XP after fact

[texas.chef94]

This is merely a thought that has been knawing at me and I just need confirmation or simply I am "all wet"
Where XP was long time ago on HD now resides 2 ubuntu applications which I am not about to disturb.
However I do have an external with an additional Linux OS in a dual boot.
My question could XP my legal disk be loaded onto external (plenty room) and if so could it be accessed independently of dual boot and if so how.:guitar: I know why would be a better question, but bear with me.
Thanks for your indulgence

[ronparent]

If I follow you correctly, no. The windows disk, of which I think you are speaking, is only loaded to install windows. To my knowledege there is no windows equivalemt the the ubuntu 'live cd'.

[texas.chef94]

Not unusual that I did not make myself clear. Damn old age is hell. Simply stated with internal HD loaded with Linux, and External with Linux as well, but with room galore and no Windows will MS legal disk load on external in a NTFS partition of its own

[ronparent]

I under stand your age problem exactly. Now what was I saying .....

Yes, if you can find a bios option to boot from the external drive you intend to use for that purpose, reset it to boot first from the external, and, install windows to that drive. When you want to boot back into linux just remove the drive and reboot. Since your external drive is not present, the linux boot drive will be the one to boot.

[upchucky]

you may be able to choose which drive to boot from if the bios supports this, my dell xpsii allows me to press F12 during startup to choose to boot from cd, usb, network or floppy. (this is enabled in the bios)

google your sys, and see if it supports this, if so you will not have to disconnect a drive depending on which os you want to boot, thus saving wear and tear on the drive connector. and you will save having to go into the bios each time you want choose which os to boot.

[texas.chef94]

Thank you all for your very good solutions. My BIOS did support and XP is on external and it does not interfere with my Linux multi boot. I will no doubt not use it to any degree, but its there. Now I can try my hand at data partitions for my Ubuntu 8.10.