I have one computer and two hard drives. I'd like to emulate 2 completely separate computers. That is, each hard drive will have a separate Windows XP image and I will choose at startup which one to boot. OK so far, but, I do not want either Win XP image to ever see or interact with the other one in any way. If I am running from one hard drive, I want the other one to be completely invisible. Possible? [more inside]
posted by DarkForest on Aug 17, 2007 - 34 answers

Help me make my choice from one of the three options below: 1) Fix Windows so that it boots without messing up my Ubuntu. 2) Remove Windows completely. I don't need it anyways. 3) Shrink Windows to the bare minimum and reclaim the space with Ubuntu. [more inside]
posted by furtive on Aug 28, 2006 - 7 answers

My WinXP system won't boot. Knoppix comes up fine, and complains that it can't read the partition table. I've got The Ultimate Boot CD; does anyone have a methodology for making things right, or at least recovering whatever I can from the hard drive?
posted by Daddio on Jan 14, 2005 - 6 answers

My computer has a sudden inexplicable inability to initiate.

That is, it was working fine, now it won't boot. AOpen AX4SPE Max II motherboard, P4 3.2 GHz, WinXP. (more inside) [more inside]
posted by ludwig_van on Jan 3, 2005 - 9 answers

PC won't boot. All I get is a blinking cursor in the upper left corner after BIOS. Help!!! (more inside) [more inside]
posted by luser on Sep 17, 2004 - 5 answers

I have 100GB and 160GB hard drives in my XP computer. I tried using Norton Ghost to move the 100GB info to my latter drive, and it worked but with serious partition errors (windows not booting). I then moved a large amount of data to my 160, the 100 not really having changed. Everything in windows functions, but when I use Partition Magic 8 I get the following error: "Disk 1 appears to have partitions created using a different drive geometry (255h 63s original, 240h 63 current) You should back up...." etcetera. More inside. [more inside]
posted by Keyser Soze on Mar 7, 2004 - 2 answers

I have an old HP Printer (LaserJet4P) which works perfectly even though it's a decade old. But ever since upgrading to WinXP, it spits out a sheet of paper every time I boot up the computer. The sheet is blank except for a tiny nonsense character in the upper-left corner. I have the latest driver, but it doesn't help. The only way I can get it to stop wasting paper is to remember to keep the printer turned off when I boot up. But I usually forget. Any ideas?
posted by grumblebee on Jan 2, 2004 - 5 answers