Re: Adding new HDD to system using dual boot
From: R. C. White (rc_at_corridor.net)
Date: 12/12/04
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Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 21:36:53 -0600
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
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