Dual XP Boot??

[tom9042]

My wife is not too happy that she's not an administrator, so now we both are administrators. Some of my software conflicts with what she does. I notice that if I make Outlook my default email, it changes her default from OE. All in all, I need to either have two separate sets of programs or to set her up on a second HD with her own boot. Can someone tell me if there is a simpler way or is the dual boot a reasonable solution???

I have enjoyed the knowledgeable people who respond to questions in XP-erience forums. This is my first post.

 

[djwhite]

I've never tried a dual boot with 2 instances of the same OS, spose it would work though.

 

[lieb39]

Easy to do

Very easy to do,

All you have to do is use another hard drive or another partition. (Search google for infomation on this)
Than just pop in XP CD when you have your other XP running, and somewhere BEFORE you copy the files there is a advanced button, click it and it will say some like "Choose partition to install to", select it and the rest is just reading the dialogs and filling out the infomation. One word of advice, MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL TO ANOTHER PARTITION OR HDD! Or else you are going to have LOTS of problems.

-Dan

 

[tom9042]

Thanks for your posts. I'll try it tomorrow.

 

[tom9042]

Just wanted to let those interested that following lieb39's instructions, I am able to dual boot with XP Professional on both
partitions. The only small problem is that the first screen gives two boot options and they're both the same. The newer installation, on by D:\ drive was the first of the two options.

Thanks Dan for your help!

 

[NetRyder]

You can change the names of the operating systems in the boot menu. Make sure you can see hidden files and look for the file boot.ini in your C:\ or D:\

Just change the name, save the file and you're good to go

 

[dreamliner77]

My idea for added security:


get 2 hard drives and a 5.25" Removable IDE drive bay (and an extra drive sleeve).

Now put one drive in, format and set up XP. This is your harddrive. When you are done, just pull it out.

Now do the same thing with the other drive. This is your wife's drive.

A totally seperate, secure solution.

 

[spikemic]

have done both ways for testing setups......

dual boot , drop in disk point to second partition and load again. - best to reload any needed programs ( office for instance , etc. ) to each OS load rather then try to share them between partitions.
then you have two complete setups and you choose which on boot up.

the drawers can be an even better way load first setup/disk way you want it then shut down and swap drives and do all over again for second. then you have two completely separate computers (in theory even though sharing hardware) and you could never accidentally mess up the others.

have fun