Dual Booting For The First Time

Here's the skinny. I'll be wiping the hard drive on my laptop by deleting the partition. Then, when I format I plan to separate the current 100gig hard drive into two 50gig partitions.

Then I plan to install two separate instances of Windows XP, one on each partition. One will be used by my girlfriend for school/work related materials. The second will be use by me for editing/gaming.

Here's my question:

I have heard that you'll need a 3rd party boot manager device to choose which operating system you'd like at start up. Is this true or once both partitions are set up with their own copy of XP, will I be given the choice of automatically choosing which OS I want?

Thanks

 

I'm pretty sure you can simply load WinXP onto each partition and Windows will take of the dual-boot itself by creating a OS choice menu that you'll see upon boot up. You may have to modify the boot.ini file on the 1st (C: drive) partition. Or, you can use a boot manager like OSL2000 or GAG Manager. Check these links for more info.....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306559/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314081/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217210/en-us
Hope this helps....
hopperdave2000

 

No you don't need any 3rd party software.

By default the last OS loaded or second instance as you call it, will boot first, you have 30 seconds to alternately choose the other via on screen menue
You also can, within windows change/Edit the OS name/Boot order & time designated to make alternate choice of the booting OS Via:

Control Pannel/System/System Properties/Advanced tab/Start UP & recovery/Settings

I would suggest Editing/Changing the Boot.ini File, the name of one or both instances so you can easily identify which OS is yours or hers
Example of what your would appear after loading two instances of XP pro
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

You can change this part "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" to what ever you want Like your name or hers

like this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="J8son" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

That sounds great.

Under Start Up and Recovery I see the options to set the time as well as choose my default operating system. I read somewhere that once you install XP on your second partition it becomes the default as opposed to the first. Is this true and if so can I change that under the Start Up and Recovery field?

 

It's not that once it's installed on the second partition, it's the last Installed or instance in your case.
It doesnt matter what Partition XP is installed on but the last Installed OS becomes the Default Boot OS, Understand?

The last installed OS becomes the Default booting OS, but it doesnt really matter because when you Boot you will have an on screen menue where you can choose any other OS installed on that HDD
You can also, under "Start up & recovery" under Default Operating system click on the arrow then select the other OS as Default


How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306559