What will happen if you have two harddisks, one with Vista installed and another with data when you try to install Windows XP on the data disk (without formatting/repartitioning) ? How would you correctly install XP in that case ?
<span style='font-family:Comic Sans MS'>well do u have 2 hard drives or 2 partitions on the same hard drive? if you have 2 on the same drive then u would probably have to reformat it cuz Vista has no uninstall feature AT ALL............when i uninstalled Vista i had to use "ERD Commander 2005" to format the drive first in order to reinstall Vista</span>
well in that case i would first back up all the data on the 2nd drive then try to install XP on it so i guess you're trying to have XP and Vista on the same pc
Both drives are in the computer, I want to know what would happen if I try to install XP on the data drive.
i'm not really sure what'll happen....that's why i say just back the data up first then try to install it it might work, it might not
if you install over your data drive, it will just install with your data. You will be able to access your data in the local drive where you see your Program files folder, users folder, and windows folder. Pretty simple really. You shouldnt have a problem installing XP on that drive. Just be sure to unplug the other hard drive, or set the data drive as the main drive (in your BIOS). hope this helps
Sounds like you are trying to dual boot ... depends what kind of data you have in the HDD ... XP will erase the data and do a fresh install on there if done through BIOS so i suggest backup everything if its a reasonable size onto DVD rewritables or memory stick etc hm since the 2nd HDD hasnt got a OS on there .. when you disconnect the vista HDD it wont boot anything hm ..
By default XP wont erase any data on install, What you need to decide is whether u want vista or not... Installing XP on the 2nd HDD with the other HDD plugged will utterly destroy the vista MBR entries and hence its bootloader resulting in a PC that will only boot into XP... If this is what u want there is not a problem... However if u want to dualboot without the re-installation of vista (i.e. install vista over the old one, pretty messy) You can unplug the primary HDD (the one with Vista on it)and install XP, after installation is complete you need to get a tool such as Vista BootPro or similar and modify BCD to include an entry to boot from XP.. Yet another solution is to use a third party boot loader like GRUB, LILO or a more commercial solution like Acronis OS Select (<-- Acronis is by far the best) This option would not involve opening the case of the PC (good if that would void ur warranty) BUT if u dont want vista (but still the data on the vista drive) Just install XP into the second HDD and copy the data from the Users folder into Documents and Settings on the XP HDD, the problem with this solution is that ur XP installation will be on a drive letter other than C: this can be annoying but no big deal if u dont constantly install new apps and games.. Anyways, hope this helps if u hav any more questions drop me a PM, my expertise is at ur disposal
you popo in the disc specifify that it installs to that partition, and have it generate a new folder, no big deal, just try it 90% common sense from there.
When you have selected the partition you want to use for the OS, you will get a screen asking to format. Use your common sense and pick the latest option. (Don't make any changes to the partition)
