Dual install, will this work?

Tomas6139

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I have 2 hard drives, a 20Gig, and a 120Gig. I have XP on the 120Gig, but I want it on the 20Gig. I have files too large to copy to a cd, so I was wondering if I could copy them from the 20 to the 120, and then reformat and do a new install on the 20Gig, then delete XP from the 120. Would this work? or would it cause conflict, trying to install XP on another drive, while having it on the other drive too?
 

Toejam31

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Questions:

Why move WinXP to the 20GB drive?
What other OS are you planning on using for the dual-boot?
Have you considered using extended partitions and logical drives on either of the hard drives in order to shift around your files, instead of having one large partition per drive?

It seems to me that the simplest way to do this would be to partition the 120GB drive using a tool like Partition Magic so that the WinXP partition was around 10GB. That would mean using the free space currently on the drive to make at least one extended partition that contains a logical drive.

You would then move the large files from the 20GB to the logical partition on the 120GB. With that done, the smaller drive could be formatted, and the second operating system installed on the 20GB.

To avoid a repair installation of WinXP, due to the boot records being overwritten when the second OS is installed (unless you take care to avoid this), you have several options. You could use a program like System Commander to control which OS is bootable. Or, you could select the drive that is to be bootable by changing the selection within the BIOS, although you would have to switch this each time you wanted to boot from one OS to another.

In case it is imperative, for one reason or another, that you really need to have WinXP on the 20GB drive, I'd consider investing in an imaging program, such as Norton Ghost. With this in hand, you could move the OS from drive to drive with relative ease. And it would also come in handy later on, for backing up both operating systems and your personal files.

With that in mind, you could create another partition that contains the free space on the 120GB drive. Move the large files to the new partition from the 20GB. Image the WinXP partition, and burn it to CD disks, and then transfer the image to the 20GB drive, which would remove the remaining partition during the process.

Then you could install the new OS to the 120GB drive, in the original primary partition.

Once again, a boot manager like System Commander could be used to facilitate the installation of the operating systems.

As I recall, Maxtor has a downloadable utility that allows for partition and drive to drive copies, and it is free. That's also something worth considering.

Keep in mind that if you install a new OS, while the drive that contains WinXP is connected to the cable, it is highly likely that the boot records for WinXP will be overwritten ... and correcting this will require a repair install, or working from the command line in the Recovery Console.

IMHO, I think it would be much easier just to invest in a boot manager and a partitioning program, so you can have access to helpful tools that will allow you to accomplish your task with the least amount of fuss and bother.

It's also a good idea to think about using the same file system with both two operating systems (unless this proves impossible), as on occasion, having two different file systems can lead to instability, although this is more likely to happen when the two competing file systems are on the same hard drive.

Toey

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Tomas6139

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I wasn't planning on using another OS, Just wanted to move XP to the 20Gig drive as the OS "home", and use the 120Gig as "storage", games, downloads, videos, the big stuff.But I don't have the money to buy Partion magic or any of that stuff.
But I can't format the 120Gig, or I loose all my big files, so I was wondering, if, leaving XP on the 120Gig, formatting and installing XP on the 20 Gig, then deleting it off the 120 Gig....
 

BlaBli

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1st u can DL (download) the trial partition magic app, and use the tool to make a recovery floppy and use it to format your HD.

anyway, u certainly can do what u said... copy all files from the 20G to your 120G, format the 20G (with partition magic recovery floppy which i mantioned b4) and clean install winXP on your 20G HD.
u will need to manualy delete the windows folder adn the program files folder. but i stongly recommand you to format the 120G as well to make sure that no viruses left on this HD while winXP was installed there.

good luck ;)