the second hard drive into the computer ..... it was detected properly as a primary slave (after a false start) but it doesn't appear in control panel and I can't access it without changing it to the master. I know I missed something vital ..... what was it? What do I need to do to be able to access the drive? :o

VP

Can you see it through Windows Explorer?

What format is the 98 drive? It should be FAT32. If it was ever formatted as NTFS, ME won't see it. Otherwise, check your BIOS settings to make sure it's detected there, and make sure the jumper on the slave drive is set to slave. If it already is, shut down and change it to cable select; then reboot and try again.

hi again,

firstly no it is not seen in windows explorer or anywhere within windows. It is recognised in the bios and on boot it is seen as the primary slave. I can't remember if it was FAT32 but I'm pretty sure it is. I took the jumpers off the second drive as I read that was ok for making it a slave drive. Where do I put the jumpers to enable cable select?

In the device manager there is now an exclamation mark that wasn't there before .....

the Primary IDE controller (dual fifo) - this device is either not present, not working properly or does not have all the drivers installed (Code 10)

GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE 47 - not working properly because a device it depends on Primary IDE Controller (dual fifo) has been dynamically disabled.

I am assuming that I have missed something quite vital in this....any ideas?

VP

Look on the drive's case or label; there should be a diagram of the jumper-pin layout along with which pins to connect for different settings.

would the cable select setting make any difference to the exlamations in the device manager? could it be as simple as that?

VP

It might. Try between slave and CS. First, though, highlight the items with exclamation points in Device Mgr and click Properties--it should tell you what the problem is, and maybe a solution to pursue.

ooops ... no that didn't work .... all I got this time was an invalid system disk... think it's time to give up on the data on that drive unless I can remember what was wrong with the system it came out of and maybe fix that lol .... thanks for your help as always :)

VP

an even bigger ooops..... all is working fine ... helps if the IDE cable is firmly plugged in.

Thanks peeps you got me through yet another crisis :)

VP

Sounds great!