adding a hard drive

[alanmus]

Hi.  My existing HD has two partitions C: & D: with WinXP on C:

     I would like to add another HD with a separate copy of XP on it, exclusively for use with MS Flight Simulator2004 (fs9). My object is to have fs9 and all it's add-ons not sharing any resources with the rest of my PC, so I will need to be able to choose which OS to boot from depending on whether I want to go flying (virtually)  ;D. Or work  :'( .

      Any suggestions on the best way to do this would be appreciated.

              Thanks in advance..................Alan.

[Papa9571]

how big id your hard drive and why is it partitioned in the first place? And what do you have running in your current XP config that you dont want to run in the new setup?

As for adding a hard drive, thats the easy part. Just make sure you have the proper cables. If it is a IDE drive make sure you set the jumper to the slave position before you install it.

With XP its really simple to partition the drive. XP will recognize the new drive and will format and partition it as you want. Just follow the onscreen instructuions.

THen after all is complete, reboot the system from the XP install cd and install XP on your new drive. When you are done and when you boot up you will get a menu asking which version you want to boot.

Just make sure you have all the drivers loaded on the new XP OS before you get to carrried away. If you dont your CP will do strange and funny things until the drivers are properly loaded.


Have fun

[dave3cu]

I think the easiest way would be to simply create a new profile and within it disable all of the resources you do not want running.

Cheers,
Dave

[the_autopilot]

There's really no need to install a seperate verisan of windows.

Just install fs2004 to the new drive and use profiles to make sure nothing else is running and you'll be good.

[alanmus]

Hi all.   Thanks for your replies.
  My HD is 120gig. I originally set up the second partition for fs9 and it's add-on's but simply turning my PC on uses 25% of available RAM. As fs9 seems to like a lot of RAM I thought that if it had it's own OS then it could use all available RAM because nothing else (except XP) is using it.
  I have not tried using profiling before! I can only find how to do hardware profiling in MS help, nothing about software profiling!  ???  If I load fs9 onto another HD without it's own OS, how do I profile it so that when I turn my PC on, in that profile,  only fs9, and and not any other application is using the original OS ?. Is this even possible?
  It seems to me that having fs9 with it's own OS would have the advantage of: Almost instant boot, Maximum RAM available, No internet, so no firewall, anti-virus. anti-spyware or ISP software always running and updating, in brief, a more efficent Flight Sim. I could be completely wrong in my assumptions, so if anybody has any comments, they would be most welcome  

                    Regards................Alan

[Jared]

profiling = Adding another user name... ;-)

Do this, tell it what to run and what not to run, and you should be fine. No need to add another hard-drive, or copy of operating system... ;-)

[congo]

This will help in your new account name to disable any unwanted applications running in the background.

http://www.wheresjames.com/index.php?page=startupmgr


Also, you might want to disable the Wix XP services that aren't needed so here is a guide.......

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Services can be configured by going to:
START/settings/control panel/administrative tools/services

Open the blackviper guide in the top half of your screen and open the services window in the bottom half of your screen.

Try and match your configuration to the "safe" settings in the guide. If you see any others you can safely disable, then do so. My settings are quite severe and I sometimes have to enable a few services from time to time to get certain things to work when i need them.

Turn off auto everything and make sure nothing is running except your firewall if you are online.

[alanmus]

Hi All

 Sorry I havn't replied earlier, but I have been away!

 This post is just to say thanks to all of you for your replies and the links, It's very much appreciated.

 Autopilot, if you read this post, and have the time, could you tell me what you think of the ASUS "A8N-SLI Deluxe" nForce4 SLI M/board please, as I am thinking of using it as the basis of an upgrade.

        Thanks again. Regards.......Alan.