I know it is possible to use two drives and be able to boot two operating systems. BUT I want to install a HIS and HERS drives to the same machine and use them independently by booting from say drive C: and Drive D: Is this feasible? And if so can anyone offer some nice and EASY instructions please??

Reason is we are going to use one machine, but have the two machines at present obviously with two hard drives. I have all my stuff on my machine and have sold this now but the guy buying it does not need a hard drive. So I wanted to keep that drive as a slave to the master already installed. So I can use MY drive or Andie can use HER drive which is tuffed with all her card making things on it.

All advice welcome!!!

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Hi Chris ive had duel booting before when windows changed from (98) to (xp) and wanted both so i could have something i was used to until i found my way around xp, so i downloaded partion magic then split the hard drive in half then putting an opperating system on each half. when the computer started up a screen come up asking what system you wanted to boot from, im pretty sure you could do the same thing. Tony

Personally I wouldn't use dual boot if that's all you want to achieve. Presumably you already have separate users set up, so why not just use the spare drive for her application stuff and configure the desktops and data locations accordingly?

This post has been edited by Lid: Mar 19 2008, 10:31 PM

typically the operating system only allows one drive C:/ and its that that is the booting partition, BUT with an external drive you can set it up to boot just like a CD if your bios lets you select it.the trouble is with fixed disks only one C:/ can exist another drive with an operating system on called C:/ will be relabled by the operating system in use,i used to use a caddy with 2 hard drives if i wanted 98 i put the 98 drive in if i wanted xp i put the xp drive in ,if you want to exchange info between the two drives drag and drop to a rewritable DVD.
duel boot is perfectly feasable on one drive but incase a hard drive problem occurs not recomended as you have to install everything twice instead of once ,drive caddies for ide drives is by far easier

This post has been edited by chesters1: Mar 19 2008, 07:02 PM

So I shouldn't bother??

As I say I have a spare drive on another PC which has 90% of my stuff on it. And this new machine with not a lot on BUT stuff I want to keep. PLUS this drive has all the stuff to configure this PC, so what would you all suggest??

if you try to boot of your old disk windows will have a fit because all the motherboard and its bits and bobs will have changed ,you could use it as a second drive but on a long shot you will have to manually change all the associations in the software to get it to run anything on the old disk(you could go mad after playing in the registry for days).
you could just look at the stuff using it as a slave disk on there but most will cause big problems if you try and run anything
to dual boot the only thing you can do is install a later operating system on the old drive but as i said 2 drive C;/s cannot exist on the same PC so you cannot boot (as far as i can see) of seperate discs because only one partition can be bootable in a PC
a caddy lets you choose which to boot off but you will have to install the later software on the old disk using the upgrade function in seudo dos (booting off the upgrade CD)
even cloning wont work because the new drive has an operating system which will be overwritten and once its cloned it will still have a fit because youve also cloned the old settings and hardware setup (believe me you will end up formatting and starting again as i have found out more than once ) subtle changes windows excepts but hiccups anything more and it has a spaz

you maybe able to boot from an external disk but i havn't got one so cannot say for sure but if you could it would probably be the easiest way but still the problems with the hardware would come to the fore unless you installed windows on the old drive in the new pc (so it sorts out the hardware)

with a caddy its just a case of sliding in hers (oer mrs) or his (hmm) but both drive need to have the same hardware setup i.e the old drive needs to have xp reinstalled so it factors in the hardware changes ,not to much of a problem usually ,just slide in the caddy with the old system on it and force the pc to boot of the xp disk and install over the top of the existing xp ,99% of the time windows does it but it can totally f up everything occasionally as this is what windows does best.

Also it may give an error and a very long set of number as XP detects changes in hard ware (comparing it to the hardware it had installed in its first install!) no big deal write down the very long set of numbers ,phone up the number on the screen ,read out to the nice chap on the other end the long numbers and he will tell you another very long number to write down (get him to check it with you) you then type in this very long number and away you go.

strangely it did just that on my old machine putting in a new graphics card (probably one change to many) but i think this "safety" function (to stop several machines having the same windows CD instaled on it) has secretly been uninstalled because my new machine has my old xp disk installed on it and excepted a completely different set of hardware without any problems at all

This post has been edited by chesters1: Mar 26 2008, 06:17 PM

Cheers Dave!! I don't need to BOOT from this disk I suppose? I was going to have a go at Ubuntu or something, but with what you have said and all I've read it is WAYYYYYY above my little head!! But seems a MYSTERY benefactor (Sandpiper!)has a hard drive case so I can mount the drive in that and then access it as and when.

Just as an after thought, if I DO use it as a plug in drive CAN I simply transfer the stuff I need to this PC anyway?? Simply by dragging and dropping???

yes no problem ,what was drive C:/ on your old disk will become the next available drive letter ,any partitions on it will also become a different letter.dragging and dropping will work but expect to see where it used to be changed.
make sure your new drive jumper is master and plugged into the furthest socket on the cable and change your old drive to slave and bobs your relation ,sandpiper is a very nice benefactor

This post has been edited by chesters1: Mar 29 2008, 08:23 PM

He is that TOO!!!!

Right HAD to fit the drive as I cannot ressurect the old PC so now I have as expected a new F drive. BUT How do I get software from F to C? Do I simply copy or move it over and then find the start or exe file and install an icon??