If you have a dual boot system with two hard drives how do you make it so that no matter which one you boot to the drive letter for the one you boot to will be C?

Answer 1

In Windows 2000:

Assuming that the computer has IDE drives, the first thing to do is to install each operating system on each disk. Set one drive as Master and the other as Slave. Install both drives in the computer. Start the computer and it will boot into The first drive. Open Windows Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options and click the view tab. Select the "Show hidden files and folders" button, click Apply, then OK. Expand My Computer and select the "C" drive. Locate the "boot.ini" file, right click on it and select "Properties". If the read only box is checked, UNcheck it, click apply, OK. If it's already unchecked, leave it alone - click cancel. Double click on the boot.ini file to open it in Notepad. Under the [Operating Systems] heading, under the 2000 Pro entry on a new line, add this entry:

multi(0)disk(1)rdsk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect (if WINNT is your Window directory)

Save and reboot. You should now have both systems listed in the choices menu. Select the second Windows 2000 and cross your fingers. You should now have a dual-disk dual boot setup. If it fails, you can always boot back into the first drive as long as you don't change that entry in the boot.ini file.

In Windows 2000/XP:

Assuming that the computer has IDE drives, the first thing to do is to install each operating system on each disk. Put one drive in the computer and install XP on it. When that's done, remove it, install the second drive and install 2000 Pro on it. Remove it. On the drive that has XP, set that drive as master, and set the 2000 Pro drive as slave (XP will boot W2k, but W2k will not boot XP). Install both drives in the computer. Start the computer and it will boot into XP. In XP, open Windows Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options and click the view tab. Select the "Show hidden files and folders" button, click Apply, then OK. Expand My Computer and select the "C" drive. Locate the "boot.ini" file, right click on it and select "Properties". If the read only box is checked, UNcheck it, click apply, OK. If it's already unchecked, leave it alone - click cancel. Double click on the boot.ini file to open it in Notepad. Under the [Operating Systems] heading, under the XP entry on a new line, add this entry:

multi(0)disk(1)rdsk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Save and reboot. You should now have both systems listed in the choices menu. Select Windows 2000 and cross your fingers. You should now have a dual-disk dual boot setup. If it fails, you can always boot back into XP as long as you don't change that entry in the boot.ini file

In Windows/Linux:

The easiest way is to have Windows on the primary partition or hard drive and to use a program called Wingrub. There are examples in the Wingrub program on how to set it up. Wingrub can also be used to dual boot XP/2000 & 9x/ME despite it's warning to the contrary.