Dual Boot two drives
 

I have just purchased an older Linspire system, however it is brand new. I want to add a win xp hard drive, will the machine allow me to boot from either drive? If so, how do I set it up or what software do I need? I see other posts about dual boot but they are from a partitioned drive.:)

This is probably the easiest way to set up dual-boot. You set the boot order in the BIOS setup, and each OS/drive is completely self-contained.

Simply boot up from the Windows installation CD. It will prompt you to choose which drive to install on.

Note that Linspire is obsolete and not a distro that most of us would recommend----you may want to install a more current/mainstream Linux also.

The BIOS...

It certainly should be possible, but you might look at the BIOS settings to see if there is any setting that, in case there is more than one HDD, chooses which HDD will boot first, and insure that the HDD with Windows is the first. Otherwise, it is easiest to set the Windows HDD as the first Master or the first SATA drive.

The most important thing is to have Windows see itself as being on the first primary partition of the first HDD.

More details would be useful if you expect a more detailed response.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...Ask_a_Question

I like using bios to select hard drives. To the OS when you choose hd 0 or hd 1 the OS only seems to know what is the first in the order. Either the order is hd o then 1 or 1 then 0. You set bios first to the new drive as first boot order. Then install xp. To change back select original hd as first boot order.