Windows XP and 2 boot disks. Need Help

Computer Hardware
#1

I have found out the hard way that when you boot your system with TWO boot drives at the same time the drives become permanently linked and you will never be able to use them seperately without a total re-format and install.

My question is this: will I have the same problem if I attach a second drive (a boot disc with all the windows information) after the system has already booted? I would be doing this through an external enclosure with a USB connection.

I really need to hear from someone who has done this with no problem as far as seperating the drives later. If I am wrong and this does not work I will have to re-install my entire system again and I don’t want that.

Thanks in advance.

#2

The only time when two drive’s remain linked is when they are in a raid array. Can u explain exactly what do u mean by linked…also if u have installed different OS’s on same hdd but different partitions

#3

I have a Sata maxtor 120 and a idePata maxtor 40 and both are boot drives

#4

When you boot up Windows and there is another hard drive in the system which also has windows installed and that drive has been configured as a boot disk, the two drives link themselves so that neither one will any longer boot without the other. Both Microsoft and Symantec have confirmed this and they both agree there is no way to recover either system so that each drive can work on its own. I think this is true for XP and 2000 both. I had this happen on a system where I was using Norton Ghost to create a mirror image drive and I had a long argument with Norton on why they did not mention this anywhere in their instructions.