Ive Always Wondered. . .

[Mugen9s]

How would I go about installing a differant OS on another hard drive if it is possible which im sure is as ive seen it on many laptops. I was wondering If I could do this for me pc.


For Example on one hard drive I would have Vista whilst on the other lets say Mac etc.

Any Ideas?

[Namo]

Oh, its entirely possible, I just did it last week.

However, if you're looking to keep all your stuff, there's no easy way.

When you first install an OS the best thing to do, if you plan to update to more recent OS's eventually, is to put your harddrive into two partitions; one for the OS and the other for everything else. Then, updating would be simple; just format the OS partition and put in a CD installer for your new OS.

If you didnt do that, back all the stuff you want on CD's, format your harddrive, and then install your new OS. Make sure you make two partitions, one to install the OS on and the other for everything else. (In some cases this is even required for Windows 7!)

[Dev]

Yes, dual boot they call that.
If you're installing 2 Windows OS'es, make sure you install the most recent first if you can. For example, Vista will detect your current XP and adds it to its boot manager. However, if you do it the other way round, it will hide your Vista installation. It's still there but it's a pain to make it bootable if you're a novice.

You suggested Mac OS, which won't work right out the box on your PC. Although it runs on Intel hardware nowadays, it's designed to run on Apple specific hardware. Mac OS bascially runs on a modified Linux kernel, but I'm not sure about the legality of using/installing it on a computer other than a Mac.

As an alternative to a dual boot, you could also consider a virtual machine, like Microsoft Virtual PC or VM Ware Player. Graphics performance isn't as good but it's great for testing games on different platforms. I port my games to Linux that way.

Whatever you decide to do, have a good look around the internet for guides on doing it. And most importantly, make backups first!

[Nicholas]

I've the beta version of Windows 7. Gonna update to the full next week.