Installing another Windows XP on a second hard drive

[simonsays476]

Hi,

I'm new to these forums and somewhat new to computers in general. I apologize in advance if this topic was supposed to be posted in another subforum. I would like to know if it is possible to install a separate install of Windows XP on a second hard drive in a desktop computer. I currently have a computer with XP (XP1) on one hard drive (HDD1). If I add another hard drive (HDD2), is it possible for this hard drive to not get detected by XP1 so that I can install another copy of XP (XP2). I want XP1 users to not know that XP2 exists and that both operating system run separately from each other using their own hard drive. My goal is to have some sort of hidden computer system within the computer.

From what I understand, in the BIOS, I can designate from which hard drive to boot from. Therefore, I'm hoping it is also possible to choose to start XP1 or XP2 from there.

So what I'm asking now is how do make this happen, if this is possible?

 

[Noema]

Why do you want to hide the second XP install?

If you have XP Pro, it would perhaps be easier to simply create separate user accounts, one with admin privileges and the other without them, and then deny access to whatever drives / folders / files you want to keep hidden from the limited account.

 

[simonsays476]

I have no admin privileges on the first XP install.

 

[Harvey]

If it's your computer, you don't need a second installation. Just log on as Admin, and set the privileges for your account to have full Admin access to the drive.