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I wish to install Ubuntu 9.1 onto one hard drive and winXp onto another: can you actively swap between them?

Asked by Lars Svenson

I would like to swap between Ubuntu 9.1 and WinXp, each with their own hard drives. Even if Xp won't recognize Ubuntu, so long as Ubuntu recognizes ntfs drives, I want to work between the two at will, using a usb flash drive for swapping files as needed. Any simple solutions?

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Digvijay Patankar (dbpatankar) said : 		#1

One solution is :
(Here I am assuming that your primary working OS will be Ubuntu)

1. Install WinXP on external HDD(sdb drive) with its MBR on /dev/sdb
2. Install Ubuntu on internal HDD(sda drive) with its MBR on /dev/sda
3. In the BIOS settings > Boot device priority > HDD priority, set the external HDD to boot first.
4. This way when boot starts, if external HDD is attached; it will boot into WinXP.
5. If external HDD is not attached; Internal HDD will boot into Ubuntu.
6. You can now attach external HDD to transfer files.

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Anmol Sarma (unmole) said : 		#2

1. Install XP on one of your HDD.
2. With the XP HDD still plugged in, install Ubuntu on your second HDD.
3. Grub should automatically detect the XP HDD and you can choose to boot into either XP or Ubuntu.
4. You can access the XP HDD in ubuntu buy mounting it.
5. Accessing the Ubuntu HDD from XP tough tequires special software. This link could be helpful
http://icsbd.co.cc/linux/57-utility/57-access-your-linux-partition-ext2-ext3-and-ext4-from-windows-in-a-duel-boot.html

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