Need help installing XP on second HDD

[groundpounder56]

I would like to install XP on another hdd. I already have Windows7 on the computer but am having lots of crashes..BSOD's and thought that if I put XP on the other drive I might be able to tell if its my hardware causing the problems. I have already updated all my drivers and software to no avail.
my second sata hdd is listed as G: do I need to make it first boot device to install XP.. I looked in the bios but didn't see how to specify a particular drive. Is it even possible to do?

 

[josef613]

well, first you have to make your disc drive first to install xp. then you just need to select the right drive, and you should be able to install

 

[groundpounder56]

Alright I made my cd fist boot then put the XP cd in and rebooted. It started installing drivers and files without asking which drive to install to. Then I got a blue screen and install crashed.... any idea what I might try next?

 

[Night Hawk]

Apparently you attempted to install XP while still booted in 7? If you booted from the XP cd and saw that you could be looking at a bad dimm that developed faults. Try running the memtest option when booting from the 7 dvd to let that run a bit to test for errors.

You may want to follow the guide for seeing XP installed after 7. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

To prevent XP from making 7 unbootable once installed you would first shutdown completely and simply unplug the drive 7 is presently installed on. That eliminates the need for the startup repair used when booting live from the 7 dvd later when 7 fails to start up!

Since this would be a fast install of XP once the 7 drive is unplugged the second drive will then be seen as the first hard drive. If you utilize the boot device menu option you can leave the first item in the boot order set for hard drive and simply call up the boot device menu at post for the one time boot from the XP cd.

Once the setup files are fully copied and the first restart is seen you will be booting from the drive is going onto to finish that up without a second trip into the bios. If there isn't any faults found with the memory you could have been seeing bad sectors on the 7 main drive where a drive diagnostic tool would be used.

 

[gregrocker]

Memory Diagnostics.URL
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.URL

Unplugging Win7 HD during XP install will leave both HD's independent and bootable via either BIOS boot order or one-time BIOS Boot menu key.

For example when you plug Win7 back in, XP will already be set to boot first in BIOS setup, so to boot Win7 HD instead press the key given on first boot screen for BIOS boot menu.

 

[groundpounder56]

I ran memtest and came up with some good info, slots 3 & 4 seem to be the cause of my problems. after running test on all slots separately, there were thousands of errors on slots 3&4 but none on 1 or 2. I guess this could be the cause of all my BSOD's ? I was using 2 & 4. So thanks gregrocker for the link to memtest.

If this does take care of my BSOD problem would it be of more benefit to go ahead and install XP on the other drive or make it a mirror drive for backup?
Thanks for the very helpful info gregrocker and night hawk.

 

[Night Hawk]

One other thing you may want to look at is the installing memory section in the board's user manual. That will show if Slots #3+#4 are Channel B 1+2 or Channel A2 + Channel B2 in the event the board requires two dimms only to be in A1+B1 which you see as Slots #1+#2.

As for the XP install on the second drive that was to be a temp install there which would be wiped later I assumed in order to track the problem down. You could toss an even faster temp install of 7 on it in order to start installing a few of the same things you have on the host drive's installation there just to learn if the drive or something else like a driver is toast.

All this would be optional however since you now need to see if any further problems are seen due to any driver issues since the blue screens subsided once the dimms were moved. Otherwise you could use the Backup+Recovery option for seeing full image stored on the second folllowing scans of the main drive to be on the safe side to see that ruled out.

If you never had plans for a dual boot to start with once all this is seen to the best use for a second drive on a one OS machine would be for storage and backup. If the main drive should be found bad or you eventually upgrade it all your files are still to be found on the second.