Adding new HDD to system using dual boot

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Hope this don't turn up as a double post.
I posted it a couple of hours ago and as of yet it's not showing up.

I built a system about 3 yrs. ago with a single 40 gig. hard drive.
Using FDISK, I partitioned the drive into 5 partitions, C,D,E,F,G,
Drive No. is "0"
Installed Win.98SE on D partition, then installed XP Home Edition on C
partition.
Default OS is XP.

A few days ago I installed another 40 gig.drive, and DOS re-arranged my drive
letters by inserting the partitions on the second drive in after "C" and
naming them "D" & "E".
Problem: Path to Win98SE is no longer correct.

Below is a copy of my Boot.ini file, along with a couple of samples from
Microsoft.
As you will notice, there is no reference to Win98SE in the file, yet when I
remove
the partitions on the second disk it boots fine to both systems.
Also, when I look at the drives after starting XP, all drive letters are
correct,
and the new disk can be used as normal with drive letters "I" and "J"
Help on this would be greatly appricianted.


My current Boot.ini file
[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"


Sample Boot.ini File
This is a sample of a default Boot.ini file from a Windows XP Professional
computer.
[bootloader
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


This is a sample of the above Boot.ini file after adding another partition
running Windows 2000 Professional.
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
/fastdetect
 
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"Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:83D7632A-5B56-4723-8430-DA8E3FD95E84@microsoft.com...
> Hope this don't turn up as a double post.
> I posted it a couple of hours ago and as of yet it's not showing up.
>
> I built a system about 3 yrs. ago with a single 40 gig. hard drive.
> Using FDISK, I partitioned the drive into 5 partitions, C,D,E,F,G,
> Drive No. is "0"
> Installed Win.98SE on D partition, then installed XP Home Edition on C
> partition.
> Default OS is XP.
>
> A few days ago I installed another 40 gig.drive, and DOS re-arranged my
drive
> letters by inserting the partitions on the second drive in after "C" and
> naming them "D" & "E".
> Problem: Path to Win98SE is no longer correct.

I would suggest that you boot to XP and look at the disk management tools.
You should be able to remove and reassign drive letters everywhere but the
system drive.

If you want to (or need to) use the command line utility, run cmd, then
diskpart. use diskpart /? to see the available commands. be careful, as
it is *entirely* possible to damage your system with this.

HTH
-pk

<snippage>
 
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"Test User" <test@dev.null> wrote in message
news:WHJtd.35224$dC3.844873@news20.bellglobal.com...
> "Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:83D7632A-5B56-4723-8430-DA8E3FD95E84@microsoft.com...
> > Hope this don't turn up as a double post.
> > I posted it a couple of hours ago and as of yet it's not showing up.
> >
> > I built a system about 3 yrs. ago with a single 40 gig. hard drive.
> > Using FDISK, I partitioned the drive into 5 partitions, C,D,E,F,G,
> > Drive No. is "0"
> > Installed Win.98SE on D partition, then installed XP Home Edition on C
> > partition.
> > Default OS is XP.
> >
> > A few days ago I installed another 40 gig.drive, and DOS re-arranged my
> drive
> > letters by inserting the partitions on the second drive in after "C" and
> > naming them "D" & "E".
> > Problem: Path to Win98SE is no longer correct.
>
> I would suggest that you boot to XP and look at the disk management tools.
> You should be able to remove and reassign drive letters everywhere but the
> system drive.
>
> If you want to (or need to) use the command line utility, run cmd, then
> diskpart. use diskpart /? to see the available commands. be careful, as
> it is *entirely* possible to damage your system with this.
>
> HTH
> -pk

Also:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=300415

In particular, you are interested in the REMOVE and ASSIGN commands.

-pk

>
> <snippage>
>
>
 
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On Wed, 8 Dec 2004 11:37:12 -0800, Bill Post wrote:

> A few days ago I installed another 40 gig.drive, and DOS re-arranged my drive
> letters by inserting the partitions on the second drive in after "C" and
> naming them "D" & "E".
> Problem: Path to Win98SE is no longer correct.

If you mark the first partition of the second drive as active, DOS will
letter it D: (the first letter immediately following the letter of the
first partition on the other drive).

If you do not mark any partitions active on the second drive (and if my
recollection of fdisk and DOS are correct), the letters should fall in line
behind those used by the first drive. Can't recall if you need to skip
designating a "primary" as well and need to skip right to an extended
partition subdivided however you want - Sorry! Maybe someone else will
chime in here with the particulars.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
 
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Hi, Bill.

My memory on drive letter assignment sequence is about as hazy as Sharon's,
but I happen to have some literature on it handy, so here's the long version
of the explanation. ;^}

"Drive" letters are not permanently assigned. Each time you reboot, former
drive letters are forgotten and the BIOS assigns letters from scratch using
its built-in algorithm, which can't be changed except by the folks who write
the BIOS. What was Drive X: this morning might be Drive Y: this afternoon
if you added or removed HDDs, or added or removed volumes on existing HDDs.
For x86 computers, the BIOS algorithm has not changed in many years; I've
read about the order more than once, but don't remember it. As I recall,
all primary partitions on the first HDD are assigned letters first, then
primary partitions on other HDDs, then logical drives in extended
partitions, then driver-managed devices, such as CD/DVD drives, USB drives,
cameras, etc.

Once Windows loads, it may re-assign the letters, using its own built-in
rules, which may be different from the BIOS assignments, and Win98 rules are
different from WinXP rules. But we have some control over these letters, if
we choose to use that control. By using Disk Management in WinXP or Device
Manager in Win98, we can assign letters of our choice and Windows will
attempt to use those same letters on each reboot thereafter.

"Drive letter" is actually a misnomer because letters are not assigned to
physical drives. After we create primary partitions on an HDD, each of
those partitions is assigned a letter, so we sometimes call it a partition
letter, but that's not strictly true, either. We can create an extended
partition, then create multiple logical drives within that extended
partition. The extended partition itself does get a "drive" letter, but
each of the logical drives within it gets a letter. Each primary partition
and each logical drive is a "volume" and each volume is assigned a "drive
letter". In boot.ini, volumes are referred to as rdisk(#)partition(#).
HDDs are numbered starting with zero. "Partition" actually means "volume"
in this case and numbering starts with one on each HDD. On a physical drive
with one primary partition followed by an extended partition, the second
logical drive would be "partition(3)".

You can read about the drive letter assignment rules here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prork_overview.asp

Here's a quote pasted from that chapter of the Windows XP Professional
Resource kit:

<begin Paste>
After you create each volume, Setup assigns it a drive letter. The drive
letter that Setup chooses depends on whether other basic volumes, dynamic
volumes, and removable disks have drive letters already assigned. For all
volumes and removable disks without drive letters, Setup assigns drive
letters by using the following method:

1. Scans all fixed hard disks as they are enumerated. Assigns drive letters
starting with any active primary partition (if one exists); otherwise, scans
the first primary partition on each disk. Assigns the next available letter
starting with C.

2. Scans all fixed hard disks and removable disks, and assigns drive letters
to all logical drives in an extended partition or the removable disk(s) as
enumerated. Assigns the next available letter starting with C.

3. Scans all fixed hard disks and assigns drive letters to all remaining
primary partitions. Assigns the next available letter starting with C.

4. Scans floppy drives and assigns the next available drive letter starting
with A.

5. Scans CD-ROM drives and assigns the next available letter starting with
D.

Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 assign drive letters differently
from how Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0 assign drive letters.
Therefore, if the computer starts multiple operating systems, the drive
letters might vary depending on which operating system is running. For more
information about how Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 assign drive
letters, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base link on the Web Resources page at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources. Search the Knowledge
Base by using the keywords "LDM" and "cmdcons."

<end Paste>

This explains why inserting your second HDD, with its priimary partitions,
changed the letter for the second partition on your first HDD. As Rule 1
says, after assigning C: to the active primary partition on HDD0, it assigns
D: to the first primary partition on HDD1. Then it returned to HDD0 and
looked for logical drives in an extended partition (Rule 2). You haven't
told us which of your volumes are logical drives, but since each HDD can
have a maximum of 4 partitions, and your HDD0 is using 5 volumes, some of
them must be logicals. You apparently have either 1, 2 or 3 primary
partitions, plus an extended partition, plus 4, 3 or 2 logical drives within
the extended partition. Rule 2 would assign letters to each logical drive.
Then Rule 3 would assign letters to any remaining primary partitions, before
moving on to Rule 5 to assign letters to your CD/DVDs.

> As you will notice, there is no reference to Win98SE in the file,

While WinXP and Win9x/ME may be installed into any volume in your computer
(which will become the "boot volume" for THAT Windows installation only),
the boot process always starts in the "system partition" (the active primary
partition on the first physical HDD), which is almost always Drive C:. The
Root of this system partition (C:\) holds the few "system files" for both
WinXP (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini) and Win9x/ME (io.sys and
msdos.sys). The boot sector of C: is different for NT-based operating
systems than for those based on MS-DOS. When the computer boots, the
DOS-style boot sector automatically looks for C:\io.sys to boot MS-DOS or
Win9x/ME, depending on the contents of C:\msdos.sys. If WinXP Setup detects
Win9x/ME already installed, it saves a copy of the DOS-style boot sector in
a new file, C:\bootsect.dos, then overwrites the boot sector with the NT
version. Thereafter, when the computer boots, the NT boot sector looks for
C:\NTLDR, which finds C:\boot.ini and puts the operating system menu
onscreen. If we choose WinXP, it finds the WinXP boot folder by
rdisk(#)partition(#) and loads WinXP from there. If we choose Win9x/ME, it
loads C:\bootsect.dos and turns control over to it so that it can find and
load C:\io.sys and C:\msdos.sys. So the line that loads Win98 for you is
that bottom line in boot.ini: C:\ = "Microsoft Windows" (but there should
be NO space before or after the "="). Note that this line does not use
drive or partition number; it always refers to C:\, the Root of the system
partition.

That may be more information than you wanted, Bill, but it's hard to explain
this stuff without leaving loose ends dangling. And, too often, the fine
point that is left out is exactly the little detail that makes the
difference in the current situation.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:83D7632A-5B56-4723-8430-DA8E3FD95E84@microsoft.com...
> Hope this don't turn up as a double post.
> I posted it a couple of hours ago and as of yet it's not showing up.
>
> I built a system about 3 yrs. ago with a single 40 gig. hard drive.
> Using FDISK, I partitioned the drive into 5 partitions, C,D,E,F,G,
> Drive No. is "0"
> Installed Win.98SE on D partition, then installed XP Home Edition on C
> partition.
> Default OS is XP.
>
> A few days ago I installed another 40 gig.drive, and DOS re-arranged my
> drive
> letters by inserting the partitions on the second drive in after "C" and
> naming them "D" & "E".
> Problem: Path to Win98SE is no longer correct.
>
> Below is a copy of my Boot.ini file, along with a couple of samples from
> Microsoft.
> As you will notice, there is no reference to Win98SE in the file, yet when
> I
> remove
> the partitions on the second disk it boots fine to both systems.
> Also, when I look at the drives after starting XP, all drive letters are
> correct,
> and the new disk can be used as normal with drive letters "I" and "J"
> Help on this would be greatly appricianted.
>
>
> My current Boot.ini file
> [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 Home
> Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
> C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"
>
>
> Sample Boot.ini File
> This is a sample of a default Boot.ini file from a Windows XP Professional
> computer.
> [bootloader
> 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
>
>
> This is a sample of the above Boot.ini file after adding another partition
> running Windows 2000 Professional.
> [boot loader]
> timeout=30
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
> /fastdetect
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
> /fastdetect
 
G

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Whoops! Typo...

> partition. The extended partition itself does get a "drive" letter, but

should say...
partition. The extended partition itself does NOT get a "drive" letter, but

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"R. C. White" <rc@corridor.net> wrote in message
news:OF950Lh3EHA.3000@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi, Bill.
>
> My memory on drive letter assignment sequence is about as hazy as
> Sharon's, but I happen to have some literature on it handy, so here's the
> long version of the explanation. ;^}
>
> "Drive" letters are not permanently assigned. Each time you reboot,
> former drive letters are forgotten and the BIOS assigns letters from
> scratch using its built-in algorithm, which can't be changed except by the
> folks who write the BIOS. What was Drive X: this morning might be Drive
> Y: this afternoon if you added or removed HDDs, or added or removed
> volumes on existing HDDs. For x86 computers, the BIOS algorithm has not
> changed in many years; I've read about the order more than once, but don't
> remember it. As I recall, all primary partitions on the first HDD are
> assigned letters first, then primary partitions on other HDDs, then
> logical drives in extended partitions, then driver-managed devices, such
> as CD/DVD drives, USB drives, cameras, etc.
>
> Once Windows loads, it may re-assign the letters, using its own built-in
> rules, which may be different from the BIOS assignments, and Win98 rules
> are different from WinXP rules. But we have some control over these
> letters, if we choose to use that control. By using Disk Management in
> WinXP or Device Manager in Win98, we can assign letters of our choice and
> Windows will attempt to use those same letters on each reboot thereafter.
>
> "Drive letter" is actually a misnomer because letters are not assigned to
> physical drives. After we create primary partitions on an HDD, each of
> those partitions is assigned a letter, so we sometimes call it a partition
> letter, but that's not strictly true, either. We can create an extended
> partition, then create multiple logical drives within that extended
> partition. The extended partition itself does get a "drive" letter, but
> each of the logical drives within it gets a letter. Each primary
> partition and each logical drive is a "volume" and each volume is assigned
> a "drive letter". In boot.ini, volumes are referred to as
> rdisk(#)partition(#). HDDs are numbered starting with zero. "Partition"
> actually means "volume" in this case and numbering starts with one on each
> HDD. On a physical drive with one primary partition followed by an
> extended partition, the second logical drive would be "partition(3)".
>
> You can read about the drive letter assignment rules here:
> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prork_overview.asp
>
> Here's a quote pasted from that chapter of the Windows XP Professional
> Resource kit:
>
> <begin Paste>
> After you create each volume, Setup assigns it a drive letter. The drive
> letter that Setup chooses depends on whether other basic volumes, dynamic
> volumes, and removable disks have drive letters already assigned. For all
> volumes and removable disks without drive letters, Setup assigns drive
> letters by using the following method:
>
> 1. Scans all fixed hard disks as they are enumerated. Assigns drive
> letters starting with any active primary partition (if one exists);
> otherwise, scans the first primary partition on each disk. Assigns the
> next available letter starting with C.
>
> 2. Scans all fixed hard disks and removable disks, and assigns drive
> letters to all logical drives in an extended partition or the removable
> disk(s) as enumerated. Assigns the next available letter starting with C.
>
> 3. Scans all fixed hard disks and assigns drive letters to all remaining
> primary partitions. Assigns the next available letter starting with C.
>
> 4. Scans floppy drives and assigns the next available drive letter
> starting with A.
>
> 5. Scans CD-ROM drives and assigns the next available letter starting with
> D.
>
> Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 assign drive letters differently
> from how Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0 assign drive letters.
> Therefore, if the computer starts multiple operating systems, the drive
> letters might vary depending on which operating system is running. For
> more information about how Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 assign
> drive letters, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base link on the Web Resources
> page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources. Search the
> Knowledge Base by using the keywords "LDM" and "cmdcons."
>
> <end Paste>
>
> This explains why inserting your second HDD, with its priimary partitions,
> changed the letter for the second partition on your first HDD. As Rule 1
> says, after assigning C: to the active primary partition on HDD0, it
> assigns D: to the first primary partition on HDD1. Then it returned to
> HDD0 and looked for logical drives in an extended partition (Rule 2). You
> haven't told us which of your volumes are logical drives, but since each
> HDD can have a maximum of 4 partitions, and your HDD0 is using 5 volumes,
> some of them must be logicals. You apparently have either 1, 2 or 3
> primary partitions, plus an extended partition, plus 4, 3 or 2 logical
> drives within the extended partition. Rule 2 would assign letters to each
> logical drive. Then Rule 3 would assign letters to any remaining primary
> partitions, before moving on to Rule 5 to assign letters to your CD/DVDs.
>
>> As you will notice, there is no reference to Win98SE in the file,
>
> While WinXP and Win9x/ME may be installed into any volume in your computer
> (which will become the "boot volume" for THAT Windows installation only),
> the boot process always starts in the "system partition" (the active
> primary partition on the first physical HDD), which is almost always Drive
> C:. The Root of this system partition (C:\) holds the few "system files"
> for both WinXP (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini) and Win9x/ME (io.sys and
> msdos.sys). The boot sector of C: is different for NT-based operating
> systems than for those based on MS-DOS. When the computer boots, the
> DOS-style boot sector automatically looks for C:\io.sys to boot MS-DOS or
> Win9x/ME, depending on the contents of C:\msdos.sys. If WinXP Setup
> detects Win9x/ME already installed, it saves a copy of the DOS-style boot
> sector in a new file, C:\bootsect.dos, then overwrites the boot sector
> with the NT version. Thereafter, when the computer boots, the NT boot
> sector looks for C:\NTLDR, which finds C:\boot.ini and puts the operating
> system menu onscreen. If we choose WinXP, it finds the WinXP boot folder
> by rdisk(#)partition(#) and loads WinXP from there. If we choose
> Win9x/ME, it loads C:\bootsect.dos and turns control over to it so that it
> can find and load C:\io.sys and C:\msdos.sys. So the line that loads
> Win98 for you is that bottom line in boot.ini: C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"
> (but there should be NO space before or after the "="). Note that this
> line does not use drive or partition number; it always refers to C:\, the
> Root of the system partition.
>
> That may be more information than you wanted, Bill, but it's hard to
> explain this stuff without leaving loose ends dangling. And, too often,
> the fine point that is left out is exactly the little detail that makes
> the difference in the current situation.
>
> RC
>
> "Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:83D7632A-5B56-4723-8430-DA8E3FD95E84@microsoft.com...
>> Hope this don't turn up as a double post.
>> I posted it a couple of hours ago and as of yet it's not showing up.
>>
>> I built a system about 3 yrs. ago with a single 40 gig. hard drive.
>> Using FDISK, I partitioned the drive into 5 partitions, C,D,E,F,G,
>> Drive No. is "0"
>> Installed Win.98SE on D partition, then installed XP Home Edition on C
>> partition.
>> Default OS is XP.
>>
>> A few days ago I installed another 40 gig.drive, and DOS re-arranged my
>> drive
>> letters by inserting the partitions on the second drive in after "C" and
>> naming them "D" & "E".
>> Problem: Path to Win98SE is no longer correct.
>>
>> Below is a copy of my Boot.ini file, along with a couple of samples from
>> Microsoft.
>> As you will notice, there is no reference to Win98SE in the file, yet
>> when I
>> remove
>> the partitions on the second disk it boots fine to both systems.
>> Also, when I look at the drives after starting XP, all drive letters are
>> correct,
>> and the new disk can be used as normal with drive letters "I" and "J"
>> Help on this would be greatly appricianted.
>>
>>
>> My current Boot.ini file
>> [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 Home
>> Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
>> C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"
>>
>>
>> Sample Boot.ini File
>> This is a sample of a default Boot.ini file from a Windows XP
>> Professional
>> computer.
>> [bootloader
>> 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
>>
>>
>> This is a sample of the above Boot.ini file after adding another
>> partition
>> running Windows 2000 Professional.
>> [boot loader]
>> timeout=30
>> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
>> [operating systems]
>> multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
>> /fastdetect
>> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
>> /fastdetect
>
 
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On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 11:17:25 -0600, R. C. White wrote:

> As I recall,
> all primary partitions on the first HDD are assigned letters first, then
> primary partitions on other HDDs, then logical drives in extended
> partitions, then driver-managed devices, such as CD/DVD drives, USB drives,
> cameras, etc.

Thanks for the extra references, RC!
--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
 
G

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You're welcome, Sharon. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Sharon F" <sharonfDEL@ETEmvps.org> wrote in message
news:e085T6j3EHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 11:17:25 -0600, R. C. White wrote:
>
>> As I recall,
>> all primary partitions on the first HDD are assigned letters first, then
>> primary partitions on other HDDs, then logical drives in extended
>> partitions, then driver-managed devices, such as CD/DVD drives, USB
>> drives,
>> cameras, etc.
>
> Thanks for the extra references, RC!
> --
> Sharon F
> MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
 
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Hi all,
I ended up using diskpart to get the job done.
I can now boot to Win98SE as well as XP.
the only thing I've noticed is that in Win98SE the
drive letter "H" is assigned to the first partition on
the new disk, whereas in XP "H" is my CD drive.
I can live with that.
What I did was to create a extended partition on
the second drive, assign letter I to it, create a
logical drive within the partition with letter "J"
and everything works fine.
Gets complicated, don't it?

I really appriciate your responses to my post.
I have been looking all over the net for a
solution to my problem. Looks like someone
else must have come across the same situation
before me, but I couldn't fine a reference to it.
Anyway, everything is working as I wanted it
to so I'm happy.
Thanks again,
Bill
 
G

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On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 17:35:02 -0800, Bill Post wrote:

> Hi all,
> I ended up using diskpart to get the job done.
> I can now boot to Win98SE as well as XP.
> the only thing I've noticed is that in Win98SE the
> drive letter "H" is assigned to the first partition on
> the new disk, whereas in XP "H" is my CD drive.
> I can live with that.
> What I did was to create a extended partition on
> the second drive, assign letter I to it, create a
> logical drive within the partition with letter "J"
> and everything works fine.
> Gets complicated, don't it?
>
> I really appriciate your responses to my post.
> I have been looking all over the net for a
> solution to my problem. Looks like someone
> else must have come across the same situation
> before me, but I couldn't fine a reference to it.
> Anyway, everything is working as I wanted it
> to so I'm happy.
> Thanks again,
> Bill

You're welcome! Glad to hear that you have this figured out so that is
workable for you.
--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Hi, Bill.

I'm glad it's working for you, and thanks for the report back. Maybe it
will help the next person with a similar problem.

I have a couple more comments on your drive letters.

First, you know that both WinXP and Win98 will allow you to assign drive
letters (except for the system and boot volumes). For example, if you
wanted your CD drive to be V: in both systems, you could use Disk Management
to change that drive from H: to V:. Then boot into Win98 and use Device
Manager to assign V: to that drive. Then, if you like, you can use Disk
Management to assign H: to the same volume as in Win98. That might reduce
the confusion as you switch between Win98 and WinXP. The human confusion,
that is; the computer won't be confused.

Second, you said:

> What I did was to create a extended partition on
> the second drive, assign letter I to it,

An extended partition is not assigned a drive letter, but each logical drive
within it gets a letter. Please use Disk Management to recheck to see that
this is correct. If my understanding is wrong, I want to know it!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:582F6A28-06BA-45C2-B3F2-934F665036FB@microsoft.com...
> Hi all,
> I ended up using diskpart to get the job done.
> I can now boot to Win98SE as well as XP.
> the only thing I've noticed is that in Win98SE the
> drive letter "H" is assigned to the first partition on
> the new disk, whereas in XP "H" is my CD drive.
> I can live with that.
> What I did was to create a extended partition on
> the second drive, assign letter I to it, create a
> logical drive within the partition with letter "J"
> and everything works fine.
> Gets complicated, don't it?
>
> I really appriciate your responses to my post.
> I have been looking all over the net for a
> solution to my problem. Looks like someone
> else must have come across the same situation
> before me, but I couldn't fine a reference to it.
> Anyway, everything is working as I wanted it
> to so I'm happy.
> Thanks again,
> Bill
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Hi Ron,

Yeah, I know about changing drive letters in Windows.
As a matter of fact, I tried that after finding out that DOS had
moved them around. The drives looked good as long as I was
in windows, but DOS had a mind of it's own.

You're right about assigning drive letters to partitions.
I did create two logical drives on the second disk.
Hope I didn't confuse anyone.

You guys were great to offer advise. This is a great forum.
Thanks again for talking to me and offering help.

Bill


"R. C. White" wrote:

> Hi, Bill.
>
> I'm glad it's working for you, and thanks for the report back. Maybe it
> will help the next person with a similar problem.
>
> I have a couple more comments on your drive letters.
>
> First, you know that both WinXP and Win98 will allow you to assign drive
> letters (except for the system and boot volumes). For example, if you
> wanted your CD drive to be V: in both systems, you could use Disk Management
> to change that drive from H: to V:. Then boot into Win98 and use Device
> Manager to assign V: to that drive. Then, if you like, you can use Disk
> Management to assign H: to the same volume as in Win98. That might reduce
> the confusion as you switch between Win98 and WinXP. The human confusion,
> that is; the computer won't be confused.
>
> Second, you said:
>
> > What I did was to create a extended partition on
> > the second drive, assign letter I to it,
>
> An extended partition is not assigned a drive letter, but each logical drive
> within it gets a letter. Please use Disk Management to recheck to see that
> this is correct. If my understanding is wrong, I want to know it!
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@corridor.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:582F6A28-06BA-45C2-B3F2-934F665036FB@microsoft.com...
> > Hi all,
> > I ended up using diskpart to get the job done.
> > I can now boot to Win98SE as well as XP.
> > the only thing I've noticed is that in Win98SE the
> > drive letter "H" is assigned to the first partition on
> > the new disk, whereas in XP "H" is my CD drive.
> > I can live with that.
> > What I did was to create a extended partition on
> > the second drive, assign letter I to it, create a
> > logical drive within the partition with letter "J"
> > and everything works fine.
> > Gets complicated, don't it?
> >
> > I really appriciate your responses to my post.
> > I have been looking all over the net for a
> > solution to my problem. Looks like someone
> > else must have come across the same situation
> > before me, but I couldn't fine a reference to it.
> > Anyway, everything is working as I wanted it
> > to so I'm happy.
> > Thanks again,
> > Bill
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Hi, Bill.

> As a matter of fact, I tried that after finding out that DOS had
> moved them around. The drives looked good as long as I was
> in windows, but DOS had a mind of it's own.

No. MS-DOS has no way to change drive letters. Maybe you mean the BIOS.
This is the most fundamental part of the computer software. This is what
loads DOS or WinXP and turns over control to whichever it loads. If the
BIOS loads DOS, then DOS might load Win98, but if the BIOS loads WinXP, DOS
does not get loaded at all in that session. As I said, The BIOS assigns
drive letters in accordance with the algorithm built into it. To change
this, you would need to rewrite the BIOS yourself because every BIOS I know
about uses the same system of drive letter assignment. And DOS is stuck
with these letters.

Windows can and does change the drive letters that it sees, but this is
effective only within Windows - and only within the version of Windows that
is running at the time. And, as it said in the pasted reference in my first
post in this thread, "Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 assign drive
letters differently from how Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0
assign drive letters. Therefore, if the computer starts multiple operating
systems, the drive letters might vary depending on which operating system is
running."

So, it's not that DOS is playing tricks on you. It's just that DOS is stuck
with the letters assigned by the BIOS and doesn't know or care what
reassignments Win98 might have made. And if WinXP is running, MS-DOS never
got a chance to load at all, so there's no way it could change drive
letters - or anything else.

Think about it and study the references I gave you earlier.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E6645189-5265-40D9-BD59-418C43D1E2F5@microsoft.com...
> Hi Ron,
>
> Yeah, I know about changing drive letters in Windows.
> As a matter of fact, I tried that after finding out that DOS had
> moved them around. The drives looked good as long as I was
> in windows, but DOS had a mind of it's own.
>
> You're right about assigning drive letters to partitions.
> I did create two logical drives on the second disk.
> Hope I didn't confuse anyone.
>
> You guys were great to offer advise. This is a great forum.
> Thanks again for talking to me and offering help.
>
> Bill
>
>
> "R. C. White" wrote:
>
>> Hi, Bill.
>>
>> I'm glad it's working for you, and thanks for the report back. Maybe it
>> will help the next person with a similar problem.
>>
>> I have a couple more comments on your drive letters.
>>
>> First, you know that both WinXP and Win98 will allow you to assign drive
>> letters (except for the system and boot volumes). For example, if you
>> wanted your CD drive to be V: in both systems, you could use Disk
>> Management
>> to change that drive from H: to V:. Then boot into Win98 and use Device
>> Manager to assign V: to that drive. Then, if you like, you can use Disk
>> Management to assign H: to the same volume as in Win98. That might
>> reduce
>> the confusion as you switch between Win98 and WinXP. The human
>> confusion,
>> that is; the computer won't be confused.
>>
>> Second, you said:
>>
>> > What I did was to create a extended partition on
>> > the second drive, assign letter I to it,
>>
>> An extended partition is not assigned a drive letter, but each logical
>> drive
>> within it gets a letter. Please use Disk Management to recheck to see
>> that
>> this is correct. If my understanding is wrong, I want to know it!
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "Bill Post" <BillPost@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:582F6A28-06BA-45C2-B3F2-934F665036FB@microsoft.com...
>> > Hi all,
>> > I ended up using diskpart to get the job done.
>> > I can now boot to Win98SE as well as XP.
>> > the only thing I've noticed is that in Win98SE the
>> > drive letter "H" is assigned to the first partition on
>> > the new disk, whereas in XP "H" is my CD drive.
>> > I can live with that.
>> > What I did was to create a extended partition on
>> > the second drive, assign letter I to it, create a
>> > logical drive within the partition with letter "J"
>> > and everything works fine.
>> > Gets complicated, don't it?
>> >
>> > I really appriciate your responses to my post.
>> > I have been looking all over the net for a
>> > solution to my problem. Looks like someone
>> > else must have come across the same situation
>> > before me, but I couldn't fine a reference to it.
>> > Anyway, everything is working as I wanted it
>> > to so I'm happy.
>> > Thanks again,
>> > Bill