Creating a Headache

[malgazz]

Hi

I have an older pc, which shortly will be used as a dedicated unit for controlling a machine.

This pc has 3 identical hard drives.

The one hard drive contains a copy of XP, which has all the stuff for day to day use (internet, mail, antivirus, etc)

The 2 other drives, one for back up and 1 for later use - storing drawings.

 

I am still in the process of finishing off the cnc machine and getting to a stage where I would like to start testing the motors etc. This has meant that the machine control software has to be installed and configured. Bright spark that I am..... I realized that the system to run the machine control software, has to be one with ideally no interfering "junk" ( antivirus, web browser etc etc).

 

So bright spark says ok easy enough, just disconnect the drives, leaving one which will be used as the dedicated pc and load a fresh copy of XP and the programes which are required. Which I duly did, with the idea that the back-up drive will be partitioned for back up and drawing storage.

Leaving me with the original daily use drive flapping about the case with nothing to do but sit idly by and wait till the others are disconnected and it reconnected on it's own.

 

I would like to know whether it is possible to run both of the drives simultaiously (boot to either one); they were created individually of each other as a single drive (1 drive in pc) and both are "C".

The way I am doing now is to turn off the pc, disconnect the cable from the drive, connect the other drive and restart.

 

 

Is their some kind sole to shoot me or some advise to clear up my woes.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

Am I correct in assuming that you have 2 separate drives and both have a copy of XP on. ?

 

They both cannot be "C:" drive if they are connected at the same time.

 

If you connect both drives at the same time it should be possible to dual boot them - selecting which drive to boot from at the start of each boot process.

This will involve adding a line to the Boot.ini file.

 

Do you have the option of connecting both drives at the same time ?

[malgazz]

Hi Ken

 

All 3 drives are physically fitted into the pc. I disconnected the daily use and back up drives ( removed the data cables) when loading a fresh copy onto the 3rd drive.

[malgazz]

Hi Ken

Thanks for the reply.

All 3 drives are physically mounted in the chassis of the pc. I disconnected the "daily use" and "backup" drives ( removed data cables) and loaded a fresh copy of XP onto the 3rd drive.

Although all 3 drives are still in the pc. Only the one with the fresh XP copy is connected. The others have their cables disconnected.

[KenB]

Hi

I am still a bit confused but let's see if I have this correct ....

 

OK - If you can connect each of 3 drives to the motherboard I am assuming that they are SATA drives .......... ??

If this is the case - connect the two drives to the motherboard that have XP on them. ( leave the third drive disconnected )

 

Go into the BIOS and and check the Boot Order

It is OK if the DVD Drive is first in the boot order.

The Drive that you want to boot from normally should be the first drive in the Boot Order.

 

The second choice hard drive should be next.

 

Both drives should be seen in the BIOS.

 

If this is all ok .............

 

===================

 

Boot up from the first drive.

Now right click on My Computer > Properties

Click on the Advanced Tab then under Startup and Recovery click on Settings.

Then ...under System Startup click on Edit.

 

You can now edit the Boot.ini file.

I suggest that you copy this - just in case :)

 

( Be careful here you don't want to alter anything other than what I have suggested ).

 

Your Boot.ini file will look a bit like this:

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

[ what is in inverted commas may be different ]

 

You need to add this line to the bottom of your existing Boot.ini file.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP - CNC" /fastdetect

 

Your Boot.ini should now look like this:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP - CNC" /fastdetect

 

The only thing you can change is inside the inverted commas "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" you could change this to "XP-Pro" if you wish.

================

timeout=30 may be different.

This gives you 30 seconds to make your decision before the system boots from the first option automatically.

You can change this if you want.

 

=================

This should now give you the option each time you boot up to select which version of XP you want to boot from.