2 Hard disks, 2 bootable copies of XP wanted

[SLH]

Currently we have 1 formatted hard Disk (2nd HD), and another other with windows + programs (1st HD).

We want to format both and start from scratch. Trouble is we have some programs that we simply can't install again (VERY old programs). What we want to do is to install windows XP on the 2nd harddisk and copy the program's files across and see if it works. If it does work then we can format the first hard disk and start again, safe in that knowledge (or continue to use the 2nd HD).


I've formatted the 2nd harddisk using the windows XP cd when installing windows then installed it OK (apparently).

But when i change the boot sequence in the BIOS to use disk D: first (the 2nd harddisk) it says:

<windows dir>/system32/Some.File is missing.

I have checked and it IS there but i don't know what could be wrong. I guess the windows directory variable wasn't set correctly?


I have also tried editing the boot.ini from windows XP on HD 1, so i have duel boot, but if i try XP from HD2 using the created boot screen it crashes when loading up (gets further than booting straight from 2nd HD though).



Any help would be much appreciated.