Re: Two OS On One XP Computer
- From: "Doug Glass" <DougGlass@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:06:02 -0700
I have absolutely nothing against menus...who said I did? I didn't. The
switch would be as I described in the original post. Go into setup and make
HDD1 (the "data" drive) the first hard drive polled and bingo...that OS boots.
This is a emergency setup since she is so far from me. In normal operation
Iwanted no menus, just maintain the look and feel as if only one drive had an
OS on it. She knows how to change the boot sequence. In fact she did it on
my buddy's PC.
I sinple wanted to know what people thought of my elected process... I've
setup menus many, many time. Just not this time for reason I believe are
valid.
I do appreciate your comments though
"D.Currie" wrote:
> I'm not sure what you have against menus, but that begs the question -- how
> do you propose your daughter will access this other hard drive and OS if
> there isn't some sort of menu choice?
>
> A standard dual boot system would have a menu and a default choice, so that
> it would boot into the normal configuration unless the user decided to
> choose otherwise.
>
> You set up the computer so that you could change the boot sequence in the
> bios when need be, but depending on your daughter's expertise with
> computers, that may cause other problems. If you think she won't be able to
> handle letting the computer boot to a default most of the time, and choosing
> a different option if/when disaster strikes, then having her fiddling with
> the bios may be a bad idea.
>
> Otherwise, I suppose you could have the second hard drive installed but not
> physically connected, and then if the first hard drive goes bad, you explain
> on the phone how to open the case and disconnect the original drive and then
> connect the second drive. But that's a bit more complicated, and it doesn't
> give access to that first drive at all unless you also want to explain on
> the phone how to set the jumpers so the original drive is now the secondary.
>
> Also, I wonder what it is you want to accomplish with this second drive and
> OS. If it's merely for her to have the computer up and running, I suppose it
> would serve that purpose, but you'd have to have not only the OS installed,
> but also all of the programs she uses. And she'd probably need access to
> things like her documents and her email. Depending on what sort of problem
> she has in the first place, that "up and running" might not last very long.
> For instance, if she's been infested with viruses and/or spyware, she's
> going to have them back rather quickly once she starts accessing her files
> on the main drive. And depending on what virus/spyware we're talking about,
> that second drive, if you're going the route of changing the boot sequence
> via the bios, may already be infected.
>
> And if it's a hardware issue, booting to a different hard drive isn't going
> to make any difference at all. It may give you a hint, diagnostic-wise, but
> it's not going to make a repair over the phone any easier.
>
> There are a couple of other options that may work better. For instance, you
> could drill into her head the need for making backups, and buy backup
> software and have her make complete backups on a regular basis, so she could
> always go to a time when the computer was working. She'd still need to do
> separate backups of current files, because those may not exist if she has to
> go back very far to get the computer running correctly. This all assumes
> that she will make the backups and that she knows enough about computers to
> restore it if necessary.
>
> Or go find a friendly and competent computer shop and see if they'll set up
> some sort of service plan where she can bring the computer in at regular
> intervals for cleaning and service and repairs.
>
>
> "Doug Glass" <DougGlass@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:B718CF2D-3CA5-4841-BC6C-D54D2D8E8DFA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >I probably said that wrong. Dual boot systems I've setup in the past had a
> > menu that allowed a choice at startup. The system I'm proposing will have
> > no
> > menu and no additional partitioning on either drive. But i get what
> > you're
> > saying.
> >
> > Thanks Rock...I appreciate your reply.
> >
> > "Rock" wrote:
> >
> >> Doug Glass wrote:
> >>
> >> > Guys, I have an interesting opportunity I'd appreciate comments on.
> >> >
> >> > I have aquired a second (also very legal) copy of XP Home thru my
> >> > company/MS
> >> > HUP. What I'd like to do is install it on my daughter's computer's
> >> > data
> >> > drive D:. She's soon to be living several hundred miles from me so any
> >> > problem with the computer's OS will necessitate a long trip to work on.
> >> > I
> >> > don't want to build a backup computer becasue it's cost is greater than
> >> > I can
> >> > afford right now.
> >> >
> >> > He's my idea: A full install of XP on both drives and then boot from
> >> > C: or
> >> > D: based on setup's boot sequence at startup. I know it'll work; I saw
> >> > it
> >> > done on a buddy's computer but I never learned how it worked out over
> >> > time.
> >> >
> >> > Anybody see any complications? Keep in mind, this is not a traditional
> >> > dual
> >> > boot system. While one OS is running, the other is essentially
> >> > dormant. Or
> >> > it would seem to be.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks guys...any comments are greatly appreciated.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Yes it is a traditional dual boot system. And no, I don't see any
> >> complications. Should work fine.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Rock
> >> MS MVP Windows - Shell/User
> >>
> >>
>
>
>
.
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- From: Doug Glass
- Re: Two OS On One XP Computer
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- Re: Two OS On One XP Computer
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