dual boot on 2 hdd's

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anupupadhye13

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i have a xp sp3 on my pc. i have another hdd 40 gb (dont know whether SATA IDE{ how to determine that without opening case}). i am thinking of setting up a dual boot of win 7 on my existing xp but on the other hdd(40gb).. what do i have to do? hdd1(320gb)- c:\ xp e:\ all important datahdd2(planned for win7)- f:\ nothing important d:\ nothing importantthanx in advance.......
 
The IDE HDD has a broader data cable (cable being about 2" broad, grey in colour with a red stripe on one edge) connector ( I don't remember how many pins) & the SATA hdd has a thinner (about 1 cm broad) data cable usually red in colour.Do not have IDE & SATA hdd's in one machine as I was told by my assembler that it could cause problems.Any particular reason that you want to go in for a dual boot?
 
To answer the original questions:1. You should be able to tell without opening the case - Device Manager should have Model and/or Serial number information. A quick Google search of that number (or if you can get the Serial #, on the manufacturers website) should reveal what interface you're using. If the computer/drives are under 5 years old it's PROBABLY using SATA, under 3 years old it's more than likely using SATA. Considering the drive sizes however, it's probably safe to assume that the computer (or at least the drives) are older than that and are more than likely using IDE.2. When you install Windows 7, it will install a boot loader on the Active Partition in whichever drive is the boot drive (probably hdd1), and in doing this it will overwrite Windows XP's boot loader (but it will still see Windows XP). You will not get, nor do you need a choice. However, when it comes to the part where it asks you which partition you wish to install to, just keep in mind that DOS *may* not allocate the drive letters in the same order as your Windows Installation, so the easiest way to tell is by the size of the partition and/or free-space. To be safe, you should use a partition that has at least 20GB of free space, because Windows 7 is a bit of a behemoth of bytes, and will probably take up 10-15GB just by itself.
 
ok thanx very muchh for the datailed answer,, i have checked my drive models(device manager). 320gb(samsung hd322hj) is sata and 40gb(st340015a) is ide. i am going to install on the ide drive. are there any specific instructions for ide? and after i install and have 2 os in 2 drives, and then when i install, say a s/w, where will it get installed? xp or 7? does a dual boot affect system performance in terms of slower startup and shutdown speed and/ or slower processing speed?
 

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