Installing windows 2003 on a different hard drive.

[Sakura No Rei]

I currently have 3 hard drives and I was thinking of installing windows 2003 on one of them. My main hard drive which is plugged in 24/7 has windows xp. The other two are not connected, they just sit in there until I'm ready to back up things on them. If I installed windows 2003 on one of the others, and unplug the windows xp one, will I be able to use it just fine with no problems and be able to switch back and forth? What would happen if I plugged both of them up at the same time?

[Roadrunner777]

Let's see... if you have one or the other plugged in, then no problem.

If both are plugged in, it is a little difficult to predict. Most BIOS will see 2 master drives on one IDE cable as an error condition and will not boot. But, some BIOS will overcome this and boot off of one or the other. If it does happen to boot, you may experience some problems. I accidently booted with bootable windows on both a master and slave drive, and the system on the slave drive was damaged.

I might suggest the use of removable hard drive trays to keep things straight. They are relatively inexpensive and allow easy drive swapping without opening the case.

[Sakura No Rei]

ok thanks for the help and suggestion. i think i'll install it sometime when i get some things backed up first.

[Roadrunner777]

Backing up before doing major work, always a good idea. Good Luck!