Two installations of Windows XP on the same machine?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Grant Anderson
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G

Grant Anderson

I have two hard drives, and the boot drive (with Windows on) is behaving
unreliably. Is it possible for me to install Windows XP on the other
drive, then choose to boot from there instead (so that if, in the course
of trying to fix the other drive, it goes down permanently I still have
a bootable OS)?

If so, what sort of problems would I face in doing so regarding
migration of registry settings and such? Would they all carry over no
matter which drive I booted off, or would I have to fix it manually?

Cheers,
Grant
 
It would be best if you performed a "Repair Install".

How to Perform a Repair Install of Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­----------------

:

| I have two hard drives, and the boot drive (with Windows on) is behaving
| unreliably. Is it possible for me to install Windows XP on the other
| drive, then choose to boot from there instead (so that if, in the course
| of trying to fix the other drive, it goes down permanently I still have
| a bootable OS)?
|
| If so, what sort of problems would I face in doing so regarding
| migration of registry settings and such? Would they all carry over no
| matter which drive I booted off, or would I have to fix it manually?
|
| Cheers,
| Grant
 
Grant said:
I have two hard drives, and the boot drive (with Windows on) is behaving
unreliably. Is it possible for me to install Windows XP on the other
drive, then choose to boot from there instead (so that if, in the course
of trying to fix the other drive, it goes down permanently I still have
a bootable OS)?

If so, what sort of problems would I face in doing so regarding
migration of registry settings and such? Would they all carry over no
matter which drive I booted off, or would I have to fix it manually?

Cheers,
Grant
Click to expand...

Yes it is certainly possible to have two installations and dual boot XP.
Nothing will get carried over automatically, it will be a clean
installation, so yes all your apps and user profiles and data files will
have to be manually dealt with. Using File and Settings Transfer will
help get some stuff over, but not any applications nor email profiles.

What is going on with the existing installation of XP? We can help you
with that.

Steve N.
 
Steve said:
Yes it is certainly possible to have two installations and dual boot
XP. Nothing will get carried over automatically, it will be a clean
installation, so yes all your apps and user profiles and data files
will have to be manually dealt with. Using File and Settings Transfer
will help get some stuff over, but not any applications nor email
profiles.

What is going on with the existing installation of XP? We can help you
with that.
Click to expand...

It would be nice if you could. I believe there to be something wrong
with the first drive, given that when I attempt to virus check it,
defragment it or even just check it for errors, the computer
occasionally hangs (hard lock, Ctrl-Alt-Del is no help) or more usually
resets itself. The second drive is fine for all three of the above tests.

I tried virus checking directory by directory, and deleted a directory
of files that caused a reset when I tried to check them, but apparently
they weren't the only cause, as the problem's still happening.

At one point, the PC reset and gave the "non-system disk" error, as if
there were no system files on the boot drive, which disturbed me.
Resetting it again, it booted up normally, but I'm losing my trust in
that hard drive.

Cheers,
Grant
 
Grant said:
I have two hard drives, and the boot drive (with Windows on) is behaving
unreliably. Is it possible for me to install Windows XP on the other
drive, then choose to boot from there instead (so that if, in the course
of trying to fix the other drive, it goes down permanently I still have
a bootable OS)?

If so, what sort of problems would I face in doing so regarding
migration of registry settings and such? Would they all carry over no
matter which drive I booted off, or would I have to fix it manually?

Cheers,
Grant
Click to expand...


Yes, it's possible. (Even though this specific article refers to
WinNT, the principle remains the same.)

How and Why to Perform a Parallel Installation of Windows NT 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q259003

A repair installation of WinXP might be another viable option.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP (Q315341)
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341&



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



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safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

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chains and slavery? .... I know not what course others may take, but as
for me, give me liberty, or give me death! -Patrick Henry
 
but first a comment: I had a situation happen just over a year ago in which
I thought the HD might be failing ... and indeed it was, and did fail! Your
situation may be just a virus or corruption of some sort which can be
corrected, and hopefully that is the case.

The questions: if one has HDD S.M.A.R.T. capability in the BIOS should it be
activated?

Can SMART detect a potential HD failure as is being described in the post?

Must one use software to constantly monitor HD condition when using SMART
with XP?

___
 
It will write a log entry to the event log if it thinks it's about to fail. It won't tell you via a message box. Look at your logs once a month and if it ain't there there is no problem.
 
Grant Anderson said:
It would be nice if you could. I believe there to be something wrong with
the first drive, given that when I attempt to virus check it, defragment
it or even just check it for errors, the computer occasionally hangs (hard
lock, Ctrl-Alt-Del is no help) or more usually resets itself. The second
drive is fine for all three of the above tests.

I tried virus checking directory by directory, and deleted a directory of
files that caused a reset when I tried to check them, but apparently they
weren't the only cause, as the problem's still happening.

At one point, the PC reset and gave the "non-system disk" error, as if
there were no system files on the boot drive, which disturbed me.
Resetting it again, it booted up normally, but I'm losing my trust in that
hard drive.

Cheers,
Grant
Click to expand...


Grant:
Although a Repair install of the XP OS at this point in time may be a viable
option as has been recommended by a number of responders to your query, one
of the first things you should do is check out your HD with a diagnostic
utility which will probably be available from the website of the drive's
manufacturer. You should do this without delay. Should the drive prove
defective, you would need to take appropriate steps to copy as much data
from that drive as you deem important to a new HD or removable media.
Anna
 
Grant, a very easy Solution to copy your O/S to another hard drive. First the
hard drive should come with an installation CD,Maxblast 4(Maxtor)Seagate
etc., for Formatting a new drive. Go to Utilities, drive to drive partition
copy and other disk tool's. Click on the tool box icon. At the click Copy a
Partition. in the left box you'll see your old hard drive.Click on it first,
it will highlight. the to the right will show your new hard drive, click on
it or a partition,(if you partition). Click next and the transfer of your
whole O/S will transfer. Including MBR. This takes XP Pro Approx. 20 to 30
minutes. TaDa Your Done. Next to backing up files, I back/up the whole O/S,
as a spare. Hope this helps. WOZ
 
Your TaDa is a little early.
After the transfer, the drives need to be rejumpered to boot to the new
drive.
 
My TaDa is final! Your Old hard drive Becomes your NEW hard drive. If you
want your old hard drive to boot You just activate the drive or with the
drive (disk say Maxtor) you very .....simply.....make a new MBR. It takes 4
seconds. Then make a back up MBR. I prefer the KERNEL 2.6.1. It will boot any
O/S. This Is not ROCKET Science and were not working on Car
batteries.(rejumpered????) Respectfully:W OZ P.S. TaDa!!!!!!!
 
Grant said:
It would be nice if you could. I believe there to be something wrong
with the first drive, given that when I attempt to virus check it,
defragment it or even just check it for errors, the computer
occasionally hangs (hard lock, Ctrl-Alt-Del is no help) or more usually
resets itself. The second drive is fine for all three of the above tests.

I tried virus checking directory by directory, and deleted a directory
of files that caused a reset when I tried to check them, but apparently
they weren't the only cause, as the problem's still happening.

At one point, the PC reset and gave the "non-system disk" error, as if
there were no system files on the boot drive, which disturbed me.
Resetting it again, it booted up normally, but I'm losing my trust in
that hard drive.

Cheers,
Grant
Click to expand...

A repair install will not help a failing drive, so forget about that for
now. As Anna and David suggested, test the drive with the manufacturer's
utility and check the SMART status. This program will make checking the
SMART status eaiser:

http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dlhddhealth.html

Steve N.
 
When you copy files from the old drive to the new drive what happens if some
of the files are damaged?

First, you say copy your O/S.
Then, copy a partition.
Then, whole O/S will transfer.
Then, Including MBR.
Now, you are saying old drive becomes new.

If you are talking about transferring the whole hard drive, then don't talk
about O/S or partitions.

Why can't you add the old O/S to the boot.ini to access the old O/S?
 
Anna said:
Grant:
Although a Repair install of the XP OS at this point in time may be a viable
option as has been recommended by a number of responders to your query, one
of the first things you should do is check out your HD with a diagnostic
utility which will probably be available from the website of the drive's
manufacturer. You should do this without delay. Should the drive prove
defective, you would need to take appropriate steps to copy as much data
from that drive as you deem important to a new HD or removable media.
Anna
Click to expand...
Since the second drive is significantly larger than the first
(problematical) one, I was able to copy almost all the files from the
first to the second - there was one file with an I/O error, but it was
from a game I can just reinstall, and some Windows files were in use and
so didn't copy, but I imagine they'd be obseleted by the new install
anyway.

I then installed Windows XP (Home) on the second drive, which was
successful. After rebooting and selecting it from the boot menu
(slightly confusing, as there were two identical menu choices, and it
took trial and error to determine which was which - is there a way to
customise those entires?) I was presented with a blank canvas. I
installed SP2, then got 38 updates from Windows Update, installed an
anti-virus program and graphics and sound drivers. I'm guessing I'll
have to reinstall some programs - the ones that rely heavily on registry
information and the like - I'm thinking of Office in particular here,
but probably also a few others.

If the first drive fails, will I still be able to boot off the second?
Where's the information about which OSes are installed where stored?
And if there are physical problems with the drive, is there a program
that can mark bad sectors as unusable? Or should I just refrain from
using that drive from now on - do drives deteriorate, or will it be just
a certain few sectors that are bad? The drive's about three years old,
(80Gb, can't remember the manufacturer offhand) and I wasn't expecting
it to die of old age quite so soon, so I'm hoping there's just some
small areas that are troublesome.

Cheers,
Grant
 
Grant said:
Since the second drive is significantly larger than the first
(problematical) one, I was able to copy almost all the files from the
first to the second - there was one file with an I/O error, but it was
from a game I can just reinstall, and some Windows files were in use and
so didn't copy, but I imagine they'd be obseleted by the new install
anyway.
I then installed Windows XP (Home) on the second drive, which was
successful. After rebooting and selecting it from the boot menu
(slightly confusing, as there were two identical menu choices, and it
took trial and error to determine which was which - is there a way to
customise those entires?) I was presented with a blank canvas. I
installed SP2, then got 38 updates from Windows Update, installed an
anti-virus program and graphics and sound drivers. I'm guessing I'll
have to reinstall some programs - the ones that rely heavily on registry
information and the like - I'm thinking of Office in particular here,
but probably also a few others.

If the first drive fails, will I still be able to boot off the second?
Click to expand...

No, not without replacing the drive and installing XP on it.
Where's the information about which OSes are installed where stored?
Click to expand...

On the first drive, ntdetect.com, ntldr and boot.ini.
And if there are physical problems with the drive, is there a program
that can mark bad sectors as unusable?
Click to expand...

Yes, the manufacturer's diag's and chkdsk /r can both do this.
Or should I just refrain from
using that drive from now on - do drives deteriorate, or will it be just
a certain few sectors that are bad? The drive's about three years old,
(80Gb, can't remember the manufacturer offhand) and I wasn't expecting
it to die of old age quite so soon, so I'm hoping there's just some
small areas that are troublesome.

Cheers,
Grant
Click to expand...

Drives used to last upwards of 5 years but over the last few years drive
life span generally has decreased to around 3 years.

Test the drive as suggested. Replace it if necessary. Once bad sectors
start developing the drive usually is on the way out.

Assuming you've already got XP installed on the newer drive, if it was
me I'd swap the drives aroung making the newer drive C:, boot into
Recovery Console from an XP CD and run fixboot then install all your
apps on it. Keep the old drive as slave and test it regularly. This way
if the old drive does fail you're covered.

Steve N.
 
Steve said:
Drives used to last upwards of 5 years but over the last few years
drive life span generally has decreased to around 3 years.

Test the drive as suggested. Replace it if necessary. Once bad sectors
start developing the drive usually is on the way out.

Assuming you've already got XP installed on the newer drive, if it was
me I'd swap the drives aroung making the newer drive C:, boot into
Recovery Console from an XP CD and run fixboot then install all your
apps on it. Keep the old drive as slave and test it regularly. This
way if the old drive does fail you're covered.
Click to expand...

Sounds reasonable. Is swapping the drives around a hardware thing? Or
can I do it without opening the case up?

Cheers,
Grant
 
Steve said:
Drives used to last upwards of 5 years but over the last few years
drive life span generally has decreased to around 3 years.

Test the drive as suggested. Replace it if necessary. Once bad sectors
start developing the drive usually is on the way out.

Assuming you've already got XP installed on the newer drive, if it was
me I'd swap the drives aroung making the newer drive C:, boot into
Recovery Console from an XP CD and run fixboot then install all your
apps on it. Keep the old drive as slave and test it regularly. This
way if the old drive does fail you're covered.
Click to expand...

Sorry to double post - the thought just occured to me that with Windows
installed on both, it should be simple enough to just tell it to make
the second drive the system drive, rather than the first. Is that what
fixboot does? Or can I just copy the ntdetect/ntldr/boot.ini files
that you mention above over to the new drive?

Steve N.
 
Grant Anderson said:
the thought just occured to me that with Windows
installed on both, it should be simple enough to just tell it to make
the second drive the system drive, rather than the first. Is that what
fixboot does? Or can I just copy the ntdetect/ntldr/boot.ini files
that you mention above over to the new drive?
Click to expand...

You can do the latter (if they're not already there). Then, if you
go into your BIOS and switch the hard drive boot order to place
the 2nd hard drive at the head of the list (ahead of the currently
booting hard drive), the 2nd HD should boot up when you start
the PC. Otherwise, you can physically switch the HDs, also
switching the jumpering if you're not using Cable Select, and
the now 2nd HD will become the boot drive.

All this assumes that the OSes are on different physical HDs
and that the OS's partition is numbered the same on both HDs.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy said:
You can do the latter (if they're not already there). Then, if you
go into your BIOS and switch the hard drive boot order to place
the 2nd hard drive at the head of the list (ahead of the currently
booting hard drive), the 2nd HD should boot up when you start
the PC. Otherwise, you can physically switch the HDs, also
switching the jumpering if you're not using Cable Select, and
the now 2nd HD will become the boot drive.

All this assumes that the OSes are on different physical HDs
and that the OS's partition is numbered the same on both HDs.
Click to expand...

After I've done this, will Windows still label the first drive the
system drive?

My aim is to remove any reliance Windows may have on the first drive,
because I don't trust it at the moment.

Cheers,
Grant
 
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