Need help in operating two OS's on 1 Comp.

[JonDee]

My third successful build and it is doing great, so far. I installed two WD 40 Gig. HDD's and I have Windows 98SE installed on one of them and Windows XP Home Edition on the other one. How can I get a choice of which OS to run? Now when I turn on the Comp., It runs 98SE only, not offering a choice. And again, Thanks to anyone who can explain this to me.

[sdkfz]

in XP help - look up 'dual boot' - that should get you what you need.

I have never done it myself and my wife is not around right now to answer --she has all her PC with multiple OS.

[RayH]

What you need is a boot manager. Such would have been loaded automatically had you had the two hard drives connected to the computer. First, load W98SE. Next, load Windows XP. Part of the installation would have created a boot manager.

You can get a third party boot manager free: http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/

You can leave Windows 98SE in the computer as slave or secondary Cable Select. You can put the Windows XP in a hotswap bay as master or primary cable select.

Just push the hotswap in when you want XP. Leave it out when you want 98SE. The computer will boot the first drive it finds.

Or, some BIOS will allow you to determine which hard drive to boot.

The advantage of the non boot manager system is if you decide you don't want one or the other OS, you don't have to mess with editing any boot.ini

[KHT]

Maybe I`m way off base here but, how was W98 and XP installed? If W98 was installed first and then XP you would have had the option to dual boot when installing XP.

Your post seems to indicate that the drives were popped in the new build with the OS already installed. If this is so, there will be a plethora of problems with hardware, drive assignments, etc.

[JonDee]

Guys, When I built this computer and got it up and running, my desire was to install only Windows 98SE OS, but I had a bad Windows 98SE OS Disk and I couldn't install, so I Order a Windows XP Home OS and installed it instead. A couple of days later I Saw a Windows 98SE OS Program for sale at a decent price and so I purchased it. When I got it, I removed the wires from my HDD with the Windows Xp OS installed and installed Windows 98SE OS onto my second HDD and it became my C Drive. I ran it that way for several months, with only the Windows 98SE Os HDD hooked up. The other day, I decided to Hook up the other HDD with the Windows XP OS installed on it. My Computer only recognizes Windows 98SE when I turn it on, No option to go to the other Program. Both HDD's are recognized in the BIOS.

[Confused]

Then as Ray indicated you need a boot loader. If 98 had been installed first and then xp installed, XP would have created the boot loader for you, but since you loaded the OS's in reverse you need a third party boot loader or leave both drives up and reload XP so it can create a boot loader for you.

Chas

[crjdriver]

You can do this without any third party software if you want. Boot with the xp cd in the cd drive; choose to install when prompted. The next screen will show your current xp install and give you the option to repair; go ahead and select repair. After it is complete you should have a boot manager. Note you will have to reapply any service packs, hot fixes, patches, etc.

[JonDee]

Guys, I Have this little problem solved, Thanks to you all on this site and your help.