Timothy Daniels

"John Barnes" wrote:
> Open the boot.ini file with notepad. Look at the entry, particularly
> in the default position and see if it matches where XP is. rdisk is
> numbered 0,1,2 etc and partitions 1,2,3 etc. I'm not on my dual
> boot computer now, so I can't copy a line here, but partition is
> pretty easy as you can look in disk management and see which partition it is
> on, the rdisk usually corresponds with that in disk management. Don't know if
> you have more than one drive, anyway.


"rdisk(x)" corresponds to the Hard Drive Boot Order in the BIOS.
This may be called by various names in different BIOSes, but it
is the boot priority for the HDs (and *just* the HDs). The *default*
HD Boot Order for PATA HDs is:
Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch. 0.
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In such a boot order, the HD jumpered as Master on IDE ch. 0
will be "rdisk0)" and it will get control at startup. But that boot
order can be changed manually in the BIOS by the user. And
the HD at the head of the list will be "rdisk(0)", and *that* HD
will get control.

In the HD location paths in the boot.ini file, "rdisk(1)" refers to
the HD next in the HD Boot Priority, and "rdisk(2)" refers to the
next HD in the HD Boot Priority, etc.

The numbering for SATA drives follows the no. of the SATA
port to which the SATA HD is connected. For motherboards
which have both PATA and SATA HD controllers, usually one
numbering system follows the other.

To avoid further futzing around by the Original Poster (unless he
has time for experimentation), I suggest that he simply re-install
Vista while keeping the XP installation visible to the Vista installer,
and the Vista installer will set up the dual-boot parameters
automatically.

*TimDaniels*