What's a very safe way to add WinXP to WinMe system?

[raediant]

Have a nice stable WinMe rig I rely on. Will not put it at risk.
But must move on, so wish to experiment/learn WinXPpro.
How to add WinXPpro without touching my WinMe system?
Can I install separate hard drive and build a completely separate WinXP system on that?
I do not wish to access any files across from one system to the other.
Saw somebody suggest I could go this route, and simply stop the BIOS on boot, change the boot disk, and away I could go on whatever OS is on that disk.
How about drive letters (such as each disk will need to be Drive C?). What other items to note?
Help please.
PS. Guess I'll need to install OfficeXP again on the new WinXP disk. Authentication problem ?

 

[matheusber]

i had both .. and no problem ...

but xp was english and me portuguese ... so one had Program files and another Arquivos de Programas ... and this way the System files wasnt mixed up ...

install xp on another drive ...

as you dont want to see one anothers file ... by xp side its ok, as you say its partition is ntfs and so winme wont be able to read it ... but xp will be able to read winme partition ...

do you have any special thing in mind ... cause i'd just put them together ...

matheus

 

[Finite]

Actually the easiest way to do this would be to switch the boot order in the bios so that the drive with ME on it is not a bootable drive according to the bios and make you XP drive the bootable one. Or you could always jumper your Me drive to slave and your XP drive to master (soon to be xp drive that is). Install XP on the master drive and it will see that there is another drive there with ME on it. After getting XP installed you will (when ever you reboot your system) be greeted with a boot menu where you can choose which os to boot from. Me would not be touched and XP would be fully and easily accessible.

 

[pcpakupic]

raediant
if you have enough space in your hdd you won't need a second hdd. just make a partition with partition magic and fresh install xp there. now if you don't have enough space, add a second hdd. do a fresh xp install on second partition/hdd with xp cd. xp boot loader will automatically recognize both OS and on booting will give you the option to boot into either OS.

 

[Abzstrak]

the easiest way is the special OS install and fixing tools MS has had foir a while, fdisk and format. dump ME, and install XP

 

[matheusber]

<< Actually the easiest way to do this would be to switch the boot order in the bios so that the drive with ME on it is not a bootable drive according to the bios and make you XP drive the bootable one. Or you could always jumper your Me drive to slave and your XP drive to master (soon to be xp drive that is). Install XP on the master drive and it will see that there is another drive there with ME on it. After getting XP installed you will (when ever you reboot your system) be greeted with a boot menu where you can choose which os to boot from. Me would not be touched and XP would be fully and easily accessible. >>



but what i'd like is not to have to switch cables/setup options .... just use the boot menu ...

if xp is installed in another partition ... it will find ME and then have them both in the boot loader ...

matheus

 

[Relayer]

My suggestion would be to clone your WinME partition that you love so much. Then upgrade to WinXP. I bet you will delete the WinME image in a week.