Dual-boot possibilities w/ XP

[Sirgen]

My original 40 GB hard drive, running Windows XP, is full. I added a 400 GB
HD in the slave position and installed another Windows XP. Unfortunately, all
of my programs are on the original HD and the setup discs to several programs
are missing, so I can't transfer them to the new HD. Any way to switch back
and forth between the two drives, or choose which HD to start with, without
having to go into the BIOS each time, or pull one or the other HD from the
computer? Each HD works just fine when it is the only drive installed.

 

[db.·.. >]

perhaps if you really need
those programs, then what
you might try is to first backup
that c drive onto a separate
partition.

( i would use a program
like drive image xml which
has proven to work for
backing up the system.)

then connect your new drive
as the master and the old
one as the slave.

then do a repair windows or
even reinstall windows on that
slave drive so the computer
can boot up with it.

then from the slave drive
restore the images/backup
to the larger drive which
is now the master disk -
c drive.

afterwards, i would again
utilize the windows cd to
repair windows on the c
drive to synchronize the
new file system and create
a mbr and a new dual boot
menu.

the above methodology is
due to the fact that all your
programs are set to run from
the c drive.
---------

on the other hand, it might
be simply easier to relocate
your "my documents" from
its current location (c drive)
and onto your new drive.

in doing so, the c drive will
gain more space.

the above can be done with
a few clicks of the mouse whereas
the method of switching around disks,
making images, reinstalling the o.s.'s
and reactivations is somewhat involved.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

 

[Guest]

My original 40 GB hard drive, running Windows XP, is full. I added a 400 GB
HD in the slave position and installed another Windows XP. Unfortunately, all
of my programs are on the original HD and the setup discs to several programs
are missing, so I can't transfer them to the new HD. Any way to switch back
and forth between the two drives, or choose which HD to start with, without
having to go into the BIOS each time, or pull one or the other HD from the
computer? Each HD works just fine when it is the only drive installed.

Unfortunately, all

of my programs are on the original HD

Each HD works just fine when it is the only drive installed

The two statements appear to conflict.

What problem are you trying to solve?
Disk full?
NEED dual boot?


If you don't really NEED dual boot, make the slave drive
Drive D:
Move your mp3 files and other big stuff to D: to free up space
on C:
If you have huge programs like MS Streets and Trips, you can
uninstall/reinstall onto D: to free up a bunch of space.
You can move your swap file to D:
Ditto for hibernation file if you have one.

Put your mp3's, movies, pictures, downloads on D:

This has a significant advantage that you only have to back up the
C: drive. Much easier than trying to keep a 400GB disk (of
non-operating-system stuff
that's backed up elsewhere anyway) backed up every week.

My XP C: drive is 8GB. The weekly backup image will easily fit on
one DVDRW. Everything not absolutely operating system or otherwise
required to be on C: to function correctly is on D:.

Or you can use a partition imaging program to move the whole 40gb contents
to the new drive as described elsewhere in this thread.
I'd still recommend you keep your new C: partition as small
as is practical for your use.

 

[Sirgen]

Both replies suggest keeping the original C: drive as the master, free it up
of "my documents" and other large caches of data, and use the larger HD in
the slave position as the non-system/program place to store the data. I will
most definitely give it a try since it seems far less complicated.
The advantage of using the new 400 GB HD as the boot drive was that the old
C: drive had so much "junk" on it, but I didn't know what could be deleted.
I'm sure there is a lot of redundant, unnecessary, and obsolete stuff that
could/should be removed, hence the interest in starting fresh with the new HD
in the master position. Oh well.
Thanks for the replies.

 

[Sirgen]

Please explain further "to synchronize the new file system and create an
?mbr? and a dual boot menu". I thought XP could not use a dual boot system
with another XP.

 

[Andy]

Both replies suggest keeping the original C: drive as the master, free it up
of "my documents" and other large caches of data, and use the larger HD in
the slave position as the non-system/program place to store the data. I will
most definitely give it a try since it seems far less complicated.
The advantage of using the new 400 GB HD as the boot drive was that the old
C: drive had so much "junk" on it, but I didn't know what could be deleted.
I'm sure there is a lot of redundant, unnecessary, and obsolete stuff that
could/should be removed, hence the interest in starting fresh with the new HD
in the master position. Oh well.
Thanks for the replies.

Connect the 400GB drive as master, the 40GB drive as slave.
Boot from the 400GB drive, and add and entry for the 40GB drive to
boot.ini (right click My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab >
Startup and Recovery > Edit boot.ini). Duplicate the existing line
under [operating systems], changing rdisk(0) to rdisk(1).

 

[John John (MVP)]

He doesn't know what he is talking about, ignore his advice.

John

 

[John John (MVP)]

The solution to your problem is to clone the old 40GB drive to the 400GB
one, then remove the old 40GB drive and boot the computer with only the
new drive installed. Once you are assured that the new drive is booting
up properly and that all is working ok you can slave the old 40GB drive
if you want to. This is what almost everybody does when they replace a
small overflowing Windows drive with a new bigger one. It is important
that you remove the old drive after the cloning job and that it not be
connected when you attempt to boot the cloned drive for the first time
with the new drive.

John

 

[Norman]

Sound advice usually. That is, most who use this method do it because the
new drive is better in some way. Newer drives are presumably faster and that
is likely making the jump from 40GB. But not always true and sometimes does
not matter if the MOBO is not able to interface at the faster speed.
Questions to consider:
Is the rotational speed of the new drive faster than the old drive?
Is the ATA interface of the new drive as fast or faster than the old drive,
ATA66, ATA100, ATA133 (presuming it is PATA)?
Or is it SATA?
And, what is the fastest the MOBO can handle? Drive can not work faster than
the MOBO capability.

If there are speed advantages with the new drive, then you might want it as
the master.
If there are no speed advantages, then you might want the new drive as the
slave because of storage capacity.
And if low on space on C:, then some programs could be installed to the
larger drive.

Also the current install has already seen the new drive. Will it need
deleting from registry key before proceeding with HDD manufacturer copy
utility?

 

[db.·.. >]

if you are switching drives
around and making a slave
drive into a master, then the
d:\windows on it will have to be
resyn'd to make it as the
c:\windows and vice versa
with the original c:\windows

however, it is funny that
when you installed windows
onto your new slave drive,
a dual boot menu with the
option to initialize the o.s.
on the c or on the d was
not provided.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

 

[John John (MVP)]

All of that is pretty well irrelevant, ATA/PATA standards are all
backward compatible and almost all new PATA drives work on older ATA/66,
the drive transfer speeds will automatically slow down to match the old
controller/bus speed. If the old controller has difficultly working
with the new drive the drive manufacturer usually has a "toggle" utility
available that can be used to manually set the drive to ATA/33 or
ATA/66. In any case the OP has already stated that the drive works
properly in his computer so there is no need to bother with ATA
compatibility at this point, either the drive works or it doesn't.

As for the new drive already containing a new install that is not a
problem of any kind. The disk and cloning utilities available from the
disk manufacturer will wipe the drive when it is cloned, and if it can't
the disk utility can be be used to wipe it before you do the cloning job.

John

 

[db.·.. >]

as the matter of fact
if you boot up with
windows cd and log
into the repair/recovery
console, the command
to run would be:

bootcfg /rebuild

the above will scan
the system for all the
o.s.'s installed then give
you the option to provide
a line number and name
for the menu it will build.

then "exit".

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

 

[John John (MVP)]

More utter nonsense.

John

John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My original 40 GB hard drive, running Windows XP, is full. I added a 400 GB
HD in the slave position

OK.


and installed another Windows XP.

But why did you do that? Why do you need to dual boot?

If I were in your shoes, I would simply have installed you new drive
as a slave and keep the single copy of Windows on the 40GB drive. I
would then ease the fullness of the 40GB drive, but moving as much as
possible (not installed programs) to the new drive.

Alternatively, you could clone the small drive to the bigger one, and
then use the bigger one, either alone or with the 40GB drive's
contents deleted, as an extra drive.



Unfortunately, all