Switching OS's

[TorqueHappenS08]

So i have two hard drives on my computer, first one, windows vista 32 bit has 120 GB, and second one Windows XP has 250 GB, How can i switch to the Windows XP OS instead for my main OS? as of right now it just says (G) drive non default.

 

[Casio]

Open System by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.

Click Advanced System Settings. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system that you want to use when you turn on or restart your computer.

 

[TorqueHappenS08]

Ok, just says windows vista... even though it does have a windows XP hardrive.

 

[Casio]

So during start-up if you keep wacking F9 you can still only choose Vista? If so you have to manually make the second drive bootable which is a pain. If you don't have cable select, set the first drive as master and the second as slave. Then change the boot.ini file on the second drive too...

To edit the file, go to Start/Run/notepad c:boot.ini to look something like this....

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Whatever you want to call OS1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Whatever you want to call OS2" /fastdetect

 

[wfooshee]

To find the boot.ini file, you need to have the radio button for "show hidden files and folders, and uncheck the box for "Hide protected operating system files" in the folder options, view settings of Explorer.

 

[NihilismOnToast]

You may also have to make the XP hard drive the master drive.

See http://www.pcguide.com/byop/byop_SettingHardDriveJumpers.htm on how to do this.

Personally, I have multiple OS's on their own partitions within one physical hard drive, and have a seperate "dumb" drive for storing data. I use a boot manager called GRUB, and I can choose which OS I want to boot into at startup. GRUB comes as part of the Linux Ubuntu installation.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB for more information.

Hope this helps!

 

[GT3mich]

In the Bios I change the HDD boot order to go between XP and windows 7. I'm using a user friendly bios. Gigabyte MB.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Go to BIOS on your computer and change the boot priority.

 

[boiltheocean]

Go to BIOS on your computer and change the boot priority.

Sometimes I wonder if you ever read the thread contents before posting.

 

[wfooshee]

Don't be critical, he sp33k5 l33t!

His answer is obviously far superior to the answer immediately above his. . . .

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Oh god...I'm quite the idiot aren't I? Wow...I didn't really notice that. I read it but I didn't recognize it. Sorry.