Re: Two 'versions' of WinXp on the same pc?


"Sumgod" <sumgod@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d6-dndO_BrHO4DLb4p2dnAA@xxxxxxxxx
Hello One & All!

Any info I can glean here will be much appreciated.

Briefly what I want to do is have two 'versions' of WinXp Home on one pc
with a choice of which to boot to.

The first, WinXP1 say, would have all the usual stuff (antivirus,
pictures, mp3s, docs, etc).

The second, WinXP2 say, would only have software for recording audio
(i.e. all other software including antivirus would be uninstalled - got to
say I'm not too sure about leaving off the antivirus but that's the
thinking at the mo').

So when I switch on the pc it would by default boot to WinXP1 unless I
chose (somehow?) to load WinXP2.

How do I go about doing this?

Background: The C drive has been partitioned. The drive with the current
OS is 54.8GB with 6.98GB free. The other partition is also 54.8GB. When/If
I get the two WinXPs installed I can distribute whatever free space there
is. Also got two external hard drives for data.

Options I've considered (having extensively googled):

1. Make a backup of C using Acronis True Image and save to external hard
drive (I've done this). Make an Acronis Rescue Disc (done). Boot from the
CD and 'restore' the image of C to the second partition. Will this work?

2. Clone the C drive using Acronis and install onto the empty partition.
Will this work?

I've seen mention that drive letters may be a problem. See here:
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

Seemingly a way around this is to "clear the table of partitions and drive
letter assignments" using regedit (mentioned in above article - see link).
The article also advises not to let the new XP partition to 'see' the old
XP partition. Unfortunately no advise on how to do this is mentioned.

I would guess someone will suggest setting up a another user account
specifically for recording. Personally I'm not keen on different user
accounts having experienced probs with passwords and settings previously
(though this was on ME!).

Many thanks - Chris

There are several ways to do this. One of them works like so:
- Ask your friendly computer dealer for an old disk. 4 GBtyes will
do very nicely.
- Make it your primary master disk and install the free boot loader
XOSL on it.
- Reconnect your existing disk as a slave disk.
- Add your existing WinXP installation to the XOSL boot menu.
- Use Acronis to WinXP to your second partition.
- Instruct XOSL to hide the two installations from each other.

When it's finished and done you will have two completely
independent and mutually invisible installations of WinXP
on your disk. You can select each at boot time. Each will
run off its own drive C:.

There is, of course, a certain amount of detail work to be
carried out. Post again if you wish to go down this track
and need more details.

By the way, your disks are getting dangerously full. You should
have at least 20% spare capacity on each partition.


.

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