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two hard drives xp and vista

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omghaxcode

Senior member
right now I'm booting into vista and I've got a second sata drive on XP that I would like to be able to access while I'm on vista. I took my old hard drive out of my old computer and now xp is telling me that I need to reactivate it because there was a hardware change. I don't have the old computer with me right now so I can't put it back in my old computer. how can I allow my vista hard drive access to my XP hard drive?
 
I'm not sure if I got this right

You boot the system and now XP boots ? And you can't get into Vista ? Because other wise you should see the XP drive in Vista without doing a thing.

If this is the case then you should just be able to switch the boot order in the bios.

BTW even if you put the old drive back it would still need to be reactivated, once it's triggered there is no turning back.
 
If you just need to read the data and have no real plans to boot back to XP again, just take ownership of the files on the drive and grant yourself permisson.
 
I have to agree with the other poster that your posts are confusing.

If you boot to Vista and have the other drive, containing your XP installation, connected as a secondary drive, XP will not boot. It will not ask you for activation.
That is where the confusion resides with your description.

Can you describe your situation again?
Add more paragraphs. Add more detail. You are quite familiar with your setup. But, we are not.
 
Sounds like this to me...

1) Got rid of old computer and kept sata hard drive with XP installed.
2) Is now using a PC with Vista. And put old hard drive with XP into this machine.
3) Two hard drives in current PC. One with Vista, one with XP ?
4) Wants to use the Vista drive to access files on the XP drive ?

Is that right ?
 
A safe way is to put that old XP drive into an external USB case and access your data files anytime you want. Just hot plug it after you have booted to Vista. Unplug it when done. This way you don't involved in two OS's during the boot/load cycle.
 
I just did this this weekend. Just disable booting from the xp drive, and boot the system up with both drives plugged in while only allowing to boot from the vista drive via bios. As long as you don't have a password protected login on your xp drive you can access the drive. Vista will see the xp drive and when you access it, it will ask you if you want to take ownership etc... it takes a few seconds and it's all yours.

corkyg's solution is probably the safest if you aren't comfortable with the bios.
 
Originally posted by: JPB
Sounds like this to me...

1) Got rid of old computer and kept sata hard drive with XP installed.
2) Is now using a PC with Vista. And put old hard drive with XP into this machine.
3) Two hard drives in current PC. One with Vista, one with XP ?
4) Wants to use the Vista drive to access files on the XP drive ?

Is that right ?
Click to expand...

exactly
 
I just disabled the old hard drive with XP installed on it and I still can't access my old desktop files. no there isn't a password on that user
 
Originally posted by: Smilin
If you just need to read the data and have no real plans to boot back to XP again, just take ownership of the files on the drive and grant yourself permisson.
Click to expand...

Do that.
 
Originally posted by: omghaxcode
and how do I go about doing that? also how do I fix the -- authentication thing?
Click to expand...

First, watch your language!

Click on "Start" and right click "Computer" and click on "Manage".
Expand "Storage" and click on "Disk Management" in the left pane.
In the right pane, do you see "System" on one partition (drive) and "Boot" on another?
 
Something still does not add up, at least for me.

Is C, which is System and Boot, XP or Vista?
If it is Vista, I don't understand why XP is asking for re-activation!
I will stay out of this thread and wait for smilin's suggestions.


If it is XP, reboot and enter the BIOS and make sure your Vista physical drive is the only drive in the boot list. Your old XP physical drive should not be in the boot list.
 
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