Dual boot logic sorry for trying again

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Hi all.

I have two 80 GB drives and want one with XP Home on it for my son and one with XP prof for me.

I have boot magic and partition magic.

Both drives are formatted as NTFS.

Q1. Does is matter whether dip switches on the drives are set as slave or master.
Q2. Both drives are on one IDE ribbon cable, does it matter which one is at the end? If I make an assumption I am currently booting off drive 1.

I know I had to create a FAT32 partition on the "drive 1", which I have done, but I think it needs to be moved to the front.

Q3. If I move it to the front, will the disk still boot, last thing I want is a dead computer.
Q4. How do I move it and there any pitfalls.

I assume I then install Bootmagic in the FAT32 partition.

Q5. Is this right, or is there more.

Drive 1 has XP home

Q6. How do I install XP prof on drive 2, do I need to unplug drive 1 from the IDE cable and install to drive 2, reconnect and then boot from drive 1. Then run bootmagic to see both operating systems.

Q7. Is there any way to prevent a drive and its operating system from accessing the other drive.

Thanks in advance
 
Loads of questions.
For starters, you don't need bootmagic.
You say XP-home is already installed on disk 1, I assume this is the C-drive. This disk should be set to master, and connected to the far end of the flat-cable.

If you want separate disks for separate people, that can not access the other, you should install a harddisk-caddy. This way, you insert the son's harddisk with XP-Home and let him do what he needs to do (disk set to master).
When you want to go on it, switch PC off, and swap the HD for yours with XP-Pro.
If you follow this route, then your pro-HD should also be set to master, insert it, then use the whole HD for XP-Pro, i.e. repartition/reformat all in NTFS and install. This drive will also be a C-drive.

If you want both disks in permanently, you can NOT stop one disk to access the other.
If you go that way, make the second HD for XP-pro the slave, and attach in the middle of the flatcable.
Boot up in your son's XP-home or set the BIOS to boot from CD-rom. Insert the xp-pro cd and start the installation. Let XP-pro repartition/reformat the whole HD in NTFS. During install, XP-Pro will create the boot-menu.

Final thought: Dell is offering dirt-cheap new PCs, and have the Dell-Outlet for refurbished or returned PCs.
www.tiny.com also is not very expensive.
Using a KVM-switch, you need only one keyboard/video/mouse.
 
Yes, you would not want to wipe your son's stuff on the first HD, would you?
When installing XP-pro tell it to use the second HD (I think thy are HD0=first and HD1=second), repartition and reformat it in NTFS before install starts.
 
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