...I've Fallen and I can't get up....

[koØm]

.....Not really but it seems that way; due to "Design Obsolescence" and a lack of use of DOS 6.22 I have forgotten / failed in setting up a dual boot environment on my Legacy Intel 845 (P-4 @ 2GHz) Mobo lashup.

This PC (XP-PRO) ran great until recently when the HDD died. It had a 80 gig main HDD and a slave 160 Gb. when the primary drive failed, I was able to search thru all of my old HDDs and find one with an operating system that came up on that MoBo (Vista Ultimate); runs like a cripple turtle.

I decided that gen up an XP-Pro system on the slave HDD and try to dual boot the machine; with the XP installed, it zooms right by the Vista install and loads the XP system on the secondary disk.

I disconnected the XP HDD and bought the machine up on the Vista Master HDD and after a little "Vista-will-not-load-", "Insert-install-disk-fix" strartup problems, the Vista now loads (XP still disconnected).

Back in the DOS v6.22, days I remember editing a "msdos" file and setting up dual boot but, that was in a far distant time and "mental-verse" so, I have two HDDs each with different OS's on them and I want the PC to boot to an options menu.

Any ideas?

.

[N2CHX]

You could try grub.

Install a minimalist Linux install with GRUB just to get it on your HD and use GRUB to control which OS you boot into.

http://tr.opensuse.org/SDB:The_Boot_Manager_Grub

[WØTKX]

Wait, WAIT! It's Winders, man. :lol:

I'd check that BOOT.INI file out first. I like this website, very clear information...

http://best-windows.vlaurie.com/boot-ini.html

IF that ain't it, escalate to poking around with NTLDR issues. That's a little messier.
Back up data and user files first, or the whole drive if you have room. If you care.
Mount that "bad drive" any way you can and suck outa da data, MmmmK?

[N2CHX]

Wait, WAIT! It's Winders, man. :lol:

I'd check that BOOT.INI file out first. I like this website, very clear information...

http://best-windows.vlaurie.com/boot-ini.html

IF that ain't it, escalate to poking around with NTLDR issues. That's a little messier.
Back up data and user files first, or the whole drive if you have room. If you care.
Mount that "bad drive" any way you can and suck outa da data, MmmmK?

I realize that. GRUB works with pretty much any OS. It's my best suggestion, as someone who for the most part stopped caring about Windows many years ago. Take it FWIW :)

[NQ6U]

Yeah, same thing happened to me 6000 years ago. That Jehovah bastard is a real asshole.

—Satan, Prince of Darkness.