Dual boot - 2nd drive already has XP

[todd a]

I retired my old XP Home sp2 machine (registry problems) and replaced it with a new Pavillion with Vista home premium preinstalled (and SATA). I'd like to take my old IDE hard drive (which still has XP on it) and be able to dual boot. I have the 2nd drive installed as a slave on the ATA line and can see it just fine. How do I proceed setting up a dual boot system. All I've found refers to new installs and partitions on the same drive. I guess I'd have to resolve the registry problem first on the old drive? Thanks.

 

[Mugsy]

First thing's first... opening up your new Pavillion to add your old IDE will violate your warranty.

If this is of no concern to you, you will need some form of Boot Manager software. "GRUB" is popular among Linux users, though I imagine it should work for any OS.

Vista may offer a "boot alternative OS" option like XP supposedly does (I say "supposedly" because you're supposed to be able to do this by hitting F4 when booting, but I've never been able to figure it out). Investigate that first before installing anything else.

Your BEST option that would not violate your warranty and circumvent your Registry problem is to partition your existing C: drive and install XP on it (Google for details on how, it's not as simple as just inserting the CD).