We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
Existing PC (XP), partition HDD and reinstall XP on new partition?

davetrousers
Posts: 5,862 Forumite


in Techie Stuff
I might be doing this as a favour for someone so any help would be appreciated.
Existing PC has a 250GB HDD and has Windows XP. Would it be possible to partition the HDD so that the existing install is on a (relatively small) 50GB partition, then reinstall Windows XP on to the remaining 200GB partition?
Then rearrange the HDD names so that the fresh install is C: and the Old version is on
(or something else).
Thanks for your help.
Existing PC has a 250GB HDD and has Windows XP. Would it be possible to partition the HDD so that the existing install is on a (relatively small) 50GB partition, then reinstall Windows XP on to the remaining 200GB partition?
Then rearrange the HDD names so that the fresh install is C: and the Old version is on

Thanks for your help.
.....
0
Comments
-
you could - why do they want 2 instances?!!
> . !!!! ----> .0 -
davetrousers wrote: »Then rearrange the HDD names so that the fresh install is C: and the Old version is on
(or something else).
Although you can modify the partition mounting letters (e.g. C:,, E:, etc.), they aren't objective settings (so the partition represented by F: in one OS installation may be mounted as
when you boot the other installation).
Also, it's probably not a good idea (if it's even possible) to do that to the Windows boot partition (the one containing the OS that you have booted into) as there will be multiple hard-coded references to that partition label in the registry that wont be updated when you re-label the partition.
Seeing as the partition letter labels are pretty arbitrary, why would you want to change them anyway?0 -
-
OK forget about changing Drive letters, was a minor point really......0
-
unless you had two different license keys for XP, you couldn't do it legally anyway.
Could you not just do it with two user accounts ???......Gettin' There, Wherever There is......
I have a dodgy "i" key, so ignore spelling errors due to "i" issues, ...I blame Apple0 -
It would depend if the licence was OEM or retail.
Either way, person A lending to person B just isn't a good enough reason to want to do this. It won't stop person B from looking at, messing with person A's data.
Better to just created person B a user account.0 -
I thought that Windows licences were supplied on a per-machine or per-user basis...?
It depends on the license you buy, most home users have OEM which is tied to the machine. Can't really be bothered to read a license agreement right now, but suspect you'd be fine with this arrangement. Might need to phone them to activate it though, but that rarely represents a problem.
How about a removable hdd caddy? Just swap the hdd over - much simpler and no chance of them wrecking your install.0 -
It would depend if the licence was OEM or retail.
But I thought that all (non-corporate) licences (both OEM and retail) were per-machine...?
With the OEM licence you can only install on one "machine" ever; with a retail licence you can only install on one machine concurrently. In either case I thought you'd be able to have multiple installations on the same PC without breaking the contract.
Still, it's been a while since I read the terms so maybe I'm wrong...0 -
It's probably a very grey area, but having the same COA installed on two separate partitions as is intended will be like having two separate machines....who knows how MS would see this, but I can probably guess......Gettin' There, Wherever There is......
I have a dodgy "i" key, so ignore spelling errors due to "i" issues, ...I blame Apple0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 350.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.3K Spending & Discounts
- 243.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 597.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.6K Life & Family
- 256.4K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards