Hi, Acegap.
If you could please tell me how to boot both W2000 and Vista
on a daily basis whilst retaining my E:\ drive designation as E:\
I would be both amazed and also very grateful.
Sure. I do it all the time. In fact, my Data volume also is E: and has
been since Win2K days. I have about as many volumes as you do, and have
multi-booted as many as 8 versions of WinXP and Vista beta builds. I
retired Win2K as soon as WinXP arrived in 2001, though, and never saw SP4.
I now run Vista only, so I'm already getting fuzzy on some of the
differences between Win2K, WinXP and Vista. The actual setup process is not
long, but first we have to lay some groundwork - and that is long, I'm
afraid.
Disk Management is your friend. It has been included in every Windows,
starting with Win2K, but MS hid it so deeply under mouse clicks that it has
taken years for many experienced users to get familiar with it. I assume
that you know and use DM, but you didn't mention it. After your operating
systems are installed, you can boot into each one and use Disk Management to
change drive letter assignments to suit yourself EXCEPT FOR the System
Partition and the Boot Volume of whichever system you are running at the
time. There is no good way to change these two letters except by
reinstalling each operating system.
Each operating system keeps its own drive letter assignments. In Win2K,
Drive C: probably applies to the first partition on your first hard drive,
while your Drive L: (Vista) may be the 4th volume on your 3rd HD. When you
reboot into WinXP, those letters might refer to the same volumes - or not.
And when you reboot into Vista, Drive C: probably refers to that 4th volume
on the 3rd HD - the one that Win2K calls L: - which now holds Vista's
C:\Windows folder. And Vista probably calls your System Partition (first
partition on the first HD) Drive D:. And who knows what your Drive E: has
become. :>(
The process of assigning drive letters varies, depending on HOW we install
Windows. It's important to get a couple of terms straight, even though they
are used counterintuitivly. We BOOT from the SYSTEM partition and keep the
operating SYSTEM files in the BOOT partition. The System Partition MUST be
a primary partition, marked active, on the boot device. But the Boot
Partition might not be a partition at all but a logical drive in an extended
partition on any HD in your computer, so Boot Volume is a better name. You
probably already know about this KB article:
Definition of System Partition and Boot Partition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470/EN-US/
Before Vista, Setup almost always assigned the drive letter C: to the System
Partition. Then it assigned letters to other primary partitions, logical
drives, CD/DVD drives, network drives, USB devices, etc., according to the
algorithm built into Setup. Installing WinXP x64 after Win2K would most
likely leave the System Partition as Drive C:. But these drive letter
assignments are in effect only until we reboot. If we reboot from Win2K
into WinXP or Vista, we may find a slightly - or greatly - different lineup.
For sure, a different drive will be labeled (Boot). Win2K and WinXP
probably will agree that C: is the System Partition and, in your computer,
it also is the Boot Volume for Win2K.
Vista made some changes in how it assigns drive letters, depending on HOW
you install it. If you boot into WinXP or Win2K, then insert the Vista DVD
and run Vista Setup from there, it will read and respect your existing drive
letter assignments. But if.you boot from the Vista DVD to run Setup, it
insists on assigning the Drive letter C: to its own "boot volume" (wherever
you tell it to put its \Windows folder). This means that it will, of
necessity, change the letter of your System Partition (probably C
to some
other letter (D:?), and then then make other reassignments as required. Who
knows what it will call your Drive E:?
Another complication is that you can't install a 64-bit operating system
(WinXP or Vista) while running a 32-bit system (Win2K), or vice versa.
Since you already have WinXP x64 and Vista x64 installed, I assume that you
booted from the CD/DVD to install each of them. Or that you booted into
WinXP x64 and installed Vista x64 from there. When you say that WinXP is in
I: and Vista is in L:, I assume those are the letters assigned by Win2K.
Those volumes almost certainly have different letters when you are booted
into WinXP or Vista.
So, you have two choices. The best is probably to boot into Win2K and set
the assignments you want, including letters for WinXP and Vista. Make a
list of these assignments, because you won't be able to see them onscreen
during the next steps. Then, boot from the WinXP x64 CD-ROM and run Setup,
installing WinXP into Drive I:. Run Disk Management to be sure that letters
are as you expect them to be, especially Drives C:, E:, I: and L:. Then,
while running WinXP x64, insert the Vista x64 DVD and run Vista Setup. This
way, you should be able to be sure that Vista will be installed onto your
pre-designated Drive L:. Finally, boot into Vista and run Disk Management
to be sure that Vista's letters agree with the Win2K/XP letter assignments,
especially Drive E:.
The second choice for the Vista installation is to boot from the Vista DVD
and let Setup assign C: to Vistas Boot Volume, which you now call L:,
assigning D: to your System Partition, which Win2K and WinXP call C:. Then
use Vista's Disk Management to change all the other letters as you see fit,
including E:.
All this may be unnecessary, though. "Drive E:" is probably fixed in your
mindset (as it is in mine) from years of use and association with Excel.
But the computer has no such mindset. Excel will be just as happy with all
those workbooks on X: or P: or any other letter. It won't even mind if
E:\Prices in Win2K is X:\Prices in Vista. It might confuse YOU, but it
won't confuse Vista.
Throughout the Vista beta period, I had to reinstall Vista many times. It
never took more than a few minutes to reorient Vista and Excel to use the
new drive letter designations. So long as the new drive letter points to
the correct physical location, you won't notice any difference.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)
