Dual Boot

[Guest]

Please excuse me if this isn’t the right forum to ask this question, but here
goes. I have two hard drives on my computer. The original one, 80 GB, came
with Windows XP home installed. I later installed a 120 GB hard drive to
backup my files to. What I want to know is this: Is there a way to make both
of my hard drives bootable so I can have two Windows XP Home operating
systems on the same computer. I understand that this is legal. If it is, I
would need step by step instructions on how to do this. I am moderately
computer literate! I really appreciate any help I can get on this subject!

P.S. If this isn’t the right forum, could you please direct me to where I
can get this information? Thank You.
GusGus

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

This is the right forum. First, WHY do you want to do this? I do it all the
time, but I have good reasons, like setting up test installations to
experiment with, or setting up other operating systems. What's your reason?

 

[Guest]

Not exatly sure as to why you would want to do this either; however,
microsoft has an article in their database that explains how to do it fairly
well.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

The following line would let the windows bootloader know that this OS
exsists in the system.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
/fastdetect

The count starts from zero on the disks and from one on the partitions.
Fastdetect, if I recall correctly, tells the bootloader to assume that the OS
is there and not to scan for it. This could cause the computer to freeze if
no OS is there. I think that you would modify the "disk" to 1 to use the
second disk, but this all depends on your setup. Feel free to add and play
with the second line but don't change the exsiting OS line or you won't be
able to boot at all.

Be sure and add a timeout and as always backup the original.

 

[Ken Blake]

Please excuse me if this isn't the right forum to ask this question, but
here
goes. I have two hard drives on my computer. The original one, 80 GB, came
with Windows XP home installed. I later installed a 120 GB hard drive to
backup my files to. What I want to know is this: Is there a way to make
both
of my hard drives bootable so I can have two Windows XP Home operating
systems on the same computer. I understand that this is legal.

If you mean doing this with a single license, no it's *not legal. It would
be a violation of the terms of the license agreement.

Moreover, why do you *want* to do this? Unless you have some special need,
there's really no advantage to doing it.

One more comment. Backup to a second drive internally mounted in the
computer is the about the weakest form of backup there is. I don't
recommend backup to a second non-removable hard drive because it leaves you
susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the
most common dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus
attacks, even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept in
the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the life of
your business depends on your data) you should have multiple generations of
backup, and at least one of those generations should be stored off-site.