Install Windows 7 On 2nd Drive

[iamloco724]

i have windows xp running on my main drive..i just recently added a 500 gig 2nd drive both sata drives if that matters if i want to try out windows 7 do i just boot with the windows 7 setup and install to the 2nd drive and then i will have a dual boot option? or do i have to do something different to make this work smoothly?

[Paul Komski]

You can just add the drive and then install from the same WinXP drive but to the new drive. That will modify the boot processes on the WinXP drive to give you a Windows based dual boot menu.

You can also swap the boot drive in the BIOS setup and install directly to the new drive, avoiding any interference with the current drive. You thereafter would need to either use the BIOS options to select which drive to boot to or set up a boot manager to do this for you or install and modify the settings using a utility called VistaBootPro (http://www.vistabootpro.org/).

[iamloco724]

ok i did this but ive decided to get rid of windows 7 for now so i formatted the drive but now its still coming up with dual boot and which os to boot to how do i get rid of this in windows xp..i read something about editing my boot file well here is what it looks like i dont know what to get rid of

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

[Paul Komski]

Boot.ini exists but is redundant having installed Windows Vista or 7 on top of it and they use BCDEDIT. Try to reconfigure using VistaBootPro (which should allow you to edit BCDEDIT in a user friendly way) or run fixmbr and fixboot from a WinXP installation CD's recovery console.