Want to add a new OS hard disk

[athlon64X2]

Folks,

I have a workstation which is currently running a dual processor (each processor is dual core) Opterons and I want to make use of its 64-bit capability for my computing applications.

Currently to explain what hardware I have:
Three HDD:
1) XP Pro OS HDD (C
2) Data HDD 1 (E
3) Data HDD 2 (F

Now I want to add 4th HDD which will be XP-64 OS. I would like to ask the experienced folks if following steps are the right way to upgrade my hardware:

1) Get a new SATA HDD and install it
2) Install all the drivers and boot the workstation and let the HDD by identified by the BIOS. (G
3) Put the XP-64 CD into the drive and boot from the drive.
4) When it asks where I would like to install the OS, I would select G:
5) Once the installation is done, will I automatically get a workstation which will be dual boot? Will I be prompted automatically to select 32-bit or 64-bit OS at teh boot time?

Am most concerned about item #5. I feel that dual boot configuration may have to setup manually. Please advice.

Thanks.

 

[humanure]

yes it will stop every time you boot and ask which OS to use, it will usually time out to one of them after 30 seconds. You can change the time and the default OS in the boot.ini file after you install the second OS.

 

[jkresh]

How often will you be switching os's? I prefer to install the new os with all other drives unplugged and it just use the motherboards boot menu (assuming it has one) to switch which drive to boot off for which os. This makes it easier if you want to stop using one os or make a change and stops the new os from messing with the mbr on the main drives (it also lesions the probability of accidentally formating the wrong drive during the new os install and loosing data).