[Richard King]

I now have XP64 on one hard drive and XP Professional on a second hard drive. I can use either one by disconnecting one or the other hard drive. Is there a way that I can switch operating systems during the startup process or at some other point, leaving both hard drives installed?

 

[harsh]

I now have XP64 on one hard drive and XP Professional on a second hard drive. I can use either one by disconnecting one or the other hard drive. Is there a way that I can switch operating systems during the startup process or at some other point, leaving both hard drives installed?

I've used at least three approaches:

1. Use a third party boot selector
2. Change the boot order in the BIOS from IDE to RAID (or vice versa)
3. Use the Windows boot manager

The Windows boot manager is reasonably straightforward and installs automatically if you've already got another perversion of Windows that you elect not to clobber.

Owing to a decided lack of consistency on the part of Micro$oft, YMMV.

 

[cdru]

Option 3 is realtively straight forward and isn't too difficult to setup. Option 1 could cost some money although there are some free open source boot managers that may work. Option 2 is free and quick/easy, but not real convienent. Some bioses will allow you to select at boot time an alternate boot drive via a key combination, so that is something you might check to see if your machine supports already.

 

[Richard King]

I'm still fighting to get this thing up and running "properly". For some reason the new operating system, XP Pro, isn't finding any drivers for my on motherboard ethernet connection. I had it search the XP Pro disc with no luck. Is there a place where I can download drivers for the device? I assume once I do I can just put the drivers on the desktop and have the installation program search there for them? All my internet usage at the moment is with the laptop or switching drives back to XP64.

 

[Bogy]

What is the motherboard?

 

[Nick]

It's that flat, lumpy thing with all the gee-gaws.

 

[Richard King]

It's an Intel motherboard. I bet I can go to Intel.com or some such place to get it. :lol: I am out of town, in a hotel at the moment, but will check for any other suggestions when I get (and access the machine in discussion) home tomorrow.

 

[harsh]

I'm still fighting to get this thing up and running "properly". For some reason the new operating system, XP Pro, isn't finding any drivers for my on motherboard ethernet connection. I had it search the XP Pro disc with no luck.

Drivers for any particular motherboard are not generally found on the Windows disc.

Is there a place where I can download drivers for the device?

You usually get the drivers on a CD that comes with the motherboard (if it was purchased bare) or from the computer manufacturer if it is a storebought system.

I assume once I do I can just put the drivers on the desktop and have the installation program search there for them?

The instructions come with the motherboard and usually appear on the installation CD.

 

[Bogy]

It's an Intel motherboard. I bet I can go to Intel.com or some such place to get it. :lol: I am out of town, in a hotel at the moment, but will check for any other suggestions when I get (and access the machine in discussion) home tomorrow.

Yes, if you go to the Intel site they have all the drivers for their mb's, with available updates, for various operating systems. I just had to use it a few days ago to restore some drivers after some changes to one of our boxes.

 

[Richard King]

You usually get the drivers on a CD that comes with the motherboard (if it was purchased bare) or from the computer manufacturer if it is a storebought system.

Ah, but there's the problem. The disc that came with the computer was XP64. :lol: I can't win. :lol: When I get home I'll check the Intel site. Thanks for waking me up to this Bogy.

 

[Richard King]

Thanks, guys for heading me in the right direction.. It works!!! I had to download the drivers from the computer manufacturer's site. After talking to them I was able to download with no problem. I then had to burn the drivers to a disc since the computer wouldn't look in the "F" drive where I had them on a CF card. Oh well, on to continuing the configuration process.

 

[Richard King]

Well, now I can't import my address book or email files from XP64 to XP because they are all in a 64 bit format. Any ideas?

 

[Bogy]

Well, now I can't import my address book or email files from XP64 to XP because they are all in a 64 bit format. Any ideas?

Richard, you are truly the poster child for the 64 bit format.
I have no ideas on this one, since I don't have the format, but I wish you luck.

 

[CoriBright]

Well, now I can't import my address book or email files from XP64 to XP because they are all in a 64 bit format. Any ideas?

What is the email application you are using?

 

[harsh]

Well, now I can't import my address book or email files from XP64 to XP because they are all in a 64 bit format. Any ideas?

There is no 64 bit format. Windows XP (and XP64) use UTF16 which at this point, is an excellent way of having text files take up twice as much space (16 bits per character). Importing should not be necessary as the WAB is already in the correct format.

I'd look for the existing WAB on the XP machine and replace it with the WAB from the XP64 machine. The WAB should be located here in both cases:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

Even better, use something other than Outluck to keep track of things. Your friends will thank you for it.

 

[Richard King]

Outlook Express. Thanks, Harsh, I'll give it a shot when I get back in later.

 

[DonLandis]

I have been reading up on the Sony Vegas forums and some using the latest XDCAM and Sony Vegas 7.0 claim that the use of X64 is advisable for good realtime editing of HD video. Currently my fastest system using a 3.8Ghz pentium is barely adequate for HDV video editing with effects. But, I get by. There is no issue with basic DVCAM video using this hardware and XP Home. Sony Vegas 5, 6 and 7 all support these high end systems such as X64 and dual processor dual core 2 hardware. This stuff is not cheap but if you have to edit HDTV with XDCAM then it becomes necessary according to those in the know.

What irritates me is that I was ready to jump on board for Sony Vegas 7 upgrade if it offered support of GNU processing, but Sony decided to reserve that feature for a future release. Apparently many are now holding off on the upgrade to 7.0 because it really just offers XDCAM capability over version 6. Since I own 3 seats of Vegas 6.0 here, upgrading is not a cheap option considering I don't shoot video with XDCAM.


So, now I know where (at least in my profession) the need is for this 64 bit OS but tell me Richard, what are you using that brings you the benefit of this OS at the cost of all the trouble you are having with conventional applications?

 

[Richard King]

When trying to open the address book on my E: drive (XP64) from my C: drive (XP Pro) I get the following error message:
"E:\Program Files\OutlookExpress\WAB.exe is not a valid Win32 application." It won't let me open it from the E: drive or from the C: drive if I copy and paste there. I don't mind having to redo the address book, but I have several hundred email messages that I have kept and records of sent emails that I am sure will do the same thing.

 

[Richard King]

tell me Richard, what are you using that brings you the benefit of this OS at the cost of all the trouble you are having with conventional applications?

Absolutely nothing. I had to buy a new machine a while back and went with XP64 because I saw a great audio recording studio program being run on 64 at CES. I thought that I just never know, maybe I might get that package someday, so when I ordered the new machine I ordered it with 64 as the OS. Dumb. I wasn't aware of the lack of drivers or compatibility with the real world.

 

[DonLandis]

Here's what I do-

Use a basic windows XP on a Pentium 3.3Ghz machine with 2Gb Ram for most stuff around the office, MS word, Excel, Photoshop, PageMaker7, Internet and e-mail. NO Video Editing on this machine. It is what I call my office. It has the accounting stuff on it with Quicken and some other apps as well.

Then I have 3 other decktop towers that are buit with video editing in mind. These have only editing aps with multiple USB drives, as well as SATA Raid internals and high speed graphics. One is a dual core, the others are fast Pentiums. Two have 1394 VCR connections. I also have the new laptop which does all office and video editing.

The point is, I separate the video editng from the office functions. You might consider doing the same. Keep a lower end office machine and use that X64 with the intended editing software.

I also have a computer in the network that runs WIN95 OSR2 for applications that work best on that OS. Then I have an older Pentium that runs DOS 5.0 and QEMM for 3D Studio 4.0 but I rarely fire that up as I refuse to do 3D animation unless someone really wants to pay my rates. I think some day your X64 will do it all for you but you stated the reason you went with that OS, so use it for that! Then get a normal machine to do all your other tasks. BTW- The new laptop is just blazing fast on video editing and at dual core 2 2.33Ghz. equal in speed in video rendering to my 3.8 Ghz Pentium water cooled machine. I am very very happy with this new Dell laptop for everything I've thrown at it. Even the Express EVDO internal card connects to the internet at speeds of 1.3 Mbps average which is about 4 times faster than my old PCMCIA EVDO card.