Can I install XP Home side by side with locked-out XP Pro?

I have a work computer (Dell laptop) which has XP Pro installed and have a
very restricted user account on same. I do not have any access to the Admin.
account whatsoever and would like to install XP Home (duly licensed) on a
second HDD mounted in the expandable media bay.

I have access to the BIOS and can disable/enable the drives as I wish or
access the one time "boot menu" aka F12. I also found that I have access to
bootcfg via the command prompt. Can I install XP Home with this restricted XP
Pro install if I do so on a second brand new hard drive or will there be
problems? I completed what I thought was a successful install of XP home on a
removeable USB HDD but later heard that XP will not boot from a removeable
drive hence my purchase of the 2nd HDD. If XP Home is not possible, would it
be possible to install WindowsME instead?

Also, how should I set up the new drive so it doesn't conflict with the
internal drive?

Thanks,
Rick

Why don't you talk to your IT department about this?

Bobby

"Rickalders" <Rickalders@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FDA2EA46-5F86-4AB0-9C00-47C856E9375B@microsoft.com...
>I have a work computer (Dell laptop) which has XP Pro installed and have a
> very restricted user account on same. I do not have any access to the
> Admin.
> account whatsoever and would like to install XP Home (duly licensed) on a
> second HDD mounted in the expandable media bay.
>
> I have access to the BIOS and can disable/enable the drives as I wish or
> access the one time "boot menu" aka F12. I also found that I have access
> to
> bootcfg via the command prompt. Can I install XP Home with this restricted
> XP
> Pro install if I do so on a second brand new hard drive or will there be
> problems? I completed what I thought was a successful install of XP home
> on a
> removeable USB HDD but later heard that XP will not boot from a removeable
> drive hence my purchase of the 2nd HDD. If XP Home is not possible, would
> it
> be possible to install WindowsME instead?
>
> Also, how should I set up the new drive so it doesn't conflict with the
> internal drive?
>
> Thanks,
> Rick

If the second drive is a "fully fledged" HDD, seen by the
BIOS during its posting, then you should have no issue
installing XP onto it.
The one "got ya" is that the first HDD will be the system
drive used to load the bootstrapping during start-up, so
if that drive is the pre-existing, then it will end up with a
selection menu (i.e. boot.ini will be edited) so there would
be a tell-tale sign on the existing system. You could of
course keep a copy of this and switch it in and out, exchanging
with the altered version for the dual boot, as needed (this
assumes you have modify permissions on the file).

--
Roger Abell
Microsoft MVP (Windows Server System: Security)
MCSE (W2k3,W2k,Nt4) MCDBA
"Rickalders" <Rickalders@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FDA2EA46-5F86-4AB0-9C00-47C856E9375B@microsoft.com...
> I have a work computer (Dell laptop) which has XP Pro installed and have a
> very restricted user account on same. I do not have any access to the
Admin.
> account whatsoever and would like to install XP Home (duly licensed) on a
> second HDD mounted in the expandable media bay.
>
> I have access to the BIOS and can disable/enable the drives as I wish or
> access the one time "boot menu" aka F12. I also found that I have access
to
> bootcfg via the command prompt. Can I install XP Home with this restricted
XP
> Pro install if I do so on a second brand new hard drive or will there be
> problems? I completed what I thought was a successful install of XP home
on a
> removeable USB HDD but later heard that XP will not boot from a removeable
> drive hence my purchase of the 2nd HDD. If XP Home is not possible, would
it
> be possible to install WindowsME instead?
>
> Also, how should I set up the new drive so it doesn't conflict with the
> internal drive?
>
> Thanks,
> Rick

Thanks Roger,

I actually had the boot selection menu problem when I tried to install on
the USB drive but found a way to recreate the boot.ini file by reconfiguring
the MBR through the command prompt. (Luckily, cause I was starting to worry).
The file is read-only through XP Pro, but for some reason I was able to
remove the read-only property with the command prompt. Anything special I
need to do when I install the 2nd HDD or should I just auto-detect through
BIOS and install Home as usual?

Thanks Again,
Rick
"Roger Abell" wrote:

> If the second drive is a "fully fledged" HDD, seen by the
> BIOS during its posting, then you should have no issue
> installing XP onto it.
> The one "got ya" is that the first HDD will be the system
> drive used to load the bootstrapping during start-up, so
> if that drive is the pre-existing, then it will end up with a
> selection menu (i.e. boot.ini will be edited) so there would
> be a tell-tale sign on the existing system. You could of
> course keep a copy of this and switch it in and out, exchanging
> with the altered version for the dual boot, as needed (this
> assumes you have modify permissions on the file).
>
> --
> Roger Abell
> Microsoft MVP (Windows Server System: Security)
> MCSE (W2k3,W2k,Nt4) MCDBA
> "Rickalders" <Rickalders@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FDA2EA46-5F86-4AB0-9C00-47C856E9375B@microsoft.com...
> > I have a work computer (Dell laptop) which has XP Pro installed and have a
> > very restricted user account on same. I do not have any access to the
> Admin.
> > account whatsoever and would like to install XP Home (duly licensed) on a
> > second HDD mounted in the expandable media bay.
> >
> > I have access to the BIOS and can disable/enable the drives as I wish or
> > access the one time "boot menu" aka F12. I also found that I have access
> to
> > bootcfg via the command prompt. Can I install XP Home with this restricted
> XP
> > Pro install if I do so on a second brand new hard drive or will there be
> > problems? I completed what I thought was a successful install of XP home
> on a
> > removeable USB HDD but later heard that XP will not boot from a removeable
> > drive hence my purchase of the 2nd HDD. If XP Home is not possible, would
> it
> > be possible to install WindowsME instead?
> >
> > Also, how should I set up the new drive so it doesn't conflict with the
> > internal drive?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Rick
>
>
>