Installing WinXP onto a second physical drive on the same PC

[aa]

I have two physical hard drives on my PC both are partitioned. I wanted to
make another installation of WinXP into a partition on the other drive. That
partition shows up in Windows Explorer. However when I run Win XP
installation disk from the existiong Windows installation, and it comes to
selecting a partition to install in, none of the partitions on the second
drive is shown.
How do I get round this?

 

[Rich Barry]

What type of WinXP CD do you have? Retail, Upgrade, OEM etc.

 

[aa]

retail.

What type of WinXP CD do you have? Retail, Upgrade, OEM etc.

 

[Rock]

I have two physical hard drives on my PC both are partitioned. I wanted to
make another installation of WinXP into a partition on the other drive. That
partition shows up in Windows Explorer. However when I run Win XP
installation disk from the existiong Windows installation, and it comes to
selecting a partition to install in, none of the partitions on the second
drive is shown.
How do I get round this?

Don't do the install from within windows. Reboot the computer and boot
from the CD itself.

 

[Sam]

I am considering doing the same thing with my computer. However, would
there a problem with having two windows XP installations on the same
computer?? Would there be two "Active" partitions with some conflict or
would there have to be some changes to the second partition and the
boot.ini? This is way out of my knowledge level, so my questions may not be
too accurate?? Thanks, Sam.

 

[Rock]

I am considering doing the same thing with my computer. However, would
there a problem with having two windows XP installations on the same
computer?? Would there be two "Active" partitions with some conflict or
would there have to be some changes to the second partition and the
boot.ini? This is way out of my knowledge level, so my questions may not be
too accurate?? Thanks, Sam.

No problem whatsoever. It's called dual boot or if more than two OS's,
then multiboot. Create a separate partition for the second
installation. Easiest is to make it an extended partition and create a
logical volume in it. Then install to that volume. The primary active
partition where the original OS is will still be the same. The XP boot
loader will handle it, and give you a choice at bootup of which OS to
start.

Do a google search for dual boot for more information.

Lastly, it's not a good idea to divert a thread by asking your own
question (called hijacking a thread). Next time make a new message.

 

[aa]

Thank, but rebooting from CD does not sort the problem out. It still "sees"
only one physical drive

 

[Sam]

Rock, thanks very much for your reply. Sorry for misposting on the original
post. Sam.

 

[Rock]

Rock, thanks very much for your reply. Sorry for misposting on the original
post. Sam.

You're welcome. Good luck.

 

[Andy]

I have two physical hard drives on my PC both are partitioned. I wanted to
make another installation of WinXP into a partition on the other drive. That
partition shows up in Windows Explorer. However when I run Win XP
installation disk from the existiong Windows installation, and it comes to
selecting a partition to install in, none of the partitions on the second
drive is shown.
How do I get round this?

If none of the partitions on the second drive is shown, what exactly
is shown? The correct capacity of the drive? Free space on the drive?
Does Windows setup even recognize the existence of the second drive?

 

[Rock]

Thank, but rebooting from CD does not sort the problem out. It still "sees"
only one physical drive

aa wrote:


to

That

to

second


Don't do the install from within windows. Reboot the computer and boot
from the CD itself.

Is the second drive detected in the BIOS? Is it seen in XP when booting
to the working installation?

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I am considering doing the same thing with my computer. However, would
there a problem with having two windows XP installations on the same
computer?? Would there be two "Active" partitions with some conflict or
would there have to be some changes to the second partition and the
boot.ini? This is way out of my knowledge level, so my questions may not
be too accurate?? Thanks, Sam.

No problem whatsoever. It's called dual boot or if more than two OS's,
then multiboot. Create a separate partition for the second installation.
Easiest is to make it an extended partition and create a logical volume in
it. Then install to that volume. The primary active partition where the
original OS is will still be the same. The XP boot loader will handle it,
and give you a choice at bootup of which OS to start.
[..........]

Why put the 2nd installation in (a Logical Drive) in an Extended partition?
Why not put it into another Primary partition? Right now, and then with the
2nd installation in an Extended partition, the boot files (including the loader)
are in the Primary partition for the 1st installation. If the OP should want to
delete that installation and just use the 2nd installation, he wouldn't be able
to load it because only a Primary partition can contain the boot files. But if
the 2nd installation were in a Primary partition, it would have all the boot
files. To use them, the OP would merely have to mark that Primary partition
the "active" partition (assuming that one drive contains both installations).

If the installations are on different drives, each installation in an "active"
Primary partition with its own boot files, dual-booting can be accomplished
either by the boot-loader via the displayed menu at boot time, or by changing
the boot order of the hard drives in the BIOS.

*TimDaniels*

 

[aa]

Why put the 2nd installation in (a Logical Drive) in an Extended partition?
Why not put it into another Primary partition?

Actually I am installing into a Primary Partition (PP). Moreover, I already
have w2k installed and running on that partition, but I forgot the password
and wnated to reinstall the OS

the boot files (including the loader)
are in the Primary partition for the 1st installation. If the OP should want to
delete that installation and just use the 2nd installation, he wouldn't be able
to load it because only a Primary partition can contain the boot files.

If there are several OS on a HD (i.e. there are several PPs), the boot files
seem to be sitting in the root of the physical drive. So not every PP has
boot files - is this the case?

If the installations are on different drives, each installation in an "active"
Primary partition with its own boot files,

You mean diffierent physical drives, not the logical ones?

When I was originally installing different OS on different physical drives,
I remember selecting the boot drive from BIOS and then loading from DOS
floppy and then running Windoes installation from CD.
I wonder if I can get round this haemorrhoids and install it directly from a
CD?

 

[aa]

Yes, it is seen in BIOS and it is seen from XP running on anotyher physical
drive

 

[aa]

If none of the partitions on the second drive is shown, what exactly
is shown? The correct capacity of the drive? Free space on the drive?
Does Windows setup even recognize the existence of the second drive?

It correctly shows all the partition on one of the physucal drive and tells
nothing about the other physical drive as it is not there

 

[Ron Sommer]

: "Timothy Daniels" <[email protected]> ???????/???????? ? ????????
: ?????????: :
: > Why put the 2nd installation in (a Logical Drive) in an Extended
: partition?
: > Why not put it into another Primary partition?
:
: Actually I am installing into a Primary Partition (PP). Moreover, I
already
: have w2k installed and running on that partition, but I forgot the
password
: and wnated to reinstall the OS
:
:
:
: > the boot files (including the loader)
: > are in the Primary partition for the 1st installation. If the OP should
: want to
: > delete that installation and just use the 2nd installation, he wouldn't
be
: able
: > to load it because only a Primary partition can contain the boot files.
:
: If there are several OS on a HD (i.e. there are several PPs), the boot
files
: seem to be sitting in the root of the physical drive. So not every PP has
: boot files - is this the case?
:

The boot files will be on the active partition, so yes.
:
: > If the installations are on different drives, each installation in an
: "active"
: > Primary partition with its own boot files,
:
: You mean diffierent physical drives, not the logical ones?
:
: When I was originally installing different OS on different physical
drives,
: I remember selecting the boot drive from BIOS and then loading from DOS
: floppy and then running Windoes installation from CD.
: I wonder if I can get round this haemorrhoids and install it directly from
a
: CD?
:
:
Using the CDs for several operating systems, you can install to different
physical drives, however the boot files will all be on the active partition.
If you remove the drive with the boot files, other operating systems will
not be able to boot.

Use the Bios or disconnect drives to install the boot files and the
operating system to the same drive.
You can alter the boot.ini file to boot the other systems.

 

[Andy]

It correctly shows all the partition on one of the physucal drive and tells
nothing about the other physical drive as it is not there

If this second disk has an SATA interface, you may have to load the
SATA driver for the motherboard SATA interface during Windows setup.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

How do I get round this?

AFAIK, XP is set to recongnize the main/boot drive when performing a
setup.

If I were you, I'd make my second drive the boot drive long enough to
do the installation or I'd use a 3rd party program to clone the first
drive to the partition on the second.

Both my "C" and "D" drives are identical in everything but size.