Hi Joanne,
With an already working Win2000 system, you have the advantage of not
needing to use the manufacturers disks or the Win2000 CD to set up the
drive. Simply boot the existing installation and set-up the drives in Disk
Management.
Right-Click MY Computer>> Manage>> Disk Management.
Right-Click on the new drive, shown in the lower pane, for various options.
Also...
> I can keep my "old" system while I install the "new" one,
> taking my time rather than trying to do it in a day. Perhaps I could
switch off
> every other year creating a new one on the other drive when the old one
got
> corrupted or slow.
My sense is you really don't need to dual-boot.
Seems more like you would benefit by installing your Hard-Drives into
removable cartridges .
(example :
http://www.lianli.com/mobile_racks_p...A-66_racks.htm )
With this, you can relatively easily swap-out hard-drives for maintenance,
back-ups, etc.
(some, not all, are hot-swappable)
Then use a product like Norton Ghost to clone your existing system drive...
if it's running well enough to keep.
Alternatively, swap out the existing/new system drive depending on whether
you're working on setting up the new installation or simply using the
computer for work or play.
This would allow you to keep the 2 OS installations from becoming
intertwined (Dual-boot scenario) and still provide the convenience of
booting to different installations until you're ready to commit to using the
new installation. Then, you can convert the existing system drive to a
Back-up installation drive, by cloning the new installation over the old.
If you decide to go with a new, independent installation, I would strongly
recommend that you separate your important data files onto a separate hard
drive.
Reply for further info, if interested.
Chris
"JoanneW." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...>
I am trying to put a 2nd copy of win 2k on a different hard drive.
> Like you mentioned, there are good reasons to create a dual boot of the
same
> operating system. I can keep my "old" system while I install the "new"
one,
> taking my time rather than trying to do it in a day. Perhaps I could
switch off
> every other year creating a new one on the other drive when the old one
got
> corrupted or slow.
>
>
> "William W. Plummer" wrote:
>
> > "JoanneW." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > I am attempting to install windows 2k on a hard drive in a machine
that
> > > has
> > > already win 2k on the other drive. I want to do this so I can
continue
> > > using my existing
> > > volume while I install the new win 2k on the other drive.
> > >
> > > I formatted and partitioned the drive using the drive manufacturer's
> > > setup floppy.
> > >
> > > However when I attempt to install win 2k, win 2k setup says it needs
to
> > > install some
> > > startup files on the old drive (the one that already has win 2k
> > > installed) and that there is
> > > no win 2k compatible partition on it. It directs me to go back to the
> > > partition selection
> > > screen and create a win 2k compatible partition on that drive.
> > >
> > > Obviously, if I attempt to create a new partition from this screen I
> > > will have to reformat
> > > my existing win 2k drive, which I don t want to do.
> > >
> > > Is there some way around this problem?
> >
> > I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish, but I wanted a second
copy
> > of Win2K just incase the main copy went bad somehow. This would let me
at
> > least boot and dump my precious files out to a CDROM or a different hard
> > disk. So I just booted from the Win2K install disk(s), told it to
install a
> > new copy (i.e., not to repair, not to exit). Instead of the default of
> > C:\WINNT , I told it C:\Win2K . It all goes fine. HOWEVER, you will
have
> > different registries for the two installations and you need to be aware
of
> > that. Look in Documents and Settings and you will see a second set of
> > profiles (all uses, Administrator, default, you, ...). BOOT.INI will
be
> > automatically updated to let you select either system to bring up. I
add
> > /basevideo to my "emergency" system so it doesn't require any fancy
display
> > features that could prevent the system from coming up for rescue
purposes.
> > I suppose you could put the second system in some other partition, but
that
> > won't insulate you from a hard disk crash. Putting it on a different
hard
> > drive makes sense however.
>
>