Installing XP twice on 2 separate partitions?

[freedomrains]

Is it possible to do this, I have removed a virus and now windows xp is rather damaged but can still log on, I'm trying to recover some files but the cd rom isn't recognized and I have no way of copying the files....If I create a new partition with a clean version of windows on it, can I access to old partition to copy the files to the new partition and further back them up onto CD , USB drive , etc... any help greatly appreciated....

 

[Harvey]

It would be easier to install Windows on a separate drive. Then, after you install your AV and other protection, connect your original drive as a slave, boot up, and copy your files to the new drive.

You could use almost any size drive larger than around 60 GB, as long as there's enough room for the files you want to transfer after installing Windows. Once you have that together, if your original drive is bigger, and you need the space, you can use Acronis True Image or an old version of Norton Ghost or to clone the new drive back to the original one.

Before you transfer your files, you may want to boot to the new drive in Safe Mode and scan your old drive to make sure there's no lingering infections that could damage your new installation.

Western Digital and Seagate/Maxtor both give away a free version of True Image 11. The only requirement for using one of these is that at least one of the drives (source or target) must be manufactured by company who sourced the version you're using.

BTW -- This version of True Image works to clone Win 7 drives, as well. So far, I've only done that between two matched drives. I've never had any problems cloning between mismatched drives on XP.

Hope that helps. 🙂

 

[Devilpapaya]

How does one create a new partition without wiping the drive?

 

[Harvey]

How does one create a new partition without wiping the drive?

Partition Magic does that, but it wouldn't be a good idea in this case because he can't back up his files before trying.

 

[corkyg]

Partition Magic can do it, but Symantec has more or less let it decay since acquiring PowerQuest. Today, Acronis Disk Director is fresher and can do more. I have both, and DD wins hands down.

http://www.google.com/products?rlz=...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CCsQrQQwAg

It works in XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Separate drives is much better than partitions - that can be troulble.

 

[simonizor]

Partition Magic can do it, but Symantec has more or less let it decay since acquiring PowerQuest. Today, Acronis Disk Director is fresher and can do more. I have both, and DD wins hands down.

http://www.google.com/products?rlz=...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CCsQrQQwAg

It works in XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Separate drives is much better than partitions - that can be troulble.

I agree that separate drives would be much easier than resizing the current drive into two partitions, but I do not agree that having multiple operating systems installed on a single drive with multiple partitions is asking for trouble. I have installed many operating systems (including multiple installs of XP, XP and vista, XP and vista and 7, XP and linux, etc) on a single drive with multiple partitions. You just need to make sure that you install the MAIN operating system on the primary partition. If you don't do this, you could run into some troubles if you try to delete one of your operating systems down the road, but this can easily be fixed by simply deleting the entire partition that the OS that you don't want is on and fixing the master boot record of your main OS in the recover console on the install CD (assuming you're using windows, of course).

In short, installing multiple operating systems on a single drive with multiple partitions is not any more difficult than using two drives as long as you make sure you install the correct operating system on the correct partition and in the correct order (main first, secondary second, etc).

 

[Harvey]

I agree that separate drives would be much easier than resizing the current drive into two partitions, but I do not agree that having multiple operating systems installed on a single drive with multiple partitions is asking for trouble.

I think he was referring to the problems one could have trying to resize the partition on his current drive to add another one.