am I crazy or is this a good idea?

[slackerinabox]

Hey,
I just got a new motherboard and cpu and decided to run TWO versions of Win XP on one computer.. I know this sounds silly but I kept one boot of winXP for gaming, report writing, school work, etc. and the other partition for P2P sharing and stuff like that.. I figure that my system used to slow to a crawl when I ran kazaa and that I spent an annoying amount of time running AD-AWARE and the likes.. So is this overkill or a decent idea?

 

[Insidious]

I'm guessing your machine slowed because it was running low on resources. I'm not sure I understand how a second windows setup is going
to do anything to aleviate that.

-Sid

 

[everman]

It's a perectly fine idea. I keep an install of xp pro and 2 of win2k on the same pc here. Using up a few gigs is nothing to me and if I need to, I can switch to another os to continue my work without wasting time fixing something.

 

[boyRacer]

i don't completely understand why you'd want two installs of xp just for p2p... i could understand dual boots for multiple OSs. 😀 you could've just run two different profiles under one windows xp install... if you want a tweaked config for gaming and another one normal config for normal tasks... 🙂

 

[slackerinabox]

So, hypothetically, if the profile that has P2P crap on it crashes (I've had that happen- most p2p clients are a bit buggy) will the other profile stay intact? That's why I have two installs- if one partition busts the other one (with my important data, etc.) stays in tact.

 

[Warders23]

That's not a bad idea, hypothetically. But make sure the 2 WinXP are installed to different directories to prevent files from overwriting. The only P2P software that BSOD my computer is bit torrent... is that what you use?

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
So, hypothetically, if the profile that has P2P crap on it crashes (I've had that happen- most p2p clients are a bit buggy) will the other profile stay intact? That's why I have two installs- if one partition busts the other one (with my important data, etc.) stays in tact.

Ahhh now i understand... AFAIK... i only use different profiles so i can have a stripped down version of XP with the least services and eye-candy on and one that's for normal use. I don't really use P2P... so that's why i didn't see where you're coming from. I have P2P in another computer... it's a real POS. 🙂 You're setup makes sense... 🙂

 

[smp]

I don't know about you, but when I'm downloading twenty 700 meg files that are taking days... I'm not crazy about the idea of rebooting.

 

[slackerinabox]

OK.. Cool, so I'm not an idiot 🙂 I've just been EXTRA careful after losing an entire 10 page term paper an hour before it was due... Sigh...

 

[bupkus]

I wonder if MS will require a 2nd license? 😀 Hehe.

 

[slackerinabox]

hMmmm.. Well, I am the same guy using it on the same computer.. hmm.. interesting ethical question there.. Hmmm.. I think I'll just go get a beer..

 

[EeyoreX]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
OK.. Cool, so I'm not an idiot 🙂 I've just been EXTRA careful after losing an entire 10 page term paper an hour before it was due... Sigh...

If that is the issue, lossing data, why not put the data on a seperate partition from the OS? That's what I and many other people do. OS/programs on one parition, data on one or more other partitions. I have several. On my 120GB I have a 20GB OS/program partition, a 30GB "garbage"/download partition and a 60GB partition for my MP3s. I have an 80GB drive for my dM stuff, and a 60GB drive for DiskImages. Bottom line, if my OS partition gets FUBAR'd, All my data is safe elsewhere.

\Dan