Dual Boot PC: How do I switch between Operating Systems without entering my BIOS??

[Steady Teddy]

I have a Dual Boot PC with Win XP on one separate Hard Drive and Win 98SE on another Hard Drive.
I was unsuccessful in Dual Booting the system myself so I had this done "Professionally".
I have to enter and change my BIOS settings every time I want to switch between the two Operating Systems.
I know there is a way to do this without having to go into my BIOS but I don't know how to do it and I'm not sure if I would have to REINSTALL both Win XP and 98 in order to do this.
I'd like to set my pc up so that whenever I reboot, a DOS screen will pop up giving about 20 seconds to choose which Hard Drive I want to enter.
Can I do this or does it depend on how the PC Tech set my system up originally??
I was told by another PC Tech that "Partion Magic" will not work with XP. He said XP "will not allow you to partion with two different Operating Systems"
I really dont have a problem having to go into my BIOS every time but I was told that changing my BIOS settings frequently could have adverse affects on my PC. Is this true, even if I only change my Hard Drive Settings??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

[BFD Deadeye]

I have 3 solutions for you:
1: Reformat your drive, partition it into 2 parttions. Install 98 first, on c:. and XP second on d:.
2: Get System Commander, reformat, install 98, install System Commander, then use its OS Wizard to parttion and install XP.
or
3: Get this little thingy: http://www.romtecusa.com/start.htm

All depends on what you want. Keep in mind though, if you go with the Rometech Trios, you will not have access to your other hard drive.

[Hpro]

Read this post.. if you go step by step then the dual boot is created within 15 minutes...

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...839#post150839

[sedu]

I am not sure what method this "professional" used, but the normal method is to load 98SE first on the C drive and do a custom install of 2K/XP choosing the partition on which to install it. It will then put a boot.ini file in the root of the C drive and you will get an option screen on boot up as to which system to boot. You can change the timing for selection in System Properties of 2K/XP

I suppose this doesn't help you in your present situation, but to backtrack from your system the way you describe, changing the boot order in bios, would be a tough row to hoe. Perhaps the "professional" could set it up correctly if you asked.

[Hpro]

NO it don't hurt the bios - as long you do not change system important data if you have a ASUS motherboard (From P3b-F onwards)then you do not even have to enter the bios as you can press CTRL+ESC once as the computer detects the hard drives - after this you will be confronted with a bootmenu where you can select the drive you like to boot from..

As for reinstall fdisk etc - this hasn't to be done even if the win2k or WinXP is on NTFS - it's even easier to achieve this in Win2k than in WinXP as the setup menu will have the BOOTFIX REPAIR option available - not like WinXP where you have to logon to RECOVERY CONSOLE first.. I spent almost 1 day on this issue - because of some self implied accidents.. but the acutal change after I had everything figured out would take as less a the setup time of Win98 plus the Time to fix the BOOT of WinXP.. all together may 45 minutes.. and up and running without to having to fdisk format installing programs etc = time is money so do not waste your time on something which can be done faster..