How to Eliminate Dual Boot Option

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Goodman
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Steve Goodman

Win 2k, all updates, ATA100 drive. (See "Promise ATA100 Driver and Setup")

Win 2k's booting and getting to desktop enough to trust. But I'd like to
eliminate the "dual boot" bit at the beginning, as "Microsoft Windows" (as
opposed to 2000) is not installed on this machine any longer. I manually
gutted it before Setup in order to take out Windows 98, but keep the various
ini's (renamed .oldini), Program groups and the lot, if only to recreate my
wife's setup programmatically and preserve settings if at all possible.

So how do I take out the pre-boot prompt for MS Windows, so this puppy just
boots to 2k? Thx.
 
Steve Goodman said:
Win 2k, all updates, ATA100 drive. (See "Promise ATA100 Driver and Setup")

Win 2k's booting and getting to desktop enough to trust. But I'd like to
eliminate the "dual boot" bit at the beginning, as "Microsoft Windows" (as
opposed to 2000) is not installed on this machine any longer. I manually
gutted it before Setup in order to take out Windows 98, but keep the various
ini's (renamed .oldini), Program groups and the lot, if only to recreate my
wife's setup programmatically and preserve settings if at all possible.

So how do I take out the pre-boot prompt for MS Windows, so this puppy just
boots to 2k? Thx.
Click to expand...

One of two ways. Either edit your boot.ini file and take out the
line for Win98, or while in Win2K hit Windows key+Pause/
Advanced/Startup, and clear the first checkbox.

Rick
 
Rick said:
The boot menu will simply display whatever is in boot.ini. No
checking is done to verify these operating systems actually exist
on the system.


If a user has a password, Windows will prompt for it. You can
set Windows to not prompt for login info only if no password
is assigned to the default user.

If that's what you're trying to do, under Users and Passwords,
clear the top checkbox. Click on Set Password and set it to
blank. Then go to the Advanced tab and clear the bottom
checkbox.
Click to expand...

So far so good!

Now the only thing left is to get the CD-ROM to be E:. When I removed the
IDE drive D: in order to get Win 2000's setup to put the OS on the bloody
boot drive (!) all was fine and well, but when I re-attached it in order to
use it again as drive D:, of course the CD-ROM took that drive letter during
setup. I had hoped that the references to computer/device/bus names shown
during setup would be the case, and therefore fairly easy to reassign
drive-letter-wise. Alas, no. The method of changing the drive letter of a
CD-ROM known so well in the pre-2000 world is no longer with us, either. I
attempted via disabling the CD-ROM to reshuffle this, no result of course.
I would hope I don't have to completely detach the drive, but if that's what
one needs to do, I'm ready! After that I've found a number of references to
D: as the install source for the apps and OS so far installed, that'll have
to be changed if they don't do so automatically (snork, yeah right!).

So how do I change the CD-ROM back to E:, and the IDE hard drive back to D:?
Thanks again.
 
Steve Goodman said:
So far so good!

Now the only thing left is to get the CD-ROM to be E:. When I removed the
IDE drive D: in order to get Win 2000's setup to put the OS on the bloody
boot drive (!) all was fine and well, but when I re-attached it in order to
use it again as drive D:, of course the CD-ROM took that drive letter during
setup. I had hoped that the references to computer/device/bus names shown
during setup would be the case, and therefore fairly easy to reassign
drive-letter-wise. Alas, no. The method of changing the drive letter of a
CD-ROM known so well in the pre-2000 world is no longer with us, either. I
attempted via disabling the CD-ROM to reshuffle this, no result of course.
I would hope I don't have to completely detach the drive, but if that's what
one needs to do, I'm ready! After that I've found a number of references to
D: as the install source for the apps and OS so far installed, that'll have
to be changed if they don't do so automatically (snork, yeah right!).

So how do I change the CD-ROM back to E:, and the IDE hard drive back to D:?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Right-click My Computer/Manage, go to Disk Management.
Expand the window so you can see what you're doing.
Left-click on the CD drive (left panel), then right-click and
Change Drive Letter, etc.

Windows will allow you to change drive letters only to one
that's not already is use, so you will have to temporarily change
either the hard disk or CD to an arbitrary letter, then change it
to what you want.

Rick
 
Rick said:
Right-click My Computer/Manage, go to Disk Management.
Expand the window so you can see what you're doing.
Left-click on the CD drive (left panel), then right-click and
Change Drive Letter, etc.
Click to expand...

I'm told when I do this, "Cannot modify the drive letter of your system or
boot volume." Why do I smell the same stuff as with the false dual-boot
menu? :P

In anticipation of just blowing this lil' 8GB drive away I've moved
everything over to a folder on the C: drive (the ATA100), but before I do so
what do you think the cause of the above is?
Windows will allow you to change drive letters only to one
that's not already is use, so you will have to temporarily change
either the hard disk or CD to an arbitrary letter, then change it
to what you want.
Click to expand...

I'd change the CD-ROM to anything between F: and Z: if it'd let me.
 
Rick said:
Don't blow it away! Windows is using that D: drive for its system
volume (Look in the root of D: to see ntldr, etc, which are your
system files.) If you force a reformat you won't be able to boot
at all.

What you can do is physically disconnect the D: drive, then boot
off the Win2K CD and do a "repair installation". After everything
is repaired then reconnect the drive.
Click to expand...

The current / latest installation (the one that works) was done completely
without the D: drive attached. So whatever is on the D: drive is connected
with the original attempts to install with it still attached. The "repair"
(your putting that word in quotes bothers me a bit) installation won't
overwrite installations I've done since, will it?
There's a definite reason why it's not letting you.
Click to expand...

And we're going to find out what that reason is! :)
 
Steve Goodman said:
The current / latest installation (the one that works) was done completely
without the D: drive attached. So whatever is on the D: drive is connected
with the original attempts to install with it still attached. The "repair"
(your putting that word in quotes bothers me a bit) installation won't
overwrite installations I've done since, will it?
Click to expand...

No. It will recreate system files on the primary drive.

Just out of curiosity, how is the boot order set in your system bios?
Is this D: drive on the primary or secondary IDE channel? Master
or slave?

Rick
 
Rick said:
No. It will recreate system files on the primary drive.
Click to expand...

Not to argue (I'm going to do the Repair in a minute) but do you think the
Repair routine will attempt to place system files on the D: drive? Or is
there basically no difference between booting off the ATA100 starting with
no IDE disk present, and starting with an un-partitioned IDE drive?
Just out of curiosity, how is the boot order set in your system bios?
Is this D: drive on the primary or secondary IDE channel? Master
or slave?
Click to expand...

The D:'s IDE, primary channel, single. CD-ROM is on secondary channel,
single. Boot for D: is disabled.
 
Steve Goodman said:
Not to argue (I'm going to do the Repair in a minute) but do you think the
Repair routine will attempt to place system files on the D: drive? Or is
there basically no difference between booting off the ATA100 starting with
no IDE disk present, and starting with an un-partitioned IDE drive?
Click to expand...

Windows will place its system files on the first primary partition.
That's why you need to physically disconnect the drive.
The D:'s IDE, primary channel, single.
Click to expand...

Make sure your C: drive is on the primary channel, as master.
CD-ROM is on secondary channel, single. Boot for D: is disabled.
Click to expand...

What boot order is specified?

Rick
 
Rick said:
Windows will place its system files on the first primary partition.
That's why you need to physically disconnect the drive.
Click to expand...

It was disconnected when this latest install occurred. I suspect now that
what happened is that there were some system file remnants still on the
drive when I detached it, and let the ATA100 drive (which is not on either
IDE channel but does boot as a kind of SCSI process I think) boot as it has
in the past. When I re-attached the drive, Windows 2000 glommed onto
whatever system files were on the D: drive still (primary IDE single).
That's why I wonder if just blowing away the drive, then doing a boot with a
Repair Installation, wouldn't have the same affect as detaching the drive
and doing the Repair... and what if, when I re-attach the drive, it just
gloms onto the system files on it again?
Make sure your C: drive is on the primary channel, as master.
Click to expand...

Nope, the C: drive is on the ATA port. It does indeed boot - the F6 / S
(add devices) option during setup took care of that.
What boot order is specified?
Click to expand...

0:
Primary: Disabled (normally Auto)
Secondary: X
1:
Primary: CD-ROM Drive
Secondary: X
 
Steve Goodman said:
It was disconnected when this latest install occurred. I suspect now that
what happened is that there were some system file remnants still on the
drive when I detached it, and let the ATA100 drive (which is not on either
IDE channel but does boot as a kind of SCSI process I think) boot as it has
in the past. When I re-attached the drive, Windows 2000 glommed onto
whatever system files were on the D: drive still (primary IDE single).
Click to expand...

Oh. I wasn't aware your C: drive was not on either IDE channel..
Is it on a RAID controller? External bus?

In that case it's harder to predict how Windows is going to install. It
depends on whether your system bios allocates partitions on the device
before or after your IDE channels.
That's why I wonder if just blowing away the drive, then doing a boot with a
Repair Installation, wouldn't have the same affect as detaching the drive
and doing the Repair... and what if, when I re-attach the drive, it just
gloms onto the system files on it again?
Click to expand...

Again, it's hard to predict.
Nope, the C: drive is on the ATA port. It does indeed boot - the F6 / S
(add devices) option during setup took care of that.


0:
Primary: Disabled (normally Auto)
Secondary: X
1:
Primary: CD-ROM Drive
Secondary: X
Click to expand...

That's a device listing, not a boot order..

Rick
 
Rick said:
Oh. I wasn't aware your C: drive was not on either IDE channel..
Is it on a RAID controller? External bus?

In that case it's harder to predict how Windows is going to install. It
depends on whether your system bios allocates partitions on the device
before or after your IDE channels.
Click to expand...

It seems to have done okay so far. Now to re-attach the IDE drive...
Again, it's hard to predict.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm about to find out! :)
That's a device listing, not a boot order..
Click to expand...

Ah, sorry. The Boot section of the BIOS settings page shows:

1. Removable Drive: [Legacy Floppy]
2. IDE Hard Drive: [Disabled]
3. ATAPI CD-ROM: [TEAC CD-ROM]
4. Other Boot Device: [ATA100 Drive]

So it does address this one. We'll see in a little bit.

Steve
 
Steve Goodman said:
it
has

Oh. I wasn't aware your C: drive was not on either IDE channel..
Is it on a RAID controller? External bus?

In that case it's harder to predict how Windows is going to install. It
depends on whether your system bios allocates partitions on the device
before or after your IDE channels.
Click to expand...

It seems to have done okay so far. Now to re-attach the IDE drive...
Again, it's hard to predict.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm about to find out! :)
That's a device listing, not a boot order..
Click to expand...

Ah, sorry. The Boot section of the BIOS settings page shows:

1. Removable Drive: [Legacy Floppy]
2. IDE Hard Drive: [Disabled]
3. ATAPI CD-ROM: [TEAC CD-ROM]
4. Other Boot Device: [ATA100 Drive]

So it does address this one. We'll see in a little bit.
Click to expand...

Alas! No. It still had it as a System drive. So it's being formatted
right now. Somehow the system didn't object to THAT.
 
Steve Goodman said:
1. Removable Drive: [Legacy Floppy]
2. IDE Hard Drive: [Disabled]
3. ATAPI CD-ROM: [TEAC CD-ROM]
4. Other Boot Device: [ATA100 Drive]

So it does address this one. We'll see in a little bit.
Click to expand...

Alas! No. It still had it as a System drive. So it's being formatted
right now. Somehow the system didn't object to THAT.
Click to expand...

Try swapping #2 and #4 in the above boot order, and start over.

Rick
 
Rick said:
1. Removable Drive: [Legacy Floppy]
2. IDE Hard Drive: [Disabled]
3. ATAPI CD-ROM: [TEAC CD-ROM]
4. Other Boot Device: [ATA100 Drive]

So it does address this one. We'll see in a little bit.
Click to expand...

Alas! No. It still had it as a System drive. So it's being formatted
right now. Somehow the system didn't object to THAT.
Click to expand...

Try swapping #2 and #4 in the above boot order, and start over.
Click to expand...

No can do! The IDE Drive's boot capability is disabled so that the ATA100
can boot. Nothing amiss here.

Alas, the partition couldn't be eliminated in any way, until I fished out my
old Western Digital Disk Manager diskette and booted from it, then deleted
the partition. When I came up into Windows 2000 the next boot-up, the drive
was not partitioned, and the Disk Management process allowed me to not only
partition and format the drive - not a system drive any longer - but also
change the drive letter for the CD-ROM.

So all is as close to well as we can get at the moment...!

Perhaps one of these days I'll find out just what remnant of the previous
setup session was mis-recognized and assimilated. But for now it seems
okeydoke. Thanks!
 
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