Can I/Should I change the drive number?

I copied my Windows XP SP3 to the biger drive and throw out the old lazy and little drive from my system.

I had have some problems but I get help and it works, see for more info: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=274737

After that I installed Windows 7 64 Pro eng on the other drive. I was surprised that I didn't get the usual dual boot menu with Windows 7 and The older Windows...

I check the partition table with Partition Wizard and found out that I have Disc 0 on the drive with data, Disc 1 on the drive with Windows XP and Disc 2 on the drive with Windows7.

When I boot it starts with WindowsXP but I can go to bios boot menu and boot from Disc 2 and I get Windows7

Well I can boot in Windows7 and edit boot with BCDEdit so that I get boot choice on screen I think. If I put the primery boot on Windows7 partition of course.

But my question is should I and can I change the drive numbers so that my first OS Windows7 drive get number 0 and second OS WindowsXP driver gets number 1, or not?

 

Piko71,

The drive numbering is controlled by the mainboard, to change them you will need to physically change the cables on the mainboard.

Since you mentioned that when you select to boot from Disk 2 from the BIOS and Windows 7 boots, then it is safe to say that you can plug it in to Disk 0 and be able to boot correctly.

As you mentioned, you can use EasyBCD from NeoSmart to edit the boot menu for Windows 7, and add XP.

 

Thank you very much!
I suspect that this is the case but hoped it can be changed by software.
There is one problem with changing the cables. The data drive is the old one and is coupled with the flat cable (I think it's name is parallel ATA) and the others are serial ATA.

So may be if I disconnect the data drive and change the cables of WinXP and Win7 I will get it right.
But what if I then connect my data drive again? Will it be Disc 0 again?

And the mayor question is: should I do it? What if I only get the menu (with EasyBCD from NeoSmart, thank you) that point to WinXP on Disc 1 and Win7 on Disc 2?

 

You should be able to set the drive you want to be the default booting drive in the BIOS. For example, if you want the Windows 7 drive to boot by default, set it to be the booting drive in the BIOS.

Changing the ports for the drives may change the order of the SATA drives, but probably not the IDE drive. Some computers will always assign IDE drives first and then SATA drives. As a result, the IDE drives end up with lower numbers.

 

Thank MudCrab for the answer! By the way what the nice Webb side you have!
You wrote:

Yes, I know it and I did it. My computer boots from WinXP as I wish for a while. Later on, when Win7 grown up I will change it For now when I will boot from Win7 I change the boot drive with motherboard software.
I must do it because Win7 didn't find WinXP (Disc 1) and didn't make the alternate boot menu. Win7 hidden Disc 0 instead, which is my data disc, but it is not the issue, I fixed it already.
So my question was if I can leave it this way (WinXP on Disc 1 and Win7 on Disc 2) and make the menu with EasyBCD or if I should change the drive number and then make the menu.
But as you wrote:

I understand that probably my IDE drive always be Disc 0 and it doesn't have sens to try to change it.
Thank you very much indeed!

 

You should be able to do it either way. I haven't used EasyBCD much, but if it can setup the Windows 7 booting files on the XP drive, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Remember, if you do change the order of the drives in the BIOS or make physical changes that affect the drive detection order, the boot.ini file for XP may need updated to point to the correct drive number.

 

Hi, thank you again! I was away for a while but I am back and asking my questions again

I decided not to change drives numbers and make the menu with EasyBCD. I hope it will work.

But I know that, as you wrote:

That I must edit *boot.ini* to start WindowsXP from that menu I did. So I have a problem, my WinXP is on the HD with the Label: Dno and my Win7 on the partition with Label: Win7 but which disc number it is?

It looks different in difrent program I look at it:

In the Partition Wizard (Paragon)
Disk 1 Label Dno Activ Primary
Disk 2 Label Extra Active Primary
Disk 3 Label Win7 Active primary
Label Film None Primary
Disk 4 Label BrfExpansion Active Primary
Disk 5 Label Backup None Primary

In the Recovery USB HD
Disk0
0 Extendet 183.3Gb /dev/hdb1
1 C Logical 183.3Gb /dev/hdb5 (Extra)

Disk1
0 D Primary 232.9Gb /dev/sda1 (Dno)

Disk2
0 E Primary 931.5Gb /dev/sdb1 (BrfExp)

Disk3
0 F Primary 931.5Gb /dev/sdc1 (Backup)

In the WindowsXP Control Panel Disc Menagemant
Disc 0 Label Dno
Disc 1 Label Win7 and Label Film
Disc 2 Label Extra
Disc 3 Label BrfExp.
Disc 5 Label Backup

In the SIW (System Information for Windows)
Disc 0 C: Label Dno ST3250823AS
Disc 1 D: Label Win7 and E: Label Film ST31000528AS
Disc 2 F: Label Extra WDC WD2000JB-00EVA0
Disc 3 J: Label BrfExp. USB ST31000528AS
Disc 4 K: Label Backup WD10EAV-00D7B1

So where is WinXP and Win7?
WinXP Disc 1 and Win7 Disc 3 or
WinXP Disc 0 and no Win7 at all or
WinXP Disc 0 and Win7 Disc 1

Please help if you can...

 

Is XP booting okay now? If so and you're not going to change any drive order, it should already be correct.

Otherwise, with the computer setup to boot the drive you want as the main booting drive, boot to the XP CD and check which number is assigned to the XP drive.

You can also just try different numbers. XP won't boot properly if it's the wrong one.

 

Thank you very much for the answer!

Yes, XP is booting OK, but to boot Win7 I must set up computer to boot from WD2000JB-00EVA0 So I think that Win7 boot is placed on this disc.
As I said before:

I want to change Win7boot with EasyBCD so that I'll can choose which one I want to boot. That's why I wanted to know which numbering is right.

But, as I understand it now, I do not need to bother about it. That is the plan
1. Use EasyBCD to edit Win7 boot to include the WinXP posibility.
2. Set up computer to boot from WD2000JB-00EVA0 default.

What do you think about it?

 

That should work okay. I think you will need to try it and find out the drive number needed for boot.ini. It's really hard to say in which order they will be assigned.

 

Thank you once more time

I will back up my WinXP and Win7 discs and than I'll do it. I will rapport the results here or in the new thread if some problem ocure.

Thank you for the help!

 

Hi
I did as I been told to do.
I get the choice menu as supposed but WindowsXP doesn't start from this menu.
If I change the defoult HD to start with (in Bios) then WindowsXP starts well.

The EasyBCD settings screen is not as it is in the manual.
It seems that my boot (whatever it is) begin at I: then gos to Win7 at C: or to WinXP at D: And it works in the case of Win7 but doesn't in case of WinXP.

It looks like that in EasyBCD.



I wonder if you (MudCrab) or somebody else can instruct the newbie (me) what and how to do to make my Windows XP to start from this menu I got, please!

 

You could try editing the boot.ini file and changing the rdisk(#) to 1 (I assume it's 0 (zero) now).

 

Thank you! You were right but it wasn't enough.
Boot.ini should be in I:
NTDETECT.COM and botmgr as well.
I used EasyBCD 2.02 to do it all.

And now it works at last! Thank you once more time!

 

Yes, Easybcd 2 will create the necessary XP boot files on the system partition and autoconfigure for you.