Dual boot... with XP and XP

So.... can I dual boot the same OS? The reason i want to do this is to just have a second and very small XP partition just for testing out programs and software. That way when i reinstall them.... i know nothing at all is ever left behind... in the registry or anywhere.

Can I do it?
How can I do it?
and what is the minimum space required for XP partition?

Thanks

 

Yes you can do it. I have done it with Prof. and Home edition but it works with 2 of the same as well.

Just do it like with any other dual boot. Create a 2nd partition.l I would recommend about 6GB as minimum assuming you dont want to install any bigger programms. I think the real minium is around 2GB but then you have no space for anything but XP. You might even run into space problems when installing big drivers like the graphics card or wifi with utilities.

Then just pop in the install cd and tell it to install to the new partition. It will leave the old partition untouched.

Hopefully XP will detect the other XP and list it as a boot menu at start. If it didnt there are ways to edit the boot menu.

I would recomend you use a 3rd party boot manager like GRUB. Easy to use and the windows one likes to get messed up and forget things.

 

Interesting...

This has all sorts of possibilities with new programs you are unsure about... and for being naught [evil]

aero: I have my 'C' windows partition at 15.2gb with 4.26gb free, although I do have 1.5gb in program EXEs and autopatcher stores on the partition as well

 

It depends what you want to do with the 2nd windows. There are guides online to cut down XP to less then 300mb by removing IE, media player, outlook express and all the other junk.

 

Here is a tool that will let you customize your Windows installation to get rid of all the unnecessary (default) programs to make it smaller and faster.

To setup XP/XP dual boot system, just install Windows XP twice on two different partitions. Second installation will add a new entry to the boot.ini file to boot the first one. For some reason if it doesn't, then you can always add it by yourself.

 

OK cool thanks. so which one becomes the default OS the first one i install or the second?

I know when i installed ubuntu AFTER installing XP, the ubuntu became the one that loaded by default if i didnt press anything during boot.

So should i make a small partition and install the small XP first then install what i intend to be the primary one next?

Thanks

 

The 2nd one will be the Default but you can change it in the boot.ini file. Also you might need to rename them because both will be called Windows XP

 

Why not use VMware? If you are doing software testing VMware is awesome for it.

 

You cant test everything with VMware. I often want to try out new drivers or test how fast one version of a program runs compared to the other. It is very hard to compare performace if one runs normal and the other in a virtual machine.

 

That nlite tool looks very interesting... Has anyone here had experience using it?

If it creates its own customized xp bootable install disk, where does it get the files from? my origional XP cd or from my current system files?

 

You need a CD or atleast the i386 folder.

 

I’ve used an older version of nLite some time back to strip an XP installation to install on a PII computer. It worked pretty well.

It takes the files from the XP installation CD.

 

ok, but i also dont understand how or where to download the hotfixes and windows updates to integrate into the instillation.

My computer just automatically downloads these. I dont know where to manually download them and save them to my desktop. or even which ones i need.

 

At microsoft.com in the Windows XP download section:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...roductID=4C937A02-BAE0-4317-A1A9-0C56CD979D05

 

Oh man, there are 218 listed under XP Professional. How do i know which ones are just the Critical updates that windows update installs automatically. IS there anywhere i can find a list of all the updates i currently have so i can just manually download those ones from this site?

Thanks

 

The best way to dual boot, or multiboot any amount of OS you might want is to have each OS think no other OS are installed on your computer. To do that, you simply must do so that when one OS partition loads, the other OS partitions are not mounted, that way they wont see each other and will behave completly independant. Cause if your various windows start detecting each other, the day will come when you want to format one partition and the other will stop booting and it will be a NIGHTMARE, trust me. Do it right the first time.
Go here and see how. Using this method, right now i have linux, 98, freedos, XP, and many instances of win2K on my system (though the usefulness of this setup is debatable...). It just works like a charm.
Takes some getting used to, so try this on an old comp just for experimentation before you do some serious damage to your main computer!

 

To get a list of what you have installed go to "Add and Remove Programs" and on top there is a checkbox called "Show Updates". But I dont think that list will be much shorter.

 

No need to do a specific order. You can change this for Windows partitions by right clicking on My Computer > Properties > Then select the default operating system you want from the pull down tab and click OK, and then OK again.

 

So anyone know where i can download all the critical and security update for XP Professional all at once? instead of 1 at a time?

 

Here is a 3rd party solution : autopatcher.com