Dual boot XP/XP Question

[Peter]

I have two (legit) copies of XP Pro and am about to install the second one
on a separate partition. I'll use the second installation for testing
stuff.
Having never done this before do I have to reinstall all the software I have
on the first partition again?
I've already got the partitioning/booting questions sorted out by the way.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yes, you do. Consider it a new installation.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I have two (legit) copies of XP Pro and am about to install the second one
| on a separate partition. I'll use the second installation for testing
| stuff.
| Having never done this before do I have to reinstall all the software I
have
| on the first partition again?
| I've already got the partitioning/booting questions sorted out by the way.
|
| --
| Peter
| Toronto, Canada
| XP Pro SP2
| P4 @ 3.0ghz, 2.0gb DDR, 360gb HD
|
|

 

[Peter]

Thanks Dave. I guess anything I have installed that isn't "OEM" (which my
MS Works unfortunately is) should be installed on the new partition.
I figured this was the case but wasn't sure.
My McAfee A/V and FW may not be allowed twice either....hmmmm!! <thinking
cap now on>.

 

[jimbo]

I have two (legit) copies of XP Pro and am about to install the second one
on a separate partition. I'll use the second installation for testing
stuff.
Having never done this before do I have to reinstall all the software I have
on the first partition again?
I've already got the partitioning/booting questions sorted out by the way.

I think you could clone your existing WinXP installation to the new
partition using Drive image or Norton Ghost. Then you could do a
repair installation to that partition using your second copy of WinXP.

Good luck, jimbo

 

[Peter]

Never tried that before either...but it's a thought.

 

[Guest]

Forgive me for mentioning this on a Microsoft board but after all of the
trouble I have running more than one Microsoft OS on the same computer and
different hard drives much less partitions I recently learned that it is
possible to install Linux as a host for virtual copies of Windows for testing
purposes. My understanding is that if you use Linux as the host then after a
major Windows crash you only have to reload the an image which only takes
about 10 seconds compared to what you have to do if you reload Windows from
scratch.

 

[Peter]

Thanks for the suggestion. I find after a crash that it's best in the long
run to format/reinstall, but then that's only my opinion.

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
XP Pro SP2
P4 @ 3.0ghz, 2.0gb DDR, 360gb HD
"(e-mail address removed)"

 

[jimbo]

Thanks for the suggestion. I find after a crash that it's best in the long
run to format/reinstall, but then that's only my opinion.

Have you considered MS Virtual PC? You can install an OS in a virtual
PC and experiment to your hearts content. If anything goes wrong, just
delete two files and start over. VPC runs as a WinXP application. I
have run several Linux distros, Win98, a couple of DOS versions and
WinXP as OSs on a virtual PC. Everything looks like a real PC running
the OS. I have noticed that performance as measured by Internet
download speed is about 2/3 that of an OS running on a real PC.

Good luck, jimbo

 

[Peter]

I'll take a look at it.