Can I run two versions of XP on two different drives with two separate boots?

  • Thread starter Thread starter David D
  • Start date Start date
D

David D

If I have two drives with XP on each of them (not partitions, whole
drives with XP on each). Can I have a boot sequence that will let me
select which drive/XP to boot? Is there a program that will allow this?
 
Hi David,

Yes, and this one can do it, as can most boot managers: BootIT NG from
terabyteunlimited.com

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Ok, reading over the info on Bootit NG. Now, am I correct in assuming
I need to install bootit on each harddrive that I want to run? Do I
just have to install it on the Master hard drive and it will find the
rest?
 
Hi,

You only need to install it on one drive, you can then set up separate boot
entries for each installation regardless of which drive they are on (as long
as the drive is seen by the BIOS, BootIT will see it as well).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Rick said:
Hi,

You only need to install it on one drive, you can then set up separate boot
entries for each installation regardless of which drive they are on (as long
as the drive is seen by the BIOS, BootIT will see it as well).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Click to expand...

WEll, I don;'t know how I did it, but I took the 80gig drive with XP on
it and installed XP on it again in the new computer - so here is the
problem :

Instead of it 'upgrading' my XP, it told me that it would delete all of
my existing windows data unless I gave it a new file name. I called it
Winxp. Fine enough. Now, it boots fine - and even formatted my 320gig
SATA drive, but the problem is all of my OLD windows XP stuff won't
work anymore. It is still there, and listed under WINDOWS, but the
computer boots from WINXP instead ( the file name I called it). So I
thought this might not be the end of the world because of Bootit NG.
So I tried to run BOOTit NG and found out that it doesn't find the two
OS's on the system, just the one.
So my new question is whether I can salvage and run either OS - the old
c:/Windows AND/OR the new c:\WinXP OS?
Is there another program like Partition magic that might be better at
this?
 
Seagate's diskwizard lets you copy a drive to your new 320 drive then
you can get an a b switch... and use both on the same computer... if
you can fix your first try... I always used Ghost Drive Image... and
unplugged one drive and plugged in the other drive and this way I
always had 2 C drives.... and kept the cover off the computer most of
the time... grin.

http://www.electricwindmillcar.com/
Greg's End War on Earth web page.
http://www.inventor-warp-speed.com/
 
:
: Rick Rogers wrote:
: > Hi,
: >
: > You only need to install it on one drive, you can then set up separate
boot
: > entries for each installation regardless of which drive they are on (as
long
: > as the drive is seen by the BIOS, BootIT will see it as well).
: >
: > --
: > Best of Luck,
: >
: > Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
: >
: > Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
: >
:
: WEll, I don;'t know how I did it, but I took the 80gig drive with XP on
: it and installed XP on it again in the new computer - so here is the
: problem :
:
: Instead of it 'upgrading' my XP, it told me that it would delete all of
: my existing windows data unless I gave it a new file name. I called it
: Winxp. Fine enough. Now, it boots fine - and even formatted my 320gig
: SATA drive, but the problem is all of my OLD windows XP stuff won't
: work anymore. It is still there, and listed under WINDOWS, but the
: computer boots from WINXP instead ( the file name I called it). So I
: thought this might not be the end of the world because of Bootit NG.
: So I tried to run BOOTit NG and found out that it doesn't find the two
: OS's on the system, just the one.
: So my new question is whether I can salvage and run either OS - the old
: c:/Windows AND/OR the new c:\WinXP OS?
: Is there another program like Partition magic that might be better at
: this?
:

This is a confusing thread.
You have XP on two separate drives.
You want to boot to XP on either drive.
Why didn't you modify the boot.ini file on the first boot drive?

Did the XP install on the second drive come from another computer?
Is that why you were trying to upgrade XP?
You should have done a repair install.
What you did was create a new Registry, so all of your old programs will
have to be reinstalled.

You said the 320gig drive was formatted.
Did it have XP on it before the format?
You should disconnect other drives when installing XP.
What you have now is one installation of XP. Correct?
 
This is a confusing thread.
You have XP on two separate drives.
You want to boot to XP on either drive.
Why didn't you modify the boot.ini file on the first boot drive?

Did the XP install on the second drive come from another computer?
Is that why you were trying to upgrade XP?
You should have done a repair install.
What you did was create a new Registry, so all of your old programs will
have to be reinstalled.

You said the 320gig drive was formatted.
Did it have XP on it before the format?
You should disconnect other drives when installing XP.
What you have now is one installation of XP. Correct?
Click to expand...

It has been a long, confusing road for me as well.
Here is the situation as clear as I can make it (sorry about the
confusion).

I have a 80gig drive with parallel installations of WinXP on it - I
didn't want that, but alas it has happened.
I have a SATA drive that has nothing on it.

The 80gig drive (old) came from another computer with XP already on it.
It was a nightmare trying to get it to work with the new computer.
Repair install was one of the options I tried when I ported the OLD
drive to the new computer and it didn't seem to work.

So, now, I have parallel installations of XP on my computer's 80gig
drive one called WinXP and the other called WINDOWS. (again the SATA
drive is completely clean with nothing on it).
- Do you think I can simply copy the contents of WinXP or Windows to
the SATA drive and it will enable me to have dual boots?
 
: >
: > This is a confusing thread.
: > You have XP on two separate drives.
: > You want to boot to XP on either drive.
: > Why didn't you modify the boot.ini file on the first boot drive?
: >
: > Did the XP install on the second drive come from another computer?
: > Is that why you were trying to upgrade XP?
: > You should have done a repair install.
: > What you did was create a new Registry, so all of your old programs will
: > have to be reinstalled.
: >
: > You said the 320gig drive was formatted.
: > Did it have XP on it before the format?
: > You should disconnect other drives when installing XP.
: > What you have now is one installation of XP. Correct?
: > --
: > Ron Sommer
:
: It has been a long, confusing road for me as well.
: Here is the situation as clear as I can make it (sorry about the
: confusion).
:
: I have a 80gig drive with parallel installations of WinXP on it - I
: didn't want that, but alas it has happened.
: I have a SATA drive that has nothing on it.
:
: The 80gig drive (old) came from another computer with XP already on it.
: It was a nightmare trying to get it to work with the new computer.
: Repair install was one of the options I tried when I ported the OLD
: drive to the new computer and it didn't seem to work.
:
: So, now, I have parallel installations of XP on my computer's 80gig
: drive one called WinXP and the other called WINDOWS. (again the SATA
: drive is completely clean with nothing on it).
: - Do you think I can simply copy the contents of WinXP or Windows to
: the SATA drive and it will enable me to have dual boots?
:

The Windows folder no longer has a Registry to go with it.
It is basically a useless folder.
The old Registry was overwritten by the new Registry.
You can copy the WinXP boot and system files to the SATA drive, but you
would be better off to do a clean install to the SATA drive. This will
require activation.
 
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