Dual Boot Win2K Pro using 2 Physical Drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike G.
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike G.

I haven't found any sources on this and thought it a
little technical for the "gaming" section so I thought I
would ask here.

Is it possible to install Win2K Pro on two physical HD's
within one machine?

Here is the situation.

I want to add a second HD to my home computer. I wish to
install Win2kPro on the "new" drive as well and use it as
my "gaming" only drive, with its own cleanly installed
video drivers and other necessary hardware/software
drivers and nothing else.

When I boot my machine..I assume the OS would detect the
second drive. If I selected this "new" drive, am I to
believe that it will only be operating using the drivers
from this "new" disk and not the old disk?

I am not sure how dual boots work.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
After installing the new drive (drive1), either boot the Windows 2000
install CD-Rom or setup disks. The set of four install disks can be created
from your Win2k CD-rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the cd-rom and
execute makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts and install to the unallocated space on drive1 Windows 2000 will add
the startup line for the second install to boot.ini so that you'll be
presented with the option of which OS to start. You ca edit the "quoted"
text in boot.ini so that you can easily differentiate between the two OS's.
Boot.ini is located in the root of the system partition.
Explorer|Tools|Folder Options|View, then radio button for "Show hidden files
and folders", then uncheck the box for "Hide protected operating system
files" to locate the files in the system partition.
 
Just to be sure we're clear. The boot sector for all operating system
resides on the system partition (first primary active partition) So when you
install the new drive; jumper it as slave. Check the jumper placement on the
master as well since it will no longer be the only drive on the channel.

The operating system installs will be unaware of each other in those
respects. Yes you will be able to see the other drive from each OS.
 
Back
Top