Seperate drive for UVS - How?

screwball2 · Post by **screwball2** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:55 pm

After advice from sjj1805 primarily, I have installed a second 160gb sata drive solely for use of UVS. What I want is the option to boot to my main drive (an 80 gb sata drive for daily or ordinary stuff) or boot to my second drive (which has just XP pro and UVS9) at the initial start-up. The second drive is cleared to absolute bear bones to assist compiling-burning etc as per sjj1805's suggestion, but at the moment I have to boot to the maindrive and then access what is at present D: Drive - a bit counter productive! Can anyone explain how to achieve the ability to select which drive to boot to?
Kind regards

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:36 pm

Dual Boot the Steve Jones Way.

screwball2 · Post by **screwball2** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:27 pm

OK, hear what you say, but I like the simple life - really cant be bothered going into bios and selecting boot drive every time etc. And not worried about computer problems as I have a complete backup of entire system. I simply want to select which drive required from a pre-boot menu. I know it's possible - just can't work out how, it's simple with IDE drives but more complex with SATA drives! (When are we going to stop advancing technology- I was happy with my Amstrad 1512 and space invaders!).

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 1:06 am

Get a caddy system for your HDD. Place the system disk you want to use into the caddy and start your computer.

Without going into the BIOS etc. you will not be able to use a dual boot system with a start up menu. You can't swim if you don't go into the water either

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 1:39 am

The other method of creating a dual boot system - not as good in my opinion as the method I have posted on this forum, is in fact quite simple.

1. You have an existing hard drive with XP - you install a second 'blank' hard drive. This can also be achieved by partitioning the single hard drive with a partitioning utility such as Partition Magic. It can also be done with a Vista set up Disc.

2. You now have two drive letters on your system typically C for your existing Operating System, E for your second hard drive (or partition).
Drive letter D will normally be your CD/DVD drive.

3. Boot up your operating system and then insert the XP set up disc.
It will offer you two choices
a. Upgrade your existing system
b. Install a new (clean) system
Select b.

4. You will also be asked if you wish to choose the installation directory.
Here you say Yes and specify your new empty drive as the target location.

5. XP will install on the new hard drive and when your computer reboots you will see a menu allowing you to select which of the 2 installations you wish to use.

If anyone is interested in how to dual boot XP/Vista there are further steps involved. An easy to follow guide is available here:

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide
Alternatively
How to dual boot Vista and XP (with XP installed first) -- the step-by-step guide