Currently got my OS installed on one HDD,
I've got a spare 320GB hard drive lying around, so I thought I'd use it to dual boot with windows XP (32 or 64 bit)
Is it possible to dual boot without having to play about unplugging stuff?
Currently got my OS installed on one HDD,
I've got a spare 320GB hard drive lying around, so I thought I'd use it to dual boot with windows XP (32 or 64 bit)
Is it possible to dual boot without having to play about unplugging stuff?
Yes it will work.
I was thinking of doing the same using the following two OS
Windows XP Home
Suse 10.2
Each on a partition and Im guessing onbootup it'll ask me which drive to boot from right?
Cavalier-X: Biostar TP45-HP ¦ E4600@3.1ghz - Xigmatek Red Scorpion (OCZ Freeze) ¦ OCZ ReaperX 2x2gb (792mhz @ 4-4-4--12) ¦ Xigmatek NRP-MC651 ¦
Palit 8800gt ¦ X-fi Fatal1ty Gamer ¦ Coolermaster Cavalier 3 (Silver/Windowed) ¦
Poseidon Magma: MSI P45 Zilent ¦ E6300@3.0ghz - Coolermaster Hyper 212 (MX-2) ¦ Corsair 2x2gb (880mhz @ 5-5-5-15) ¦ Corsair HX450w ¦
xfx 9600gt Alphadog edition (780/1950/1000) ¦ X-fi Gamer ¦ Gigabyte Poseiden ¦
So I install XP on one HDD and Vista is on another totally seperate HDD.
When It boots will it ask me which OS to boot?
or will I have to play around with a boot manager to get it to work?
Sorry That was my bad!
Sorry to hijack your thread.
(Thanks for the answers though folks)
Cavalier-X: Biostar TP45-HP ¦ E4600@3.1ghz - Xigmatek Red Scorpion (OCZ Freeze) ¦ OCZ ReaperX 2x2gb (792mhz @ 4-4-4--12) ¦ Xigmatek NRP-MC651 ¦
Palit 8800gt ¦ X-fi Fatal1ty Gamer ¦ Coolermaster Cavalier 3 (Silver/Windowed) ¦
Poseidon Magma: MSI P45 Zilent ¦ E6300@3.0ghz - Coolermaster Hyper 212 (MX-2) ¦ Corsair 2x2gb (880mhz @ 5-5-5-15) ¦ Corsair HX450w ¦
xfx 9600gt Alphadog edition (780/1950/1000) ¦ X-fi Gamer ¦ Gigabyte Poseiden ¦
you would have to use a boot manager - what else is going to ask you which OS to boot?
vista includes a functional if slightly fragile boot manager called "BCD". there are a variety of tools to manage it.
just remember that as far as your BIOS is concerned, it boots from the first disk in the system and leaves it at that - your bootloader will need to at least partially live there, which could potentially cause issues in the future if you remove a disk
Can i just recommend Easy BCD Edit, found it much easier to use this than the standard vista program.
TiG
Both vista and xp automatically use their own boot loader unless you change it and use your own. They're perfectly functional and easy to edit.
It's dead easy to set up - just leave your current disk in and install the second OS to the second disk, it'll do everything else for you.
The point about the bootloader going on the first disk is an important one to remember though.
you should not have a problem whatsoever with what you need to be done.
I had XP installed on one drive. Set that drive to slave, the new drive to master, installed linux (Ubuntu) on the new drive. It detected XP during the install and set up the boot manager to allow me 5 seconds to pick which OS (XP being on the slave drive). I've set XP up as the default from the linux bootloader, works fine. If I use the bios / F11 in my case I can set it either permanently or temporarily to boot from the slave (XP) drive. XP doesn't skip a beat and doesn't seem aware that there is another OS presenttypically.
I'd imagine you can do similar with Vista and XP? That way the two OS and their respective bootloaders are on different drives too and won't interfere or overwrite one another?If you need to remove one drive the other will function without a hitch as they are functionally separated.
Hi all! This is my first post - please be patient with me.
I have 2 HDDs - C drive has XP Home istalled and E drive I just save data to.
How do I install XP on my E drive without wiping my data?
I want to do this in case my C drive crashes etc.
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks
Nickd
Last edited by Nickd; 25-05-2007 at 08:41 AM. Reason: mistake
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