Computer Help Forums: How to change boot drive after clean install. - Computer Help Forums

Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard drive
appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and replaced w/80 GB,
clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall. Tried to power up old drive,
no good. Fianlly happened to move cables around for better air flow inside,
tried again to ower 18 GB HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI had died. PC
ignored the original boot, etc so I removed any windows references from 18
GB HD. Happy city.

Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded and
failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't read all
warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE 8 download again.
Worked OK, came to MS community with question on notification area and IE 8
died and burned. My attempts to uninstall IE 8 caused major OS problems.
conclusion by PA Bear was a clean reinstall, no registry cleaners,
positively up to date everything.

I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I parked
on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install but reordering
boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off. All is good, put AV and
Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet connection. XP is now up to date BUT

With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
"Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.

Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
Thanks.



Two months

> Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard drive
> appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and replaced w/80 GB,
> clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall. Tried to power up old drive,
> no good. Fianlly happened to move cables around for better air flow
> inside, tried again to ower 18 GB HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI
> had died. PC ignored the original boot, etc so I removed any windows
> references from 18 GB HD. Happy city.
>
> Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded and
> failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't read all
> warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE 8 download
> again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on notification area
> and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall IE 8 caused major OS
> problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean reinstall, no registry
> cleaners, positively up to date everything.
>
> I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I parked
> on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install but
> reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off. All is
> good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet connection. XP
> is now up to date BUT
> With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
> bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
> "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
>
> Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> Two months

If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which drive
to boot from.

Your boot.ini should look something like:
[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made in the
boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is not
made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

Brian, I can not thank you enough for your response. I was about to post a
comment to remove that question because I am well aware of the potential for
significant damage to someones PC who might follow my path.

Although appearing very health for my age, I am a terminal patient in
Hospice care and this is my line to the world. Both you and PA Bear are the
BEST in my view. I can't thank you enough. I will include all others who give
such excellent advice to those of us lowly users who just can't seem to read
the manual. Very much appreciated.

By the way, both installs of XP are equal in updates.

"Brian A." wrote:

> > Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard drive
> > appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and replaced w/80 GB,
> > clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall. Tried to power up old drive,
> > no good. Fianlly happened to move cables around for better air flow
> > inside, tried again to ower 18 GB HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI
> > had died. PC ignored the original boot, etc so I removed any windows
> > references from 18 GB HD. Happy city.
> >
> > Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded and
> > failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't read all
> > warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE 8 download
> > again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on notification area
> > and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall IE 8 caused major OS
> > problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean reinstall, no registry
> > cleaners, positively up to date everything.
> >
> > I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I parked
> > on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install but
> > reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off. All is
> > good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet connection. XP
> > is now up to date BUT
> > With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
> > bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
> > "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
> >
> > Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
> >
> > Two months
>
> If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
> include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
> properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which drive
> to boot from.
>
> Your boot.ini should look something like:
> [boot loader]
> timeout=3
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
>
> timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made in the
> boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
> default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is not
> made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.
>
> --
>
> Brian A. Sesko
> Conflicts start where information lacks.
> http://basconotw.mvps.org/
>
> Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
>
>
>
>
>

So far very good. Had to edit the quote info to print "C:\" as one choice and
"E:\" as the other. My boot.ini aslo has 'NoExecute=optOut' which I
understand. After I selected the E:\ choice I got an error message about disk
configurations being incorrect. I will go back to get the real words but I
'esc' and was fine again with the other choice.

Since I now have two copies of XP on my PC, I am being nagged by activation
notice that is now 2 days. No matter how many times I activate either using
the alarm in the notification area or using System Tools, I continue to get
the message on boot. I would hate to have to buy another 2001 XP install disk
which are all long gone now.

Last note. My AVG has been removed as it was dragging system resources very,
very low on boot. Now have Avast and it is so much better on boot up. Thanks
to all.

"Joe1" wrote:

> Brian, I can not thank you enough for your response. I was about to post a
> comment to remove that question because I am well aware of the potential for
> significant damage to someones PC who might follow my path.
>
> Although appearing very health for my age, I am a terminal patient in
> Hospice care and this is my line to the world. Both you and PA Bear are the
> BEST in my view. I can't thank you enough. I will include all others who give
> such excellent advice to those of us lowly users who just can't seem to read
> the manual. Very much appreciated.
>
> By the way, both installs of XP are equal in updates.
>
> "Brian A." wrote:
>
> > > Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard drive
> > > appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and replaced w/80 GB,
> > > clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall. Tried to power up old drive,
> > > no good. Fianlly happened to move cables around for better air flow
> > > inside, tried again to ower 18 GB HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI
> > > had died. PC ignored the original boot, etc so I removed any windows
> > > references from 18 GB HD. Happy city.
> > >
> > > Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded and
> > > failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't read all
> > > warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE 8 download
> > > again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on notification area
> > > and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall IE 8 caused major OS
> > > problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean reinstall, no registry
> > > cleaners, positively up to date everything.
> > >
> > > I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I parked
> > > on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install but
> > > reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off. All is
> > > good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet connection. XP
> > > is now up to date BUT
> > > With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
> > > bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
> > > "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
> > >
> > > Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Two months
> >
> > If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
> > include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
> > properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which drive
> > to boot from.
> >
> > Your boot.ini should look something like:
> > [boot loader]
> > timeout=3
> > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> > [operating systems]
> > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> > /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> > multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> > /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> >
> > timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made in the
> > boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
> > default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is not
> > made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Brian A. Sesko
> > Conflicts start where information lacks.
> > http://basconotw.mvps.org/
> >
> > Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> > How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >

By the way, my intent is to have only one boot location to eliminate any
dependency on the broken XP OS without a format. I am moving very slowly to
avoid any dependency or ownership problems. After all is done, my boot disk
will be what is now called E:\ and c:\ will hold lots of apps, etc.

Do not try this at home. I don't know for sure if it will ever work properly.

"Joe1" wrote:

> So far very good. Had to edit the quote info to print "C:\" as one choice and
> "E:\" as the other. My boot.ini aslo has 'NoExecute=optOut' which I
> understand. After I selected the E:\ choice I got an error message about disk
> configurations being incorrect. I will go back to get the real words but I
> 'esc' and was fine again with the other choice.
>
> Since I now have two copies of XP on my PC, I am being nagged by activation
> notice that is now 2 days. No matter how many times I activate either using
> the alarm in the notification area or using System Tools, I continue to get
> the message on boot. I would hate to have to buy another 2001 XP install disk
> which are all long gone now.
>
> Last note. My AVG has been removed as it was dragging system resources very,
> very low on boot. Now have Avast and it is so much better on boot up. Thanks
> to all.
>
> "Joe1" wrote:
>
> > Brian, I can not thank you enough for your response. I was about to post a
> > comment to remove that question because I am well aware of the potential for
> > significant damage to someones PC who might follow my path.
> >
> > Although appearing very health for my age, I am a terminal patient in
> > Hospice care and this is my line to the world. Both you and PA Bear are the
> > BEST in my view. I can't thank you enough. I will include all others who give
> > such excellent advice to those of us lowly users who just can't seem to read
> > the manual. Very much appreciated.
> >
> > By the way, both installs of XP are equal in updates.
> >
> > "Brian A." wrote:
> >
> > > > Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard drive
> > > > appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and replaced w/80 GB,
> > > > clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall. Tried to power up old drive,
> > > > no good. Fianlly happened to move cables around for better air flow
> > > > inside, tried again to ower 18 GB HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI
> > > > had died. PC ignored the original boot, etc so I removed any windows
> > > > references from 18 GB HD. Happy city.
> > > >
> > > > Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded and
> > > > failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't read all
> > > > warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE 8 download
> > > > again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on notification area
> > > > and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall IE 8 caused major OS
> > > > problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean reinstall, no registry
> > > > cleaners, positively up to date everything.
> > > >
> > > > I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I parked
> > > > on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install but
> > > > reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off. All is
> > > > good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet connection. XP
> > > > is now up to date BUT
> > > > With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
> > > > bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
> > > > "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
> > > >
> > > > Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
> > > > Thanks.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Two months
> > >
> > > If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
> > > include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
> > > properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which drive
> > > to boot from.
> > >
> > > Your boot.ini should look something like:
> > > [boot loader]
> > > timeout=3
> > > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> > > [operating systems]
> > > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> > > /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> > > multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> > > /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> > >
> > > timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made in the
> > > boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
> > > default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is not
> > > made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > Brian A. Sesko
> > > Conflicts start where information lacks.
> > > http://basconotw.mvps.org/
> > >
> > > Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> > > How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >

Since I understand I am skating on very thin ice in this line of questioning,
I want to ask the folks who maintain this discussion group if my question
here should stop to avoid anyone getting in trouble with their PC's. Please
be honest and this will end here. I am getting a little nervous about its
direction.

Thank you.
Joe1

"Joe1" wrote:

> By the way, my intent is to have only one boot location to eliminate any
> dependency on the broken XP OS without a format. I am moving very slowly to
> avoid any dependency or ownership problems. After all is done, my boot disk
> will be what is now called E:\ and c:\ will hold lots of apps, etc.
>
> Do not try this at home. I don't know for sure if it will ever work properly.
>
> "Joe1" wrote:
>
> > So far very good. Had to edit the quote info to print "C:\" as one choice and
> > "E:\" as the other. My boot.ini aslo has 'NoExecute=optOut' which I
> > understand. After I selected the E:\ choice I got an error message about disk
> > configurations being incorrect. I will go back to get the real words but I
> > 'esc' and was fine again with the other choice.
> >
> > Since I now have two copies of XP on my PC, I am being nagged by activation
> > notice that is now 2 days. No matter how many times I activate either using
> > the alarm in the notification area or using System Tools, I continue to get
> > the message on boot. I would hate to have to buy another 2001 XP install disk
> > which are all long gone now.
> >
> > Last note. My AVG has been removed as it was dragging system resources very,
> > very low on boot. Now have Avast and it is so much better on boot up. Thanks
> > to all.
> >
> > "Joe1" wrote:
> >
> > > Brian, I can not thank you enough for your response. I was about to post a
> > > comment to remove that question because I am well aware of the potential for
> > > significant damage to someones PC who might follow my path.
> > >
> > > Although appearing very health for my age, I am a terminal patient in
> > > Hospice care and this is my line to the world. Both you and PA Bear are the
> > > BEST in my view. I can't thank you enough. I will include all others who give
> > > such excellent advice to those of us lowly users who just can't seem to read
> > > the manual. Very much appreciated.
> > >
> > > By the way, both installs of XP are equal in updates.
> > >
> > > "Brian A." wrote:
> > >
> > > > > Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard drive
> > > > > appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and replaced w/80 GB,
> > > > > clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall. Tried to power up old drive,
> > > > > no good. Fianlly happened to move cables around for better air flow
> > > > > inside, tried again to ower 18 GB HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI
> > > > > had died. PC ignored the original boot, etc so I removed any windows
> > > > > references from 18 GB HD. Happy city.
> > > > >
> > > > > Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded and
> > > > > failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't read all
> > > > > warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE 8 download
> > > > > again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on notification area
> > > > > and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall IE 8 caused major OS
> > > > > problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean reinstall, no registry
> > > > > cleaners, positively up to date everything.
> > > > >
> > > > > I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I parked
> > > > > on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install but
> > > > > reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off. All is
> > > > > good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet connection. XP
> > > > > is now up to date BUT
> > > > > With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
> > > > > bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
> > > > > "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
> > > > > Thanks.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Two months
> > > >
> > > > If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
> > > > include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
> > > > properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which drive
> > > > to boot from.
> > > >
> > > > Your boot.ini should look something like:
> > > > [boot loader]
> > > > timeout=3
> > > > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> > > > [operating systems]
> > > > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> > > > /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> > > > multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> > > > /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> > > >
> > > > timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made in the
> > > > boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
> > > > default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is not
> > > > made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > >
> > > > Brian A. Sesko
> > > > Conflicts start where information lacks.
> > > > http://basconotw.mvps.org/
> > > >
> > > > Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> > > > How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >

You are not skating on thin ice, questions of your type have been and are
asked all the time. However, you may not be able to do as you want since
AFAIK the boot.ini must be on the C:\ drive. For what you want you should
install the OS on the drive that is C:\ and install your apps on the drive
E:\. If you can boot to C:\ then you can format E:\ and install your apps.

--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375



> Since I understand I am skating on very thin ice in this line of
> questioning, I want to ask the folks who maintain this discussion group
> if my question here should stop to avoid anyone getting in trouble with
> their PC's. Please be honest and this will end here. I am getting a
> little nervous about its direction.
>
> Thank you.
> Joe1
>
> "Joe1" wrote:
>
>> By the way, my intent is to have only one boot location to eliminate any
>> dependency on the broken XP OS without a format. I am moving very slowly
>> to avoid any dependency or ownership problems. After all is done, my
>> boot disk will be what is now called E:\ and c:\ will hold lots of apps,
>> etc.
>>
>> Do not try this at home. I don't know for sure if it will ever work
>> properly.
>>
>> "Joe1" wrote:
>>
>>> So far very good. Had to edit the quote info to print "C:\" as one
>>> choice and "E:\" as the other. My boot.ini aslo has 'NoExecute=optOut'
>>> which I understand. After I selected the E:\ choice I got an error
>>> message about disk configurations being incorrect. I will go back to
>>> get the real words but I 'esc' and was fine again with the other choice.
>>>
>>> Since I now have two copies of XP on my PC, I am being nagged by
>>> activation notice that is now 2 days. No matter how many times I
>>> activate either using the alarm in the notification area or using
>>> System Tools, I continue to get the message on boot. I would hate to
>>> have to buy another 2001 XP install disk which are all long gone now.
>>>
>>> Last note. My AVG has been removed as it was dragging system resources
>>> very, very low on boot. Now have Avast and it is so much better on boot
>>> up. Thanks to all.
>>>
>>> "Joe1" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Brian, I can not thank you enough for your response. I was about to
>>>> post a comment to remove that question because I am well aware of the
>>>> potential for significant damage to someones PC who might follow my
>>>> path.
>>>>
>>>> Although appearing very health for my age, I am a terminal patient in
>>>> Hospice care and this is my line to the world. Both you and PA Bear
>>>> are the BEST in my view. I can't thank you enough. I will include all
>>>> others who give such excellent advice to those of us lowly users who
>>>> just can't seem to read the manual. Very much appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> By the way, both installs of XP are equal in updates.
>>>>
>>>> "Brian A." wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard
>>>>>> drive appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and
>>>>>> replaced w/80 GB, clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall.
>>>>>> Tried to power up old drive, no good. Fianlly happened to move
>>>>>> cables around for better air flow inside, tried again to ower 18 GB
>>>>>> HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI had died. PC ignored the
>>>>>> original boot, etc so I removed any windows references from 18 GB
>>>>>> HD. Happy city.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded
>>>>>> and failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't
>>>>>> read all warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE
>>>>>> 8 download again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on
>>>>>> notification area and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall
>>>>>> IE 8 caused major OS problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean
>>>>>> reinstall, no registry cleaners, positively up to date everything.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I
>>>>>> parked on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install
>>>>>> but reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off.
>>>>>> All is good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet
>>>>>> connection. XP is now up to date BUT
>>>>>> With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
>>>>>> bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
>>>>>> "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Two months
>>>>>
>>>>> If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
>>>>> include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
>>>>> properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which
>>>>> drive to boot from.
>>>>>
>>>>> Your boot.ini should look something like:
>>>>> [boot loader]
>>>>> timeout=3
>>>>> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
>>>>> [operating systems]
>>>>> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
>>>>> /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
>>>>> multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
>>>>> /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
>>>>>
>>>>> timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made
>>>>> in the boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
>>>>> default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is
>>>>> not made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> Brian A. Sesko
>>>>> Conflicts start where information lacks.
>>>>> http://basconotw.mvps.org/
>>>>>
>>>>> Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>>>>> How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

Thank you for that response Brian. based on what you have posted, I will not
be able to do what I had hoped. I will stay with what is there now and hope
my slightly (?) crippled XP continues to run as it is now. Basically, I was
trying to swap c:\ with e:\ and that can't happen.

Thanks to you all. A really valuable asset for all the users. I am breathing
a big sigh of relief.

"Brian A." wrote:

> You are not skating on thin ice, questions of your type have been and are
> asked all the time. However, you may not be able to do as you want since
> AFAIK the boot.ini must be on the C:\ drive. For what you want you should
> install the OS on the drive that is C:\ and install your apps on the drive
> E:\. If you can boot to C:\ then you can format E:\ and install your apps.
>
> --
>
> Brian A. Sesko
> Conflicts start where information lacks.
> http://basconotw.mvps.org/
>
> Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
>
>
>
> > Since I understand I am skating on very thin ice in this line of
> > questioning, I want to ask the folks who maintain this discussion group
> > if my question here should stop to avoid anyone getting in trouble with
> > their PC's. Please be honest and this will end here. I am getting a
> > little nervous about its direction.
> >
> > Thank you.
> > Joe1
> >
> > "Joe1" wrote:
> >
> >> By the way, my intent is to have only one boot location to eliminate any
> >> dependency on the broken XP OS without a format. I am moving very slowly
> >> to avoid any dependency or ownership problems. After all is done, my
> >> boot disk will be what is now called E:\ and c:\ will hold lots of apps,
> >> etc.
> >>
> >> Do not try this at home. I don't know for sure if it will ever work
> >> properly.
> >>
> >> "Joe1" wrote:
> >>
> >>> So far very good. Had to edit the quote info to print "C:\" as one
> >>> choice and "E:\" as the other. My boot.ini aslo has 'NoExecute=optOut'
> >>> which I understand. After I selected the E:\ choice I got an error
> >>> message about disk configurations being incorrect. I will go back to
> >>> get the real words but I 'esc' and was fine again with the other choice.
> >>>
> >>> Since I now have two copies of XP on my PC, I am being nagged by
> >>> activation notice that is now 2 days. No matter how many times I
> >>> activate either using the alarm in the notification area or using
> >>> System Tools, I continue to get the message on boot. I would hate to
> >>> have to buy another 2001 XP install disk which are all long gone now.
> >>>
> >>> Last note. My AVG has been removed as it was dragging system resources
> >>> very, very low on boot. Now have Avast and it is so much better on boot
> >>> up. Thanks to all.
> >>>
> >>> "Joe1" wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Brian, I can not thank you enough for your response. I was about to
> >>>> post a comment to remove that question because I am well aware of the
> >>>> potential for significant damage to someones PC who might follow my
> >>>> path.
> >>>>
> >>>> Although appearing very health for my age, I am a terminal patient in
> >>>> Hospice care and this is my line to the world. Both you and PA Bear
> >>>> are the BEST in my view. I can't thank you enough. I will include all
> >>>> others who give such excellent advice to those of us lowly users who
> >>>> just can't seem to read the manual. Very much appreciated.
> >>>>
> >>>> By the way, both installs of XP are equal in updates.
> >>>>
> >>>> "Brian A." wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>>> Have a Win XP runnign fine up to date with updates, etc. 18 GB Hard
> >>>>>> drive appeared to fail, pulled power and data cables off and
> >>>>>> replaced w/80 GB, clean install, updated, AVG, Comodo Firewall.
> >>>>>> Tried to power up old drive, no good. Fianlly happened to move
> >>>>>> cables around for better air flow inside, tried again to ower 18 GB
> >>>>>> HD and it worked. One channel of SCSI had died. PC ignored the
> >>>>>> original boot, etc so I removed any windows references from 18 GB
> >>>>>> HD. Happy city.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Two months ago tried IE 8 and did not read any warnings. It loaded
> >>>>>> and failed, was uninstalled. All fine. g\Got update notice, didn't
> >>>>>> read all warnings and installed. It was SP 3. I waited and tried IE
> >>>>>> 8 download again. Worked OK, came to MS community with question on
> >>>>>> notification area and IE 8 died and burned. My attempts to uninstall
> >>>>>> IE 8 caused major OS problems. conclusion by PA Bear was a clean
> >>>>>> reinstall, no registry cleaners, positively up to date everything.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I realized 18 GB HD was essentially empty, removed the few thongs I
> >>>>>> parked on it, checked for errors, formatted and did a clean install
> >>>>>> but reordering boot sequence to CD first and 80 GB HD powered off.
> >>>>>> All is good, put AV and Comodo on the !* GB SD without internet
> >>>>>> connection. XP is now up to date BUT
> >>>>>> With both disks powered it will only boot off 80 GB HD despite no
> >>>>>> bootini/win.ini, etc I renamed. It stops at "Incorrect Boot.ini" and
> >>>>>> "Booting from C:\Windows\" and I'm stuck on the 80 GB HD.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Any idea how to force a boot from the 18 GB HD? I'm so close to home.
> >>>>>> Thanks.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Two months
> >>>>>
> >>>>> If both disks have an OS installed you need to edit the boot.ini to
> >>>>> include both disks and set their respective Disk and Partition. Once
> >>>>> properly done, during boot you should get a boot menu to select which
> >>>>> drive to boot from.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Your boot.ini should look something like:
> >>>>> [boot loader]
> >>>>> timeout=3
> >>>>> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> >>>>> [operating systems]
> >>>>> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> >>>>> /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> >>>>> multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional"
> >>>>> /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> >>>>>
> >>>>> timeout= is the value in seconds to wait for a selection to be made
> >>>>> in the boot menu before automatically booting to the default=.
> >>>>> default= is the disk it will automatically boot to if a selection is
> >>>>> not made in the boot menu and the value of the timeout= is reached.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Brian A. Sesko
> >>>>> Conflicts start where information lacks.
> >>>>> http://basconotw.mvps.org/
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> >>>>> How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
>
>