Okay, for that you need to boot each OS partition independently, which the
Microsoft method does not do. Your OS's are setup to dualboot via the
Microsoft method, but instead you need to use a third-party boot manager or
control your dualbooting via changing the boot disk in the computer's bios
setup (if your computer supports that).
Multiboot methods fall into two general categories: the Microsoft way and
everyone else's way. The two methods use incompatible concepts and cannot
simply be substituted for one another. The MS way intertwines the OS's and
uses boot.ini to define the available OS's in the boot menu. The
third-party way does not intertwine OS's and uses a separate boot manager,
not the boot.ini file. You can't mix the methods by installing your OS's
without intertwining and trying to control the multiboot through boot.ini,
or vice-versa, installing the Microsoft way and then trying to use a
third-party boot manager.
In a nutshell, the Microsoft way intertwines the OS's by always booting
through the same partition and then forking to one or another operating
system on different drive letters, while the third-party boot managers keep
OS's totally independent and truly boot separate partitions as alternate
"C:" partitions. Third-party boot managers can keep OS's hidden from each
other, so when you boot Win2K #1 it will be designated C: and the #2
partition will be hidden, and when you boot Win2K #2 it will be C: and the
#1 partition is hidden. Since the OS's are hidden from each other, the
chance of one messing up the other is minimized. Since the OS's are
independent, it is much easier to upgrade or eliminate either one later.
Since you've already got an installation on HD2, you'll need to first make
sure the Disk ID in HD2's MBR is cleared. Remove HD1, make HD2 the master,
boot from a Win98 boot floppy (download one from
www.bootdisk.com if you
need to), then run the command "fdisk /mbr" to clear the Disk ID. (The
similar command "fixmbr" from a Win2K recovery console won't do it).
Next, clone Win2K from HD1 to HD2. Now the important part -- make sure HD1
is removed from the system the first time HD2 is booted. This allows HD2 to
properly initialize its drive table, seeing itself as "C:" instead of seeing
HD1 as the C: drive. Once this fact is recorded in the registry, it's safe
to put HD1 back in.
Lastly, you need to figure out how you'll manage the dualbooting. If your
bios supports it, you may be able to simply designate in the bios whether to
boot from HD1 or HD2. If not, or if you just want a more convenient method,
use a third-party boot manager. It substitutes a menu for the standard MBR,
allowing you to specify which partition to boot. (Whichever is booted will
still see itself as C
. Note that each HD will now have its own boot.ini.
Depending on which tool or technique you use to dualboot, you may or may not
have to adjust the rdisk parameter in HD2's boot.ini. (FWIW, I cover a lot
of the gory details in my webpage at
www.goodells.net/multiboot).
For a good third-party boot manager, take a look at XOSL
(
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xosl), GAG (
www.sourceforge.net), or BootIt
NG (
www.bootitng.com). The first two are freeware and are very versatile.
The third is shareware, but is very solid with great support and includes a
partitioning utility (ala, PartitionMagic) and an imaging utility (ala,
DriveImage or Ghost). If you don't already have partitioning and imaging
software, you'll find this very useful and the price is a bargain.
