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rondacosta 0 Newbie Poster

Hello, this is my first try at getting help, I hope I am doing it at the right place,,,,,, I created a second partition (30GB) with Gparted-liveCD in my only drive running XP.
How could I create a dual boot with same WinXP in that second partition? I want to dedicate it to video and CAD editing only. Thanks in advance.
Ron.

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The cleanest, least painful way to do this is a fresh second install of XP onto your new 30 GB partition. Avoid cloning the existing XP unless you really know your way around boot.ini and drive letter quirks. A clean install keeps the editing build lean and avoids cross-talk with your daily setup.

Quick plan:

  1. Back up first.
  2. Boot from the Windows XP CD (do not start Setup from within Windows).
  3. Choose a New Installation and pick the 30 GB partition. Let Setup format it NTFS.
  4. Setup will detect the existing XP and add a boot menu automatically. Activate this second install and load only your video/CAD drivers, codecs, and apps.

To make the boot menu clear, rename the entries. In the daily XP: System Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings -> Edit, then adjust descriptions in C:\boot.ini. Example:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP - Daily" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP - Video/CAD" /fastdetect

Notes and tips:

  • The partition number for your new XP might not be 2 if there is a hidden/OEM partition. If the menu fails to appear or points to the wrong one, boot the XP CD, enter Recovery Console, and run bootcfg /rebuild to auto-detect installs.
  • It is normal if the editing XP sees itself as D:. That is fine.
  • Keep data (projects/media) on a shared third partition if possible; avoid installing apps to shared folders between the two XPs.
  • For performance on the editing XP: disable unnecessary startup items, enable DMA for disks, and set a fixed-size pagefile on the fast drive. Keep drivers identical and up to date on both installs.
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