ScottNOFX said:
I have a computer with two hard drives.
Can I use ghost to create an image of ny C: Drive,
then install that image to the other drive (J: Drive)
Then boot to J: Drive?
Will this cause any issues? It seems like it might.
I want to streamline the J: Drive for games only,
I do not want them on my C: Drive don't want
to load anymore programs than I need for business.
If this is okay and will not cause any issues, how
do I boot to the other Drive?
This is an easy multi-boot scenario since the 2 OSes
will be on separate hard drives. You can either install
XP twice, once on each hard drive while the other hard
drive is disconnected - this will give you 2 XPs, each of
which will call its own partition (while its running) "C:" -
or you can clone one installation to the other hard drive,
again giving you 2 XPs which will call its own partition
"C:". If you install the 2nd XP on the 2nd hard drive
while the 1st hard drive is connected, the 2nd XP will
call its own partition "D:". Either way will not result in
a problem in partition naming as long as there are no
shortcuts which refer to other partitions.
With XPs on 2 separate hard drives, you can select
which hard drive boots by either using software or BIOS
dual-booting. If the 1st hard drive is connected during
installation of the 2nd XP, you can tell the installer to set
up a dual-boot menu to include the other Windows OSes
that it sees in the system, or you can go to the BOOT.INI
tab in the msconfig dialog box and tell it to scan for other
Windows installation, and that will automatically set up
the boot.ini file for dual-booting. Be sure that the XP that
does that is the one on the hard drive that has boot priority
(set in the BIOS) so that its dual-boot menu will be displayed
at startup.
To use the BIOS to dual-boot, enter the BIOS during
startup and set which hard drive has boot priority. That
hard drive will take control during bootup and its "active"
partition will get subsequent control of loading XP according
to the entries in its boot.ini file. As far as the software on
each hard drive is concerned, it will be a single-boot scenario.
If you want to set up the boot.ini file manually (at /boot.in)
to implement software dual-booting, just duplicate the single
entry after the line "[operating systems]" and change its
"rdisk(0)" parameter to "rdisk(1)" to indicate the 2nd hard drive,
and change the contents of the character string (which is
between the pair of double quotes) to whatever you choose
that differentiates the 2 OSes in your mind. This character
string will appear in the dual-boot menu at bootup to help
you to select the OS to load. Remember that it will be the
partition that is marked "active". You can also set the value
of "timeout" in boot.ini that will be the time in seconds that
you will have to select which XP to load. Beyond that span
of time, the XP designated in the "default" line will be loaded.
If you choose the cloning method to make the 2nd installation
of XP, be sure that you disconnect the 1st hard drive (containing
the "parent" XP) before you startup the clone for the *first time*.
That will prevent the clone from confusing its own files with those
of its "parent", and it will establish its own "identity". Thereafter,
the clone may be started at anytime with its "parent" in view of it.
OTOH, the "parent" can be started up even before the clone
has had its first startup, and there will be no problem if the "parent"
sees its new clone.
*TimDaniels*
