2 HDD with XP on each?

[Guest]

I have XP, SP-2 working fine on one 160 GB HDD now. I've just installed a new
250 GB drive and want to use a cloning software to provide an incremental
backup of all that is on my 160. Will XP allow me to keep both HD connected
even though both have an identical active primary partition (after I finish
the clone)? Is there a KB that covers this question? I couldn't find it.
Thansk for any help.

 

[M and D]

I see what you're getting at, but I don't think it's a good idea to make incremental backups of a system partition. For a system partition, you want full backups, for maximum safety. FWIW I clone my system partition (with Norton Gost 10) every day to a second hard disk and weekly to DVD.

To answer your question, I think all cloning software uses a proprietary file format, so your computer won't think you have two copies of XP. What you don't want is two active partitions in the same computer. That's a gotcha that sometimes snares people who are upgrading their hard disk.

Steven

 

[Guest]

Thanks.
It seems to boot OK with both HD's installed. Perhaps that's because the
ribbon cable for IDE connection selects the right HD for me? I'm using
XXClone. Have you heard of it?

 

[M and D]

Don't know and haven't heard of it. Happy holidays to us all.

Steven

 

[S. Taylor]

The bios controls the boot sequence.
If the boot sequence contains bothe HDD0 & HDD1 (or similar references),
then bios only checks both if the option for Use Other Boot Devices (label
may vary)
is active.
By defualt your bios is set to check the Floopy drive 1st, HDD0 2nd, CD-Rom
3rd.
So a second os on the secondHDD will only be used if the MBR on the primary
drive
(HDD0) points to it instead of to the os on the primary drive

 

[Anna]

The bios controls the boot sequence.
If the boot sequence contains bothe HDD0 & HDD1 (or similar references),
then bios only checks both if the option for Use Other Boot Devices (label
may vary)
is active.
By defualt your bios is set to check the Floopy drive 1st, HDD0 2nd,
CD-Rom 3rd.
So a second os on the secondHDD will only be used if the MBR on the
primary drive
(HDD0) points to it instead of to the os on the primary drive

Tom:
What S. Taylor is telling you is basically correct but let me flesh it out a
bit so you'll understand this in practical terms...

We're assuming you're working with PATA (non-SATA) hard drives here...

You'll connect your day-to-day working HD (be it the 160 GB drive or the 250
GB drive) as Primary Master. Your secondary drive, the recipient of the
clone, will be either connected as a Slave to your PM or connected anywhere
on your secondary IDE channel. Even though both drives will contain the XP
operating system (and presumably each will be bootable), the system will
ordinarily boot to the Primary Master. There will be no conflict in that
situation merely because both drives contain a bootable OS.

If, for some reason, you wish to boot to the secondary drive (again,
assuming it contains a bootable OS) while the PM is connected, you *may* be
able to do so depending upon whether your motherboard's BIOS provides this
capability. Some do and some don't. If, on the other hand, you disconnect
your PM, the system will (*usually*, but again, not always) boot to the
secondary drive regardless of its position on the IDE channel. I wish to
emphasize that all that I've indicated in this paragraph is dependent upon a
particular motherboard providing the desired capability.
Anna

 

[Dick Cardy]

I have XP, SP-2 working fine on one 160 GB HDD now. I've just installed a new
250 GB drive and want to use a cloning software to provide an incremental
backup of all that is on my 160.

What make is the new HD? If it is Western Digital download their Data
Lifeguard software and use that to copy everything.

Dick

 

[Guest]

The 250 is Maxtor, the 160 is WDigital. I want to make the Maxtor the mostly
used HD and copy the 3 partitions on it to the WDigital. I can do that daily