Dual Boot Windows 7 & XP With 2 HDDs

[corndale]

I plan to set up a partition on my main "C" HDD using GParted & install Windows 7 beta so I can dual boot Windows 7 & XP.  I happen to have a 2nd "D" HDD on my computer.  If I instead install Windows 7 on the 2nd "D" HDD, will I be able to then dual boot with XP on "C" and Windows 7 on "D", or is it necessary for all operating systems be on the same HDD in order to be presented with the dual boot option at bootup?

[chaserus]

With my luck I have found it best to install the Operating systems one at a time. That is only have one hardrive hooked up to the mobo for each seperate OS. Then once each os is installed hook them all up and use the BIOS boot menu to choose what harddrive to boot from.

This way this OSes cannot mess with the MBR on the other drives and prevent boot of those drives

At this moment i am having trouble with having my xp drive set up as ntfs along with vista so you might want to try paining down to fat32 for your xp drive.

I have Windows 7 running inside a virtual machine and it seams to run quite a bit faster than vista. im waiting for another harddrive to come on so it can have its own hdd then i will try duel boot with it my self

[patio]

You will still have the option at boot time no matter which drive/partition you decide to use...they do not have to be on the same HDD.

[fgdn17]

You will still have the option at boot time no matter which drive/partition you decide to use...they do not have to be on the same HDD.

agree BUT...

depends on how it is installed....

if installed with the wxp disk connected then boot/bootmgr will be written to the wxp disk and you'll get a choice to boot either wxp or W7....

if installed with the wxp disk disconnected, you'll need to select the W7 disk through the BIOS....

if you install on a partition on the wxp disk you'll get a choice as boot/bootmgr will be installed...

so it makes a differences...IMO

[Geek-9pm]

You could use a drive tray for that kind of thing. I have a tray that fits in the 5 inch bay and holds a standard 3.5 HDD. I can pull out the tray and shoe in another HDD. Saves wear and tear on the cables.

An alternative is in the BIOS. Some will let you swap which HDD is the boot.

As a precaution, avoid an install of the BETA while your regular system is in the machine wit no backup. It is a beta. It may wipe out the current system. Be advised that MS sometime back changed the way the MBR is defined. Further, MS says do not put the BETA on a system you use for anything other that lab testing.

But you knew that already!
I put this here for the benefit of others.