Dual booting XP

Joe42

Joe42

Joe42

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Ok, i have two drives, one with xp and programs on it, one with games on it.
I want to put a 2nd copy of xp onto the second disk with the games on it.

What do i need to do, how will i choose which os to boot into, what are the pitfalls i need to know about if any?

Is it just as simple as installing the 2nd copy of windows on the 2nd disk?


Thanks
 
Anyone?

I know there are plenty of guides on this but i've yet to find one that specifically covers using two copies of xp, they all seem to cover using xp and something else.

Will i have to install a boot manager?
 
no it will work fine, i'd be warned though as i think you'll have to change the boot.ini or something so instead of it coming up
Please select a Operating system from below:
Windows XP Home Edition
Windows XP Home Edition

it'll come up with :
Please select a Operating system from below:
Windows XP Home Edition (whatever)
Windows XP Home Edition (Games)

this is so you can tell the difference else you may end up going to the wrong OS everytime lol :D
can i ask why install the OS again for just games and another for just programs? what benefit does that have?
 
Thanks, i hadn't thought of that.
sja360 said:
can i ask why install the OS again for just games and another for just programs? what benefit does that have?
Click to expand...

Long story but basically bf2 won't work and i've nothing left to try except a clean copy of windows. However for everything else my current copy is fine if a little slow and full of rubbish. So i wanted to install a 2nd fresh copy for bf2 to test it, then i'll probably do a complete reinstall later, once i've confirmed that that will actually solve my problem.

I think i may stick to having two copies, one for games and one for everything else, because in reality you do have to do a fresh install from time to time to keep games running smoothly and i really can't be bothered to do that.
 
Well i've run into a problem.

Windows installs fine, when it reboots to continue the installation, it goes to the dual boot screen briefly and i have two 'windows xp professional' options as i should. The bottom one is my current copy and that works fine, the top one is the new copy which is waiting to finish installing. If i select that i just get a blank screen and nothing. Ctrl-alt-del reboots and i'm back to square one.

Just tried installing it again and still nothing.

The volume it was on was not wiped, but i can't see why this would be necessary and i'm reluctant to do this because its got stuff on it.

Do i have to disable the dual booting functionality or something to get it to finish installing?
 
Sounds Daft ... but ... Unplug the origional XP copy drive while the install runs//completes, only thing is if you start the installer again you wont get the windows select menu, you will have to use your mohterboards boot drive selection popup.

Rgds,
Nomisf
 
Ahh thats a good idea. I can do that fairly easily. Thanks
I'll let you know if it works shortly.

Just going to try my other cd-rom drive first just in case.



Edit: After unplugging the drive with the 1st copy of windows on it i get an 'ntldr is missing' error. I'm trying another reinstall.

Edit2: This time it just hangs at the boot from cd prompt.
 
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If i format the 2nd disk which has games installed on it which were installed from the 1st os on the first disk will this screw up the first os?

If the install of the 2nd os on the 2nd disk works will i get the dual boot menu when i plug the first disk back in?

Edit: Seems like it won't install so i just need to know if i can format this disk or do i have to uninstall manually?
 
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This is a windows won't install problem now.

The first part installs fine, but when it reboots it just gives a blank screen or locks after the boot from cd prompt.
How do i fix this?


i'm running memtest now just in case.
 
Sorry mate , this is becoming a bit confusing :eek:

Stick up one post with a short but detailed description of the problem and we will go from there :)

Rgds,
Nomisf
 
pcknight said:
Is the 2nd Hard drive 100% ok? Boot sequence in the Bios setup right?
Click to expand...
Yes and yes.


Forget dual booting for now, i have unplugged the first disk with the first copy of xp on it.

I have one formatted disk, two different windows disks. If i use one cd drive i get missing files during setup on both, if i use the other (cheaper) cd drive i get missing files on only one. I've had many problems like this with windows disks before, they always seem to develop problems.

Anyway, using the disk in the drive where it gets no missing files it installs fine, and when i reboot it freezes just after the boot from cd prompt. Changing the boot order does nothing. The harddisk is fine and has been checked. Its passed memtest.

I installed xp on it about a year ago with the same hardware from the same cd drive and the same cd fine. If i plug in the first disk with this copy of windows on it it boots fine and runs fine.
 
Just tried another cd, so its definately not the cd.

Basically after completing the first part of windows setup after rebooting instead of continuing with the installation i just get a blank screen. Can anyone help?

If not i'll have to make another thread elsewhere.
 
bledd. said:
sounds like bad media/cd drive/ide cable
Click to expand...
Yes, thats what i thought. So i've tried 2 cd drives, 2 ide cables and 3 cds. Still nothing. :confused:
 
I've posted a new thread on this here.

I'll come back to this thread later when i've got it working as i need some help with the dual boot settings. Thanks for your help so far.
 
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