windows XP on 2 different partitions

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 10:00 am

Hello,

Could anyone tell me if it's possible to install Windows XP on 2 different partitions?
I would like to make 2 partitions. One for music applications and the other for internet/games/anything else.. On both these partitions I would like to install the same version of Windows XP.
But i was wondering if their would be an issue with the activation of Windows XP?
Or should this work just fine?

cheers,

valley

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:37 am

You shouldn't really have to do that. XP is intelligent enough to handle all of that efficiently.

Shayne

Round1 · Post by **Round1** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:43 am

I would suggest Partition Magic (ver 7 or above)

flashvalley · Post by **flashvalley** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 6:48 pm

I still prefer to keep my audio seperated from my other stuff (which can get quite messy), so that's why I would use 2 seperate partitions with the same OS.
But assuming out of the tip I should use Partition magic, their wouldn't be any trouble installing it twice on my computer.
I just want to be sure before I format the partition and then it turns out it wouldn't work.

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 10:09 pm

You should be fine with Partition magic 7 and above. There should be no problems with licensing either because a) you are not trying to install one copy of xp on to two different sets of hardware and b) boot magic "hides" the other OS partition that you *didn't* boot into, and the OS partition you did boot into cannot access it in anyway.
I have win98 and winxp on seperate partitions working ok.
When you install partition/boot magic on the first xp installation, make sure that you create the bootmagic rescue floppy. You will need it to do hide the first partition and make the second partition active for the next xp installation and then use it to restore the bootmagic menu.

From what I have worked out so far, XP can do dual boot but it does not do proper seperate installs like boot magic. IE if you lose the first partition you wipe out the info about the other partitions as well whereas with bootmagic you would still be able to boot into the second partition.

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 6:51 am

usually I do this with XP only. In case of a crash I use the repair option of the install cd. No things like bootmagic necessary and I do not recommend because if the master fails it is very hard to boot from the slave. I still have a formerly slave disk here with a bootmagic tag. No way to reanimate that thing. Runs only with the original master (dead now).

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 12:15 pm

All of us, old Double Boot lovers, have a hard feeling, quite umpleasant, when going into a non Double Boot system. This is my case right now. I hate not to go Double Boot, I was very used to it and experienced very good results. For good and for bad, XP it´s certainly not Win 98, XP is far more intelligent and you don´t actually need a Double Boot system, unless you use TWO OS. If you are not going to use two OSes, it is recomended not using Double Booting configuration.

I had to decide which one, so I made an image not only with the idea of comming back in the case of a disaster, but also to comme back if I didn´t like the likes of a Single Boot machine. Well... it´s not that hard in fact... It´s not so bad I mean. I hate the fact that it takes much longer to load and close up, but for the rest, it comes to be plactically the same thing.

If you are going to use games, bizare apps like there are out there, special and complicated stuff, well there yes, you are strongly recomended to build a Double Boot system, but in terms of performance, you don´t need to, if you have a PIV System with enough RAM.

XP, unfortunately, takes a lot of space, and if you go Double Boot, you´re going to spend quite a lot of space too.

To have TWO Win XP in the same machine, it´s not very practical I think. Perhaps you can find different ways of keeping everyting tidy.

Good luck with your decition!

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 7:11 pm

On 2003-08-11 07:51, Micha wrote:
I still have a formerly slave disk here with a bootmagic tag. No way to reanimate that thing. Runs only with the original master (dead now).

Never had a problem with boot magic. When chucking boot partitions around I've always been able to recover the menu by using the rescue disks and/or re-installing boot magic (after recovery) on one of the partitions and letting it find the bootable partitions. I highly recommend it.

I don't understand why anyone would recommend to NOT do a dual boot xp-xp installation (ala bootmagic style and not winxp's dualboot). Personally, with all the viruses running around and security flaws in Microsoft products, I wouldn't trust running a DAW and internet/email/office to one OS installation.

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 3:51 am

XP bootmanager is ok. Can handle 2 or more installs of XP or Linux. No problem.
The thing with bootmagic in this case was that the tag has fixed the pair. I did a low level format (!) with the disk and not even that could separate the two disks! Weird. I wanted to use the disk as replacement of a crashed disk. No way!

Richmo · Post by **Richmo** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:01 am

Hi,
I recently installed the 2 OS system, with one for audio only. Since then it's run rock solid. This link is what I followed to do it. You don't need partition magic because you can do it all through XP in Administrative tools/disk management. Once you install the second OS the boot screen should appear automatically.
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=1&15
Have fun
P.S. There is no problem activating the 2nd OS

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Richmo on 2003-08-13 09:06 ]</font>

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 12:25 pm

I´ve finally decided to go with a special distribution of my partitions: It will be a double boot, but at the same time I´m going to set my Studio up twice. I.e., I'm going to have all the Office and Internet + Studio things in one partition, going to get it for multimedia, and will do a Studio only partition, without internet or anythingelse, and it will be exclusively for composing albums or long works. I´m going to tweak each partition to its own needs: the Office one for graphycs and the internet, and the Studio for Audio.

I coudn´t resist really... I know it takes more space, but twice the Studio it´s something really handy to me, I´ve not thought about this untill I´ve got the Idea from Bassdude, cheers for the simple and great tip man!

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 11:24 pm

No worries Nestor!

Are you going to use Boot Magic or Let XP do the dual boot? I would still lean towards using boot magic personally.
Having 2 C: drives with one hidden gives that little bit of extra protection from rogue viruses/hacker attacks while surfing the net.

Richmo · Post by **Richmo** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 9:26 am

Hey Nestor,
That's exactly how I've done it, then with a separate partition for all docs, files etc, so I don't lose them on a crash on either OS.
Cheers

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 11:07 pm

Yes guys, it´s the best posible way to go, most secure and interactive of them all...

For me Partition Magic cos Boot Magic it´s the best, I´ve used it for 6 years and trust it much.