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zillah

I have got HD 40 GB it has been divede to 3 partitions :

1- 15 GB NTFS for winXP
2- 5 GB FAT32 Storage
3- 20 GB NTFS for Win2003

First I installed windows XP on 15 GB partition, then I installed win2003.

I have got with dual boot system,,,,now which bootloader was responsible for booting XP and win2003 ? Does it XP bootloader ?

Can I modify this bootloader (boot.ini) ?

If I installed win2003 first,,,,,does the bootloader change form the XP (previous ) to 2003 ?

joe5

Hya Zillah , welcome to PCHF , im 99% sure that the boot.ini only will be located on the first installed O.S. (partition)

And yes , you can edit it. What would you like to do?

zillah

Hya Zillah , welcome to PCHF

Thanks for your greeting

im 99% sure that the boot.ini only will be located on the first installed O.S. (partition)

Does that mean the XP's boot.ini is the default one because XP it was installed first ?

And If I installed 2003 fisrt does that mean the 2003's boot.ini will be the default one ?

Because I have been told that the last (not first) OS installed, its boot.ini will be the default one, because its boot.ini will be the last one to be written to MBR,,,,what is your comment about this ?

What would you like to do?

To understand the concept and to modify which one is to be booted first

joe5

Originally Posted by zillah

Thanks for your greeting

Does that mean the XP's boot.ini is the default one because XP it was installed first ?

And If I installed 2003 fisrt does that mean the 2003's boot.ini will be the default one ?

Because I have been told that the last (not first) OS installed, its boot.ini will be the default one, because its boot.ini will be the last one to be written to MBR,,,,what is your commane about this ?

No sorry , i should have explained it better , and read youre question better.

The location of the boot.ini wil be on the "system" partition wich normally is the partition where the first windows is installed.

The last installed O.S. will be the last to write to the boot.ini and therefor set it up so that it is the first (default) boot option. (they use the same boot.ini file , there is only one boot.ini)

zillah

I am going to ask few questions for clarification

The location of the boot.ini wil be on the "system" partition wich normally is the partition where the first windows is installed.

In my case it will be XP which was installed first and it was installed on C drive.

1- 15 GB NTFS for winXP

-----C:\boot.ini

The last installed O.S. will be the last to write to the boot.ini and therefor set it up so that it is the first (default) boot option. (they use the same boot.ini file , there is only one boot.ini)

In my case it will be 2003, because it was installed last on D partition (I do not remember the exact letter),,,and in this case it will writte to C:\boot.ini. Am I right ?

Does that mean the there is no boot.ini file for 2003 (i.e. D:\boot.ini) ?

they use the same boot.ini file , there is only one boot.ini

In my case it will be C:\boot.ini file only within XP OS,,,that means there is no D:\boot.ini file ,,,,Is this what you meant ?

joe5

That should all be correct.

zillah

But If I installed 2003 first on D drive (20 GB), the I installed XP on C drive,,,,then I have to modify D:\boot.ini, because we won't have C:\boot.ini,,,Am I right ?