Problem with Master Slave Drive OSs

[ddragon625]

Here's what happened:

1) Originally I had a 250GB Hard drive with English Windows XP installed. Been using it for over a year.

2) Then I bought a 400GB Hard drive and installed it in my PC alongside my 250 GB. After initializing it and reformatting this hard drive into NTFS format, I placed a Chinese Windows XP install CD and rebooted the computer.

3) I installed the Chinese Windows XP into the 400GB Hard Drive.

4) Now every time I boot up my computer, it would take me into the Chinese Windows XP where I can see my original 250 GB HD as Drive C:/ with all the programs, etc.. in there, but I can't use the English Windows XP anymore.

Note: I see in my Bios setup that my 250 GB Hard Drive is designated Master and the 400 GB Hard Drive is designated as Slave.

What I have tried:

1) Going to Bios Setup and changing the boot sequence so that the 250 GB HD is first. I still booted up into the Chinese Windows XP everytime.

2) Going to Bios Setup and changing the boot sequence so that the 400 GB HD is first. Computer wouldn't let me, gave me an error and wouldn't start any of the OS.

3) Turning off the 400 GB HD in the Bios Setup. I still boot up into the Chinese Windows XP everytime.

4) Hitting F8 on startup and choosing to start the 250 GB HD. I still boot up into the Chinese Windows XP everytime.


What I would like to happen:

I choose at startup everytime which Hard Drive/OS I would like to use. I don't want the two OS/Hard Drive to see each other or interact in any way at all. If that's unavoidable, that's alright, as long as I can choose which OS I use.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated

Added: some more info.

I am using a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard. The two Hard drives are SATA drives and are connected to the motherboard with separate SATA wires. They are connected next to each other on the motherboard on the sockets designated SATA1 and SATA3 in the manual.

[EzyStvy]

Ideally, you should have booted off the cd....

Short answer is that you need to modify the boot.ini file to give you the choice of which OS to boot into.

[ddragon625]

I've found the following on the internet on how to modify the boot.ini file:

"rdisk(x); x = the physical hardrive number so if you have one harddrive this number is 0 if you have 2 hardrives the one on the primary IDE or SATA not set up as raid will be 0 and the secondary one will be 1.

For example I have my OS's on SATA1 so my entry is

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="You can have any name you want between the quote marks" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect sos

Partition numbers start at 1 and increment for each extra partition you have.

So if you only had one partition (just C: drive) then your partition number is 1. In your system you have at least two partitions so one of your XP's will have a 1 in partition and the other a 2.

Below is my actual boot.ini entries for 3 OS's.

[boot loader]
;timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
;multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /sos /noexecute=optin
;multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="winXP test" /fastdetect/sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINNT="W2K" /fastdetect
;

Ignore the SOS switch, that just makes XP tell you what its doing at bootup and shutdown."



So, since I have 2 Hard drives, should I modify my boot.ini entries to read:

[boot loader]
;timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
;multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP English" /fastdetect
;multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Chinese" /fastdetect