XP and Windows on two drives

Sinbadxyz · Aug 14, 2010

Would like to know if I install xp on one sata drive and windows 7 on a second drive, and alternately physically reconnect drives as I see fit and as I need to use both operating systems, will microsoft read this a single installation for either system or two installations, keeping in mind that all the equipment is the same accept for hard drives. I guess i'm curious if I use two differnent drives with two different operating systems on one pc with the same motherboard, is this an issue with Microsoft? Will they read the motherboard and see two different systems on it.
The resoning behind this is that I thought my xp install disc was bad so went out and bought Windows professional 7. Well, I finally got xp to install and haven't opened Windows 7 and was thinking of taking it back. But then I would like to try win7 but still run xp, so I thought of installing win7 on a different drive but on the same Pc as XP, keep in mind I don't think i'm talking about a dual boot.
Thanks for any help.

DavidGP · Aug 14, 2010

Hi

Dual Booting two or more operating systems is not a major problem, so long as you have licences for both, Microsoft wont be interested.

Dual Boot Windows 7 and XP guide HERE ( I know it mentions downloading the beta and as that has finished its not applicable but the rest of the guide and posted it as it has pictures to follow is correct for a dual boot scenario)

But as you mentioned no dual boot, you can also install XP or Windows 7 on seperate HDDs without having the other Windows OS drive in the PC and swap and change the drive as the 1st boot device, however you couldnt run and swap between the two of them with then installed in the PC as the dual boot menu would be missing, so would have to physically plug in the HDD and OS drive you want and it would boot ok.

Dual Boot would be the way to go, as it gives you the boot option on booting your PC to what OS you want to use.

I do this all the time, have HDDs with various OSes on.

Sinbadxyz · Aug 14, 2010

Thanks for the quick reply. I have thought about dual boot, its been a while since of done that though. Would I have to start from scratch to put together a dual boot system where xp is one hdd, and win7 is another hdd? Or since I have xp already installed on a sata drive, can I just add a second sata drive, with appropriate drivers of course, and install Win7 on this new drive? I guess I'm wondering if I install win7, at some point during the installation process, it will say it's already detected an os and will continue to install over it or I will be able to install win7 on the other hdd?

salemkahan · Sep 9, 2013

I made a dual boot With Xp and os7 same HD but different partitions. problem is i couldn't determined which partition has which os ?????

plodr · Sep 10, 2013

salemkahan, please start a new thread.
Do not dredge up a three year old thread and add your problem to it.
Click the New Thread button http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21
near the top left.

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XP and Windows on two drives

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