This may be a stupid question but I want to install a second HDD onto my wife's pc. Currently she is running XP Pro on a 160 gig IDE drive and I want to install a SATA 250 gig drive as well. I want the new drive to run a new copy of windows XP I have bought and I was wondering if there is the option of selecting which drive I want to use to boot from at startup? Basically, I want to keep the two systems separate as the existing HDD has been 'hijacked' by my son for playing games and I want to give my wife the option of using what is in effect a brand new system.

see if this helps: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...multiboot.mspx
it explains how to dual boot windows 2000 and windows xp it should work with 2 windows xp operating ststems, i think you will need 2 coppys of windows xp for 2 instillations but i might be wrong, someone else may be able to help you out with that.

also, instead of seperate partions, you will be using seperate drives, this does not make a difference (if its easier, pretend you have partitioned the drive and you have a drive C and the other drive, which is most likely to be D or E)

I would also reccomend backing up any important documents (not programs in 'program files' as these will not work when you copy them back, they will need to be re-installed)

EDIT: you could save yourself some money and partition the 160GB drive into 2x 80GB drive or 1x 60GB and 1x 120GB (baisically, any number of partions of any size up to 160GB)
This will show up as seperate drives

for example, if you partioned it into 2x 80GB drives, on 'my computer' it would appear to be 2 seperate 80GB drives