Dual Boot - 2x Win XP

RJP · Post by **RJP** » 08 Oct 2006, 06:06

Hello

Sorry to post this.... I can find tons of info re dual-booting Win XP with just about every other OS known. What I havn't yet stumbled across is info about dual-booting between two WinXP installations.

The MS site would seem to suggest that it can't be done (without having a second copy of XP!!!) but surely there's a way...... isn't there?? If there is & someone could point me towards an idiots guide to doing so I'd be very grateful indeed.

BTW, The aim is to keep one clean copy for surfing / using azureus (about the only way I have of watching top-gear in the sand-pit is by downloading it) with that copy not having any other software installed (this is prompted by azureus seemingly having problems after installing CuteFTP (yes, tried uninstalling CuteFTP & cleaning its registry values)). The second partition / installation would be the general use / FS one.

Rgds
Richard

TobyV · Post by **TobyV** » 08 Oct 2006, 10:02

My gut feeling on this one is that it cant be done because WinXP is so self important it will only place itself in the primary active partition and its install program is even capable of partitioning and formatting the HDD anyway.

I was recently looking into get a Linux based machine (or a dual-boot Linux/Windows machine) and the Linux sites say you mujst install XP first. Going by that logic, I would imagine the second XP cd will detect the first installation and attempt simply to overwrite that or somehow work with it, rather than ignore it altogether, which is effectively what you want to do. I could be wrong and I have certainly never tried it. I'm just saying this as if as I suspect it doesnt work, you might end up wasting a lot of time and then feel like throwing your PC out of the window

Post by **TSR2** » 08 Oct 2006, 10:59

It can be done and its easy as pie... BUT!! depending on the version you have it may be a bugger to activate unless you have XP Pro and an Volume License Key, rather than a oem one (the sticker with the numbers on)

It depends on how you have your system configured, but you need to partition your hard disk, or better still have to separate hard disks.
If we go with the option of 2 hard disks, install the first copy on the second disk, then remove the second disk and install another copy on the first Disk. Modify your boot.ini file so as it looks something like this...

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Copy 2" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Now put the other disk back in boot up and you should get the boot menu asking you which one you want to boot from. The default one will boot after the the time period has elapsed (by default 30 seconds)

ianhind · Post by **ianhind** » 08 Oct 2006, 11:53

A couple of comments:

if CuteFTp is a problem, why not try another FTP client eg the open source Filezilla http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

and another way of having a separate copy of Windows XP might be by running a virtual machine - yes this will be slower than running native XP, but might be a (difficult

) option.

VMWare has VMWare Player and VMWare Server for free, although setting up XP might take some digging around with Google.

Even Microsoft is entering the free market with Virtual Server.

Perhaps someone here can comment on these virtual machines?

Post by **TSR2** » 08 Oct 2006, 12:24

Microsoft have been in the Virtual Machine market for a few years, and the current version of Virtual Server (2005 R2) is excellent. The Microsoft one is also free.

We use both the VMware product and the microsoft product, and both have their pros and cons.

To be honest, I don't see why you would need 2 separate copies of XP on the same machine. I would simply create another user account and configure each one as you would like it. Horses for courses I suppose.

RJP · Post by **RJP** » 08 Oct 2006, 14:28

Ben Watson wrote:It can be done and its easy as pie... BUT!! depending on the version you have it may be a bugger to activate unless you have XP Pro and an Volume License Key, rather than a oem one (the sticker with the numbers on)

Yep, after doing some more digging I found reports of it (sometimes!) being a doddle to do. The problems did indeed seem to arise with the activation but there seemed to be a theory that as its being installed on the same hardware that it can just be activated twice with the same code.

TobyV wrote:I'm just saying this as if as I suspect it doesnt work, you might end up wasting a lot of time and then feel like throwing your PC out of the window

My apartment is on the 5th floor so I cant imagine there'd be much left afterwards

Might go & move the car before I try it.....

ianhind wrote:if CuteFTp is a problem, why not try another FTP client eg the open source Filezilla http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

I don't know for sure that CuteFTP was the problem but immediately after installing it Azureus reports that its no longer able to open the correct ports, a problem I havn't had until installing it. I've tried filezilla before but it was painfully slow with my site. Mind, that may have been a result of the often 3rd world standard of the connection here.

Ben Watson wrote:To be honest, I don't see why you would need 2 separate copies of XP on the same machine. I would simply create another user account and configure each one as you would like it. Horses for courses I suppose.

In my case its because I want the two to b 100% seperate, not 99%. Then I can setup a known good-config installation for browsing & running azureus & leave the other one for day-to-day use.

Thanks for the advice..... will let you know what happens....

Rgds
Richard