I saw a post on computing.net about two hd and two OS. I am in the same situatiobn and had planned to install Win98 on E with my WINXP drive on C. I didn't want to have to wipe my C drive to let 98 be installed first as was suggested in the reponse. Now after some study I realize the WINXP myust be installed last because some of it's critical files could be overwritten by the older OS.If I install WINXP on both hard drives will I have to erase anything on my c drive or can I just fdisk the E drive and then tell the computer to setup the the E drive so that it can boot XP also. I removed this E drive from another computer where it was already running XP and put it in this system as a slave to the C drive. What steps do I take to make both drives dual bootWINxp?

Ms Dre, Checked in a couple of other boards and perhaps this thread might help You. http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/142699.html

So you want 98 and XP on c: and also XP on the e: so you want the option to boot to 3 operating systems?

Little confused as to what you already have drive-wise... C: = '98 D: = ??? E: = intended XP drive (separate physical-drive). If you can/will post back - please confirm drive arrangements - is D: an Extended partition or is it a CDRO/CDRW/DVD? It may help folks here understand what you have and what you are thinking of doing... Understanding that E: may already have XP installed - it will not work in its new home... Drivers and other critical info are written into the installation that are relevant to that original system. I think you will have to re-install XP afresh on the drive if moving it to another physical system. Check this item: http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/howto-19.html Another option that 'may' work... (I haven't tried it but have seen references to it as possible solution) is to run a repair install to that drive (in its new home); this may replace inappropriate drivers etc with those of the drive's new home... If you are forced to do effectively a new/fresh (re-)install then set drive as Slave to '98 Master and procced to do a clean install to the Slaved drive. Be careful to choose clean install NOT an Upgrade. Post-4 at: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/73813.html discusses this issue of '98 and XP each on its own drive... but with each OS installed as a stand-alone Master - i.e. the other OS was not present (slaved or otherwise) at time of installation. May help you to read the info there too, and visit the link I included to another post on similar situation.

Sorry for misunderstanding. I have XP on both drives. C is master D is slave. Need step by step instructions on setting computer to dual boot to either drive. My family uses my computer. After setting up dual boot I want to enable the system to password protect C so that only I have access. Is that possible?

You need to have a line in the boot.ini on the Master drive that allows you to boot to the XP on the Slaved drive. However - if the XP on the Slaved drive was installed with that drive in another PC then it’s highly unlikely you will be able to get it to boot in its new home. Drivers and other critical info etc. will not be same for the new host system. All this is part of M$ attempts to thwart piracy etc… But presuming it will boot OK – once you can access it… Boot to XP on Master; locate boot.ini on Slaved drive. Copy the line in that boot.ini that refers to that version of XP to the boot.ini on the Master drive (in its c: root). Then change the value of rdisk(0) to read rdisk(10 – for that copied line ONLY… (You do this by opening the each boot.ini in turn in the edit mode.) Save changes and exit boot.ini (edit mode). Reboot PC and choose to boot to that version. In an ideal world... it would/should boot OK… But with the caveats referred to initially I doubt it will boot OK in this PPC (its new host system). If XP = fat32 on Slaved drive, you could also access the boot.ini there via a ’98 boot-disk; then locate/copy the required line to a floppy and use that copy to transfer required info to boot.ini on Master drive - after booting the Master version of XP. After-which change the rdisk(0) to rdisk (1) etc... Again I doubt you will be able to get this Slaved drive to boot. Possibly the repair routine I alluded too in my initial post may work – but again I doubt it. I think you will have to re-install XP afresh to this Slaved drive. If you have already done this then above routines should work OK to enable access (dual-boot) to the Slaved drive XP. As regards restricting access to drive C: so that ‘only you’ can logon to that version: Using the Admin logon, logon to each version in turn, and then create specific user accounts on each version to allow designated users to logon to that version - be it the Master drive or Slaved drive version. Each version has its own user lists, and a user-account on one version does not allow one to boot to the other version. Thus C: (Master) version could have an account for you only (+ of course the Admin logon – with a password only you know…). Also have a secure Admin logon on the Slaved version. You should also disable the guest account on the C: version (if it’s not already disabled).

thanks trvlr, your information sounds exciting but what line in the slaved drive boot ini would i be looking for? I am novice in this area.