duel boot from 2 HD's
- Thread starter asdfguy
- Start date
Grub is a Linux boot loader. One or two versions of XP like Home and Pro or just one? If the second installation goes on when all drives are plugged in it will add the first installation into the boot.ini file. If the last goes on with the first's drive unplugged it won't an entry in the MS boot loader on the other drive making both isolated where the bios setting or a boot device menu is used to select the drive to boot from.
If the first drive is set as default and a second copy of Windows or different edition of XP goes on the second the boot loader on the first drive is then changed to see the second installation as default being the newer copy. There are two main ways to reassign the first to default with one being a manual edit of the boot.ini file to move the second entry under the operating systems above the first or go into the boot.ini section of the msconfig utility to set the default there.
If the first drive is set as default and a second copy of Windows or different edition of XP goes on the second the boot loader on the first drive is then changed to see the second installation as default being the newer copy. There are two main ways to reassign the first to default with one being a manual edit of the boot.ini file to move the second entry under the operating systems above the first or go into the boot.ini section of the msconfig utility to set the default there.
There is also a Universal Boot Loader by that name that will see a push button type gui for choosing any OS you install into the mbr. But with two copies of Windows the boot,ini is the ticket where a simple trip into the msconfig or NotePad solves everything once one has added the other into it's own after first "detecting it" the way Windows itself works.
For Grub you still have to edit the bootmenu.lst file in order to dual boot Windows with a distro. That's how Grub works with Windows that way. When dual booting two Windows installations the last one generally the newer version of Windows goes on last and then adds the other into it's own boot loader upon detection as a boot option.
My last build here saw XP Home, Pro, and Vista Home Premuim mutlibooted there with the Home version on the first of two ide drives,, Vista on the second, and Pro on the first of two sata models. Vista had to reinstalled a few times there to see both versions of XP added in with Pro set as the default. Prior ro Vista XP Pro was on the second ide and configured strictly through a manual edit of the boot.ini file.
For Grub you still have to edit the bootmenu.lst file in order to dual boot Windows with a distro. That's how Grub works with Windows that way. When dual booting two Windows installations the last one generally the newer version of Windows goes on last and then adds the other into it's own boot loader upon detection as a boot option.
My last build here saw XP Home, Pro, and Vista Home Premuim mutlibooted there with the Home version on the first of two ide drives,, Vista on the second, and Pro on the first of two sata models. Vista had to reinstalled a few times there to see both versions of XP added in with Pro set as the default. Prior ro Vista XP Pro was on the second ide and configured strictly through a manual edit of the boot.ini file.