I can’t for sure swear to this, but I wouldn’t think MS’s “system” would allow you to install the XP OS on two hard drives, whether physically in the same box or not. Hang on a bit to see if another Lounger can confirm my suspicions.

On the other hand, I guess if you wanted to put up with the inconvenience, you could have a removable rack or two, image (or “copy” like Cowboy does) your hard drive how ever often you need, and do your “experimenting” and testing on a duplicate copy of your hard drive. At least a system like that would “think” that there’s only one copy of the OS installed. Silly I know, but…..

I can’t for sure swear to this, but I wouldn’t think MS’s “system” would allow you to install the XP OS on two hard drives, whether physically in the same box or not. Hang on a bit to see if another Lounger can confirm my suspicions.

On the other hand, I guess if you wanted to put up with the inconvenience, you could have a removable rack or two, image (or “copy” like Cowboy does) your hard drive how ever often you need, and do your “experimenting” and testing on a duplicate copy of your hard drive. At least a system like that would “think” that there’s only one copy of the OS installed. Silly I know, but…..

From the legal point of view, you can run Windows on only one computer at the same time. Installing multiple instances of the same OS on the same computer perfectly fit the definition – you can run only one Windows installation at the same time.

From practical point of view, if you have Windows already installed on your hard drive, you must use third-party program (as Partition Magic) to resize your existing partition and free some space on your hard drive. When to do so, do not create second partition by such program, leave free space unformatted. Also make it big enough, not less than 5 GB (otherwise you will encounter problems later). After that, boot your computer from your Windows XP Installation CD and choose to install a new Windows installation on the unpartitioned space (if you have an upgrade CD, you will be prompted to insert your previous version of Windows Installation CD). Installation process is easy. After installing, registering and activating your new Windows installation (if you input the same information as on previous installation, activation should not create any problems), do next: press Windows and Pause/Break keys on your keyboard simultaneously (System Properties dialog will appear), then click Advanced tab, then under “Startup and Recovery” press Settings button, and on the next screen press Edit button. The BOOT.INI file will open. Last two lines will be like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect

Change words in double quotas to “Windows first installation” and “Windows second installation” or something what you like to distinguish the two. This is what you see on the menu to choose from. You can also change the number of seconds to display the menu in the line

timeout=30

Save and close all windows. Now you are ready to install Service Pack, Security Updates, NET Framework, DirectX, Media Player 9 and whatever you want from WindowsUpdate Website

Good luck!

From the legal point of view, you can run Windows on only one computer at the same time. Installing multiple instances of the same OS on the same computer perfectly fit the definition – you can run only one Windows installation at the same time.

From practical point of view, if you have Windows already installed on your hard drive, you must use third-party program (as Partition Magic) to resize your existing partition and free some space on your hard drive. When to do so, do not create second partition by such program, leave free space unformatted. Also make it big enough, not less than 5 GB (otherwise you will encounter problems later). After that, boot your computer from your Windows XP Installation CD and choose to install a new Windows installation on the unpartitioned space (if you have an upgrade CD, you will be prompted to insert your previous version of Windows Installation CD). Installation process is easy. After installing, registering and activating your new Windows installation (if you input the same information as on previous installation, activation should not create any problems), do next: press Windows and Pause/Break keys on your keyboard simultaneously (System Properties dialog will appear), then click Advanced tab, then under “Startup and Recovery” press Settings button, and on the next screen press Edit button. The BOOT.INI file will open. Last two lines will be like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect

Change words in double quotas to “Windows first installation” and “Windows second installation” or something what you like to distinguish the two. This is what you see on the menu to choose from. You can also change the number of seconds to display the menu in the line

timeout=30

Save and close all windows. Now you are ready to install Service Pack, Security Updates, NET Framework, DirectX, Media Player 9 and whatever you want from WindowsUpdate Website

Good luck!

I think what bigaldoc is referring to is that Product Activation requires the same hardware setup. I know that MS said that there were a number of let-outs. Perhaps a new HD (only) wouldn’t trigger it. OTOH, a new HD, a RAM upgrade, a new graphics card and a new sound card MAY make the “system” regard you as having a new computer. HTH

I think what bigaldoc is referring to is that Product Activation requires the same hardware setup. I know that MS said that there were a number of let-outs. Perhaps a new HD (only) wouldn’t trigger it. OTOH, a new HD, a RAM upgrade, a new graphics card and a new sound card MAY make the “system” regard you as having a new computer. HTH