There are various ways to "remove" a HD from a system.
Some BIOSes allow you to "disable" some HDs, but I've never
had a machine with such a BIOS. There are also 3rd-party
boot managers which allow you to "hide" partitions. That
can get tricky if the utility happens to reside in a partition that
you've just "hid". :-( Another way is to use a "drive caddy"
or "mobile rack" that contains the HD with the OS you desire.
Kingwin makes such "mobile racks" that take a 5 1/2"
expansion bay, and the set of rack and tray runs about $22-$25,
depending on retailer. Extra trays run about $15-$20. Here
is Kingwin's line of mobile racks:
http://kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp .
I have the KF-101-1PF with the cooling fan in the bottom of
the tray. The setup works well, and the HD is kept at what
feels like room temp. You can search Nextag.com and
PriceGrabber.com for the latest prices using the model no. as
the search term.
Another way to "disappear" a HD is to deny it power. I have
micro toggle switches mounted in ventillation holes in the
front of my PC, under the plastic facia, and before startup,
I reach in with a paper clip and switch on the power for the
HD that I want. The barrels of the DPST switches are 1/4"
OD, and they fit perfectly in the ventillation holes, so no grinding
or cutting was necessary. The only caveat is that the IDE
controllers don't like empty end connectors on the IDE cable,
so either put another device at the end connector or put each
HD at the end connector of a dedicated cable. (Expansion
PCI IDE controller cards give you more freedom of
configuration for doing this.)
But I suspect that all you really need is for each OS to boot
up with its own partition named "C:". You probably installed
the 2nd WinXP with the 1st WinXP visible to the installer, and
the installer named the 2nd WinXP's partition "D:". There is a
way to re-name a partition by going into the Registry, but I'm
too timid to do that. The most straight-forward way to
accomplish what you want is to install the 2nd WinXP on the
2nd HD while the 1st HD is disconnected. (The connected
HD will have boot priority, so no adjustment of jumpers or
BIOS is necessary.) The 2nd OS, when running, will call its
own partition "C:".
Then re-connect the 1st HD, and boot the system. The 1st
HD (assuming that it has boot priority), will boot its OS.
Then edit its boot.ini file at C:\boot.ini using Notepad.
Under the line "[operating systems]", add another line that
is identical to the 1st line there, but with "rdisk(0)" changed
to "rdisk(1)". You can also change the character string between
the quotes to indicate that it's for the 2nd OS. You can set
the timeout value to something like "10" to give you 10 seconds
to decide which OS to boot. That's all there is to making
the ntldr in the 1st HD a dual-boot manager.
Each WinXP, when it is running, will call its own partition "C:",
and it will call the other OS's partition by some other letter
designation, usually "D:". This will not matter at all as long as
there are no shortcuts in one partition which refer to files in
another partition. If a shortcut in the partition of the running
OS refers to "C:", it will refer to the local partition - which
is OK.
If you don't want to edit the boot.ini file, you can switch between
HDs by entering the BIOS at startup and changeing the boot order
of the HDs. In my Dell machine, the BIOS has a "Hard Drive
Boot Order" which is a prioritized list of the connected HDs. The
HD at the head of the list gets control at boot time. That is, it
becomes known as "rdisk(0)" to ntldr. The next HD in the list
becomes "rdisk(1)", etc. Other BIOSes just allow setting which
HD is "enabled" for boot control. Check you user manual to
learn how to enter and navigate through your BIOS.
*TimDaniels*
"Steve" wrote:
> Hi out there...
>
> Just figured out how to set up a "multiple boot"... sounded tough but was
> super-easy... and I can now power-up and get a "menu choice" to boot to WinXP
> on drive 1... or WinXP on drive 2. But now I have the problem of... BOTH
> drives can be seen from either boot choice... I want to only see ONE drive...
> and it be designated as C:. Is there any way to do this???
>
> For those who might care... I've been developing a VB6 app on one hard drive
> and then physically removing drive 1 and replacing it with a "virgin install"
> drive 2. WHY's are:
>
> 1. I'm using several .DLLs/.OCXs which are NOT normally installed on a
> "user" PC and I want my installation tests to work if I miss a file when
> building the install CD... With my current Multi-boot scenario... tho
> installing the CD on Drive 2; Drive 1 is still there... so the App still works
> by using files off Drive 1.
>
> 2. The installation insists on going back to C: (Drive 1)... tho I'm
> installing on Drive 2)... so some of my files are being re-written when I
> don't want them to.
>
> 3. I'm tired of swapping hard drives... my wife's tired of looking at a
> PC with an open side... and I don't have the room for a second PC setup.
>
> Sure hope someone has a solution...
>
> Thanks in advance!!
> Steve
>
>
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