Can you change which hard drive boots first in BIOS? Also please give more details.... what machine is this, what's on the other hard drive, what boot manager are you using...

Robhalfordfan wrote:

with the third party boot manager, i can hide the partitions from showing up in in any windows i install (so they don't clash with each other), so each os have the own partition and cant see any other os partition, so they think they have there own c drive - if that makes sense

I'm not so sure it works that way. You can hide partitions, but I don't think you can hide entire drives.

But to be sure: when you plug in the first drive after installing Windows 2000, are there any visible partitions on the first drive?

oeuvre wrote:

Can you change which hard drive boots first in BIOS? Also please give more details.... what machine is this, what's on the other hard drive, what boot manager are you using...

think i can change it in bios

it a amd 1ghz pc on award bios motherboard that i put together myself

fiest hdd is unformatted with nothing on it

acronis os selector 8 is what i am using

Jorpho wrote:

Robhalfordfan wrote:

with the third party boot manager, i can hide the partitions from showing up in in any windows i install (so they don't clash with each other), so each os have the own partition and cant see any other os partition, so they think they have there own c drive - if that makes sense

I'm not so sure it works that way. You can hide partitions, but I don't think you can hide entire drives.

But to be sure: when you plug in the first drive after installing Windows 2000, are there any visible partitions on the first drive?

no the first is blank unformatted with nothing on it and try plugging y=the first hdd back in after installed windows 2000 and when i try to boot into windows 2000, all i get is blinking line at top left corner of screen

my boot manager can hide entires drives from other partitions as the boot manager can find the os's and add to it list and going settings of boot manager for the os's installed and select the partitions you want to hide or show for each os

Like I said, I don't think you can fool Windows 2000 like that way. I'm very fuzzy on the details, though. You might have to edit boot.ini, as shown in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3115 … in-windows-2000 , but I'm not sure that will be enough.

Note that boot.ini specifies the Windows boot partition with a line like "default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT". I'm quite sure it's impossible for any boot manager to convince Windows 2000 that it's still on "disk 0" when there's already another disk. The only way you might circumvent that is to change the boot order in the BIOS, as previously suggested.

I should add that WIndows 2K/XP is quite happy to run from drive D and you are unlikely to encounter any averse effects from doing so.

Jorpho wrote:

Like I said, I don't think you can fool Windows 2000 like that way. I'm very fuzzy on the details, though. You might have to edit boot.ini, as shown in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3115 … in-windows-2000 , but I'm not sure that will be enough.

Note that boot.ini specifies the Windows boot partition with a line like "default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT". I'm quite sure it's impossible for any boot manager to convince Windows 2000 that it's still on "disk 0" when there's already another disk. The only way you might circumvent that is to change the boot order in the BIOS, as previously suggested.

I should add that WIndows 2K/XP is quite happy to run from drive D and you are unlikely to encounter any averse effects from doing so.

so what part of default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT would need to edited to changed to second hdd

Have you been unable to find any further guidance via Google?

so at not much, maybe I am typing right it right in search

https://www.google.ca/search?q=boot.ini+rdisk+parameter

Here is some boot.ini info on what the different components mean for second drive you might change rdsk from 0 to 1 and see if that works. Make sure to back it up first.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3140 … e-in-windows-xp

Rhuwyn wrote:

Here is some boot.ini info on what the different components mean for second drive you might change rdsk from 0 to 1 and see if that works. Make sure to back it up first.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3140 … e-in-windows-xp

try that and getting the blinking line at top left of screen upon boot

Windows REALLY likes to be able to see the first partition of the primary hard drive for boot files or in windows speak
multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)

and 2000 is installed to
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)

But by unplugging/hiding the 1st drive its failing when it looks to grab some boot files off
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)

Boot loaders get round this by installing themselves on that first partition and making it available to whichever OS you choose (to massively over simplify it)

You have 2 options.
set up the hardware exactly as you want it, install the boot loader then each version of windows. that way the boot loader knows what is installed where.

The other option which I recommend is let windows do it! just remember always install each version of windows oldest to newest.
Install Windows 2000 but format C:\ you can still install to D:\ as you wish
Install WinXP to C:\ but don't format the drive it will automatically make the changes to allow you to still boot to Win2k.

As a bonus you can access each others drives, no annoying rebooting cause a file is on a inaccessible partition.

ok

cause i wanna install win xp on first hdd cause it has more space and install win98 and win me and win200 on second hdd

win98 and ME can be done that like as done it in past

is there a way to move to boot files to the partition on windows 2000 and boot like normal or is there a way to hide the first hdd on my boot loader which is acronis os selector 8

i dont want D:\ drive because i like for each version to there own c:\ drive which i know acronis os selector can hide each partition for each windows from each other, so windows thinks there only the one partition on hdd and see itself as a c:\ drive and no clashes with any other OS, which i done in past and it does works