freightgod

OK, my setup right now:

C: NTFS primary partion with Windows XP Pro and apps
D: NTFS partition for data
H: NTFS primary partition (empty at the moment)

I plan on doing a second XP install to H: partition this weekend.

Questions for after I'm done:

1) When I boot into H: will it the appear as my C: drive?

2) If I'm running the H: XP install, can I delete or reformat the C: partition without problems? In other words, can I move back to a single install and pick which one I want to keep?

3) Can I do a third, fourth, etc. install as long as I have space?

4) Can a second (or 3rd, if allowed) install be done by restoring a Ghost image of my present C: partition to a different (primary) partition and setting it as the active partition?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

yoyo

1) No

2) No, the C: partition holds the boot files boot.ini, ntldr etc

3) Yes

4) Not sure, don't think so

perris

also, you can share your pagefile among the lot of these installs to save space

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freightgod

Darn. It usually takes me ages to tweak a clean install back to where I like it; I was hoping to be able to take my time doing it while living with my present install for a while, then wiping it. Looks like that won't work, though. Bummer.

I guess I need to find out if I can restore a ghost image of my second XP install to an empty hard drive. But it wouldn't contain boot files, would it? So I guess it wouldn't work. Oh poo.

ming

ahhh.. Get HyperOS if you want to save time.
It allows you to create mirror images of an existing set-up so that you can fiddle about with the new one to see if whatever you install if running the way you want it to. In addition, using a separate OS to run non-essential software will allow your OS to run more efficiently (does not slow down as much).
I've got HyperOS, but I have to say that it's not worth the money if you're not going to use it to its full potential.

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freightgod

Thanks, ming, looks like a great program. But $298.50!!!! Yikes!

"HyperOs swaps systems without multibooting. It runs all Windows systems and Linux systems from logical partitions. Only your C: drive is primary and bootable."

So my real problem would remain anyway, which is to eventually get rid of my current C: partition.

coathanger007

Mate, backup everything and do a clean install. It's not as hard as you think - mind over matter. I've just completed my clean install on a my super tweaked RAID dual booting system.

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freightgod

I know, I know, I've done it DOZENS of times, just ain't got the testes for it right now.

coathanger007

Deeps breaths, flex mental muscles, then throw yourself into the deep end

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