Dual xp boot on 2 HDD

Bucky Badger

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My sister and her kids use the same computer. We bought xp Pro for her and installed it on a seperate Hard drive because she works from home. Her kids play and download on the original HDD. If we wipe the Original HDD (kids stuff)
and go through the recover process, will we still be able to boot into her HDD? Will the MBR get messed up? What is the best thing to do? It would take so long to get the kids strightened out, that it is easier to reinstall. :confused:
 
you would probably have to add the line that points to the other installation into boot.ini. I'm pretty sure that something like that wouldn't get saved, but not 100% sure. don't have 2 hard drives.
 
yes, it will recognize the XP installation on the second hard drive during the install, it will add the correct info to boot.ini
 
j79zlr said:
yes, it will recognize the XP installation on the second hard drive during the install, it will add the correct info to boot.ini

Thx I hate to mess it up.
 
In some cases what will happen is that it will get confused as to which one to boot from. It won't give you and option and will just boot to one. My suggestion if you are going to have daul Hd's with sep Os's is to get triaxis, or get a third Hd and use it as a boot manager ..
 
Why? None of that is necessary?
 
I remember seeing in a TigerDirect catalog a device that allowed you to easily switch between various HD's that had different OS's installed. When you boot the machine, both drives boot at the sime time. You simply click on a button in front of the case to switch between the two HD's. The device supported up to 4 HDs.
 
again why? If you wanted to do that, you could switch the boot order in the Bios, but again why? XP's installation will automatically detect and create it for you, if it doesn't add it to the boot.ini, it is not hard.
 
It was just a suggestion. It's not something you have to do, just a suggestion. In the case of the IDE device, you can have two or more OS's running without having to reboot into the other. Instead, simply hit a switch and your done.
 
I would just do as j79zlr said and xp is usually really good with dual boot systems, unless you have linux on the other one, but if so, then i believe that there is an option to allow it to boot to linux or another OS also.
 
j79zlr said:
yes, it will recognize the XP installation on the second hard drive during the install, it will add the correct info to boot.ini
Worked great, I had a feeling it would but I like to be sure, Thanks again. everyone
 
I think the device Reg was talking about is more for people that want to essentially have seperate "computers" in one box. IE, it only allow the one hdd that you select to be active, the others aren't connected.
 

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