Vista on 2nd harddrive

  • Thread starter Thread starter don't look
  • Start date Start date
D

don't look

I'm using Windows 2kpro at the moment.It's working perfectly after some
initial trouble. I want to keep it around for awhile.
I was just given a copy of Vita Home premium and I want to. do a dual boot
from a second hard drive. Question is how should I partion the
drive?Primary,Active etc.?
W2kpro is on a Western Digital 160GB SATA II drive and Vista will be on a
Maxtor 250GB SATA.
 
don't look said:
I'm using Windows 2kpro at the moment.It's working perfectly after some
initial trouble. I want to keep it around for awhile.
I was just given a copy of Vita Home premium and I want to. do a dual boot
from a second hard drive. Question is how should I partion the
drive?Primary,Active etc.?
W2kpro is on a Western Digital 160GB SATA II drive and Vista will be on a
Maxtor 250GB SATA.
Click to expand...

Never mind.Apparently Vista has a buuilt in Boot manager.Lucky me!!
 
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt "don't look" <don't
Never mind.Apparently Vista has a buuilt in Boot manager.Lucky me!!
Click to expand...
Yeah, but when you run it or install Vista, it'll pretty much destroy
any other drive from booting without going through the Vista Boot
Sequence. So once Vista is installed, you can't go back to the old
drive and run *just* it alone. You have to do it by Booting the new
drive and asking to boot the old software from the other drive. If your
new drive with Vista on it ever crashes, you're screwed; because you
can't boot the old one without it.

But what the heck. Windows XP does the same thing.
;-{

There *are* ways to get around this, but ....
 
don't look said:
I'm using Windows 2kpro at the moment.It's working perfectly
after some initial trouble. I want to keep it around for awhile.
I was just given a copy of Vita Home premium and I want to
do a dual boot from a second hard drive. Question is how
should I partion the drive?Primary,Active etc.?
W2kpro is on a Western Digital 160GB SATA II drive and
Vista will be on a Maxtor 250GB SATA.
Click to expand...

Install Vista on the 2nd HD with the 1st HD disconnected.
Tell the installer to make a primary partition for it. If that is
the only primary partition on the HD, the installer will mark it
"active" and put the necessary boot files into it. After you've
started it up and verified that Vista works, shut down and then
re-connect the 1st HD. To select which HD takes control at
boot time (and thus which OS gets booted), go into the BIOS
at startup and select which HD is the boot HD. In some BIOSes
(e.g. mine), the booting HD is the one put at the head of the
HD boot order. Since each OS was installed in isolation, each
OS will call its own partition "C:". As long as the OS doesn't use
shortcuts that name other partitions (whose names could be
reassigned), this won't be a problem. In the future, when you
might want to dump XP, just re-format the HD that it's on by
using the running Vista OS.

*TimDaniels*
 
There *are* ways to get around this, but ....
Click to expand...

Yea, if you have a mb that supports booting to any device during boot up by
pressing a functrion key you can temporarily disable the XP HDD while you
install Vista to another HDD. Then enable it again after Vista is
installed, now when you boot up you just press the function key and choose
XP or Vista HDD to boot to. This way each OS is kept instact with it's own
mbr and can be wiped and reinstalled witout screwing up the mbr of the
other OS. Just remember to disable the other HDD before reinstalling the
OS. Luckily my mb has such a feature as this is the method I use to dual
boot XP/Vista. In future I will make sure to only purchse mb's with the
same boot device feature.
 
don't look said:
I'm using Windows 2kpro at the moment.It's working perfectly after
some initial trouble. I want to keep it around for awhile.
I was just given a copy of Vita Home premium and I want to. do a
dual boot from a second hard drive.
Click to expand...

If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

A computer operating system is a very complex thing, I wouldn't mess
with dual booting. If you have things to do with your computer, go
with what works and enjoy the lack of trouble.

If you are experimenting/playing/whatever, just be sure you have
copies of any important files from your hard drive, and have fun.

Good luck.
 
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt Pipboy said:
Yea, if you have a mb that supports booting to any device during boot up by
pressing a functrion key you can temporarily disable the XP HDD while you
install Vista to another HDD. Then enable it again after Vista is
installed, now when you boot up you just press the function key and choose
XP or Vista HDD to boot to. This way each OS is kept instact with it's own
mbr and can be wiped and reinstalled witout screwing up the mbr of the
other OS. Just remember to disable the other HDD before reinstalling the
OS. Luckily my mb has such a feature as this is the method I use to dual
boot XP/Vista. In future I will make sure to only purchse mb's with the
same boot device feature.
Click to expand...

I find it easier to just yank the plug on the drive I don't want Vista
or XP to trash while installing. I don't trust the BIOS to not leave it
active; and ANY drive they can get to at all will be screwed.
;-{
 
Frank said:
I find it easier to just yank the plug on the drive I don't want
Vista or XP to trash while installing. I don't trust the BIOS to not
leave it active; and ANY drive they can get to at all will be
screwed. ;-{
Click to expand...

Not just easier but wiser as well. Best way to assure the data of the
first drive doesn't get corrupted. With the very low cost of decent
size drives these days there is no reason not to.

The user just needs to ensure that drive will meet the needs of that
system. Because once the license is registered that system will be
"married" to it.
 
I find it easier to just yank the plug on the drive I don't want Vista
or XP to trash while installing. I don't trust the BIOS to not leave it
active; and ANY drive they can get to at all will be screwed.
;-{
Click to expand...

That's what I meant by disable the HDD. I just pull the power plug.
 
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt Pipboy said:
That's what I meant by disable the HDD. I just pull the power plug.
Click to expand...

Um ... Pulling the power-plug often doesn't work, in my experience.
Nor does just disconnecting the drive cable.
You have to do THAT (disconnect the cable of the drive you don't want
changed), set the drive you're installing to "Cable Select" (generally
no jumpers installed) and put it in the end or MASTER of the cable.

Then you install XP or Vista.

When the new OS is up and running, THEN you can put the old drive back
in at the SLAVE connector, either having it also on "Cable Select", or
setting it to SLAVE while jumpering the new main drive to MASTER.

Just yanking the plug or the connector usually causes either the BIOS or
the Windows installation to barf and complain. They have to *know* it's
the only drive on the cable; and *think* it always will be so.

;-{

Once Windows is properly installed though, having the other bootable
drive on the cable just makes Windows think it's a removable drive; and
thus not suitable for mucking with, like it does when installing the OS.

Once done, usually you can tell the BIOS which drive you want to boot
from, simply by selecting Boot-Order. That drive becomes the C: drive;
and the other the D: drive.
 
Frank said:
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt "don't look" <don't

Yeah, but when you run it or install Vista, it'll pretty much destroy
any other drive from booting without going through the Vista Boot
Sequence. So once Vista is installed, you can't go back to the old
drive and run *just* it alone. You have to do it by Booting the new
drive and asking to boot the old software from the other drive. If
your new drive with Vista on it ever crashes, you're screwed; because
you can't boot the old one without it.

But what the heck. Windows XP does the same thing.
;-{

There *are* ways to get around this, but ....
Click to expand...

not so at all. try vista boot pro and it will restore the original disk to
ntldr. it works a charm when you finally get tired of vista


--
sbb78247

resident redneck alt.os.windows-vista
alt.os.windows-xp


you aint from around here, are ya' boy
 
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt "sbb78247"
not so at all. try vista boot pro and it will restore the original disk to
ntldr. it works a charm when you finally get tired of vista
Click to expand...

So ... Where does one get ahold of a copy of this utility; and how much
does it cost? Also, where does one find the specs?
 
Frank said:
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt "sbb78247"


So ... Where does one get ahold of a copy of this utility; and how
much does it cost? Also, where does one find the specs?
Click to expand...

Google is your friend vista boot pro 1-6,870,000 0.20 seconds

or

http://www.vistabootpro.org/


--
sbb78247

resident redneck alt.os.windows-vista
alt.os.windows-xp


you aint from around here, are ya' boy
 
Frank said:
Once done, usually you can tell the BIOS which drive you want to boot
from, simply by selecting Boot-Order. That drive becomes the C:
drive; and the other the D: drive.
Click to expand...

And if you're lucky your BIOS also supports booting from USB. In that
case take the old drive out and place it into a USB external case.
 
Pipboy said:
Frank McCoy wrote:



That's what I meant by disable the HDD. I just pull the power plug.
Click to expand...

There are two ways to not have to pull the power plug:

1) DPST switch on the HD power cable.

I have my internal HDs on DPST (double pole, single throw)
micro toggle switches which are installed in the 1/4" holes in
the front of the chassis under the air intake bezel. I can reach
in with a paper clip to cut the power to any HD (while the PC
is not running!).

2) Removable HD tray ("mobile rack", "HD caddy", etc.)

I have a Kingwin mobile rack installed in one of the 5 1/2"
peripheral slots, and I can slide in a tray containing any
bootable OS. It also has a key switch so that the HD can
be electrically connected or disconnected from the system.
Via generic entries in all boot.ini files in the system, I can
select from any of the OSes on the 3 HDs, up to the
ntldr maximum of 10.
Here are Kingwin's racks/trays for PATA and SATA HDs:
http://www.kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp
Here are extra trays:
http://www.kingwin.com/mobileracktrays.asp
Use the model numbers to search for deals on the Web.
You can usually find the rack/tray combos for $20-$25,
and the lone trays for $13-$20.

*TimDaniels*
 
Frank McCoy said:
Um ... Pulling the power-plug often doesn't work, in my
experience. Nor does just disconnecting the drive cable.
You have to do THAT (disconnect the cable of the drive
you don't want changed), set the drive you're installing to
"Cable Select" (generally no jumpers installed) and put it
in the end or MASTER of the cable.

Then you install XP or Vista.

When the new OS is up and running, THEN you can put
the old drive back in at the SLAVE connector, either having
it also on "Cable Select", or setting it to SLAVE while
jumpering the new main drive to MASTER.

Just yanking the plug or the connector usually causes either
the BIOS or the Windows installation to barf and complain.
They have to *know* it's the only drive on the cable; and
*think* it always will be so.
Click to expand...


So how do the HDs in mobile racks (i.e. "HD caddies")
*know* that they're there or not there when their power
switch is turned ON or OFF? How does the installer
know that they're there or not there? Why would the
installer care about whether it was putting an OS on a
Slave HD as opposed to a Master HD? I can boot just
as well from a lone solitary Slave HD as from a Master.

This is the ONLY difficulty which I've run into when using
power-removal to simulate physical removal of a HD:
When cloning a PATA HD to a HD on another IDE channel,
if the source HD is on the middle connector of the IDE cable
(with the "dead" HD at the end connector), the cloning utiltity
sometimes doesn't see a good connection to the source HD
and refuses to do the cloning. If the positions of the HDs are
reversed so that source HD is at the end connector (still
jumpered as Slave), the cloning will proceed. The difficulty
seems to be with the signal quality of a lone "live" HD at the
middle connector, and not with its Master/Slave jumpering.

That restriction probably also holds for OS installations -
the end connector must be occupied by a "live" HD, but
the installation is independent of the Master/Slave setting
and independent of position on the cable.

*TimDaniels*
 
Pipboy said:
Yea, if you have a mb that supports booting to any device during boot up by
pressing a functrion key you can temporarily disable the XP HDD while you
install Vista to another HDD. Then enable it again after Vista is
installed, now when you boot up you just press the function key and choose
XP or Vista HDD to boot to. This way each OS is kept instact with it's own
mbr and can be wiped and reinstalled witout screwing up the mbr of the
other OS. Just remember to disable the other HDD before reinstalling the
OS. Luckily my mb has such a feature as this is the method I use to dual
boot XP/Vista. In future I will make sure to only purchse mb's with the
same boot device feature.
Click to expand...

This motherboard,the Winfast NF4UK8AA-8EKRS supports booting from just about
any device inclucding USB floppy,USB zip etc.Icludes RAID as well. So no
worry there.
 
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt "Timothy Daniels"
So how do the HDs in mobile racks (i.e. "HD caddies")
*know* that they're there or not there when their power
switch is turned ON or OFF? How does the installer
know that they're there or not there? Why would the
installer care about whether it was putting an OS on a
Slave HD as opposed to a Master HD? I can boot just
as well from a lone solitary Slave HD as from a Master.
Click to expand...
It doesn't; and doesn't care.
The motherboard though, has cabling and/or termination problems if not:
A. Full cable-select.
B. Full MASTER / SLAVE with both drives in place.

It didn't use to be this way, until they went to the new wide cables
with twice as many conductors in the same space for IDE.

All of a sudden the termination got really picky.
Before that, you could have a drive be MASTER or SLAVE, and anywhere on
the cable; and the IDE controller would see it just fine.

Not now any more.
 
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt "sbb78247"
Google is your friend vista boot pro 1-6,870,000 0.20 seconds

or

http://www.vistabootpro.org/
Click to expand...

Hmmmm.
AFAICT, Vista Boot Pro just edits the BCEDIT file on the main drive.
Doesn't do *squat* about how Vista (or Win-XP) will screw up a working
boot drive, so it won't boot except with the Vista OS already in place.

It just allows you to select boot options on the Vista drive.
I see nothing (in the information anyway) about where it will repair
drives with their boot sectors already blown away by Vista or XP.
 
Just yanking the plug or the connector usually causes either the BIOS or
the Windows installation to barf and complain. They have to *know* it's
the only drive on the cable; and *think* it always will be so.
Click to expand...

No you don't, just pullig the power means it is the same as no HDD
connected at all. Same as when I power off my external USB HDD's, once
there is no powerer the OS and bios don't see any HDD. I should know as I
am running my PC setup this way right now with Vista and XP on their own
HDD's with no multi boot menu needed.
 
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