Dual boot installation

  • Thread starter Thread starter J Lunis
  • Start date Start date
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J Lunis

XP SR2
My system is showing signs of corruption and I would like to reinstall
XP. Did this on my old PC (try to save all needed files, reformat C:\,
and reinstall) but ended up losing some files I needed. This time I
would like to install XP as a dual boot - keep existing XP on drive C:\
and install a fresh XP on drive D:\. I hope, with this setup, I can go
back to the old install and retrieve data. I have printed out a set of
instructions on how to install a dual boot. With this as background, I
have a few questions.
Once I accomplish this, is there an advantage to moving the D:\ XP back
to C:\? If so, what is the easiest way to do this?
Since the existing XP is over 1 1/2 years old, will XP install all
necessary updates to the D:\ copy that have been installed on the c:\ copy?
Any tips that can make this a little more painless?
 
J Lunis said:
XP SR2
My system is showing signs of corruption and I would like to reinstall
XP. Did this on my old PC (try to save all needed files, reformat C:\,
and reinstall) but ended up losing some files I needed. This time I
would like to install XP as a dual boot - keep existing XP on drive C:\
and install a fresh XP on drive D:\. I hope, with this setup, I can go
back to the old install and retrieve data. I have printed out a set of
instructions on how to install a dual boot. With this as background, I
have a few questions.
Once I accomplish this, is there an advantage to moving the D:\ XP back
to C:\? If so, what is the easiest way to do this?
Click to expand...

There is no advantage in moving D:\XP back to C:\ but a slight
drawback: You will cripple the installation on drive C:.
Since the existing XP is over 1 1/2 years old, will XP install all
necessary updates to the D:\ copy that have been installed on the c:\
Click to expand...
copy?

No - why should it? It has no knowledge of what's on drive C:.
Any tips that can make this a little more painless?
Click to expand...

Leave each OS where it is.
 
Pegasus said:
There is no advantage in moving D:\XP back to C:\ but a slight
drawback: You will cripple the installation on drive C:.

copy?

No - why should it? It has no knowledge of what's on drive C:.


Leave each OS where it is.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Let me make sure I worded this correctly.
Since the existing XP is over 1 1/2 years old, will XP install all
Click to expand...
c:\ copy?
Currently, I am alerted to updates to XP through AutoUpdate - usually
security updates. Over the past 18 months I have installed a number of
these (as well as updates to IE, Office, and others). My question was
how to add all necessary updates to the D:\ copy.
BTW, does the D:\ drive have t obe clean? That is, I currently have
some files on D:\. Will XP install to this drive without problems or
must the D:\ drive have no files already existing?
 
Pegasus said:
There is no advantage in moving D:\XP back to C:\ but a slight
drawback: You will cripple the installation on drive C:.

copy?

No - why should it? It has no knowledge of what's on drive C:.


Leave each OS where it is.
Click to expand...
BTW, the MS article I found on this is
"How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP"
Article ID : 306559
Pretty bare bones. Any suggestions on more complete instructions?
 
J Lunis said:
Thanks. Let me make sure I worded this correctly.
c:\ copy?
Currently, I am alerted to updates to XP through AutoUpdate - usually
security updates. Over the past 18 months I have installed a number of
these (as well as updates to IE, Office, and others). My question was
how to add all necessary updates to the D:\ copy.
Click to expand...

You have to let the automatic Windows Update mechanism take care of them.
BTW, does the D:\ drive have t obe clean? That is, I currently have
some files on D:\. Will XP install to this drive without problems or
must the D:\ drive have no files already existing?
Click to expand...

Drive D: does not have to be clean. Just make sure there
is no folder called d:\Windows.
 
I really think you may be making this harder than what it needs to be.
The best solution: buy a new hard drive and either use it to completely
backup your current files or (even better); Install the OS fresh on the new
hard drive using your old one as a backup. This not only solves the problem
of backing up all your files, it will allow you to use the old drive for file
storage.

In short creating dual boot can create more problems than it's worth, using
allot of unnecessary disk space and dragging down the performance of your PC.
A new hardrive (Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM Ultra-ATA) costs less than $50
online and you could be done already.
 
In short creating dual boot can create more problems than it's worth, using
allot of unnecessary disk space and dragging down the performance of your
Click to expand...
PC.

Why should a dual boot system drag down PC performance?
 
Pegasus said:
PC.

Why should a dual boot system drag down PC performance?
Click to expand...
Next problem.
Tried to install XP on my D:\ drive. (Also have E:\;F:\;G:\.)
XP complains it can't install. Specifically, "Your computer start up
program cannot gain access to the disk drive containing the partition or
free disk space." All have far more than enough space for XP. I have
noticed each partition seems to have a different file(?) system - FAT,
FAT32, NTFS?.
Will XP only install on one type of file system?
How do I change a partition from one type to another?
Does it involve reformat (which means lose data)?
 
J Lunis said:
Next problem.
Tried to install XP on my D:\ drive. (Also have E:\;F:\;G:\.)
XP complains it can't install. Specifically, "Your computer start up
program cannot gain access to the disk drive containing the partition or
free disk space." All have far more than enough space for XP. I have
noticed each partition seems to have a different file(?) system - FAT,
FAT32, NTFS?.
Will XP only install on one type of file system?
How do I change a partition from one type to another?
Does it involve reformat (which means lose data)?
Click to expand...

FAT partitions are limited to 2 GBytes. You have to remove/
recreate this partition to turn it into FAT32.

FAT32 partitons can be converted to NTFS with this
command:

convert d: /fs:ntfs
 
Pegasus said:
FAT partitions are limited to 2 GBytes. You have to remove/
recreate this partition to turn it into FAT32.

FAT32 partitons can be converted to NTFS with this
command:

convert d: /fs:ntfs
Click to expand...
Very good. Why won't XP load to either a FAT32 or NTFS partition? Both
have >50g space remaining.
 
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