No I wanted to keep the main drive c: and be able to boot into either drive because I wanted to install a program (pinnacle studio)that seems to cause problems to my main installation it seems to prevent cds and dvds from launching automaticaly and seems to cause several crashes. It once crashed and prevented the system from starting as I had cloned the drive I was able to recover without much problem after uninstalling the programme there was no more problems. I thought if I could install on another drive and leave just that programme on it would be easier but I would have to reactivate windows. I seem to remember reading some where that windows keeps a file that you could copy to a new installation on the same machine and it would not require reactivation as it is the same hardware. I may be wrong
I forgot to mention that I also added an extra line in the boot.ini file (using regtoy) to point to the new disc as follows
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition1" /FASTDETECT
As I had cloned the drive I had a backup in case anything went wrong I normaly save the backup file to a removeable drive as a extra precaution
if all else fails I can install a caddy for the main drive and swap drives as needed but this is an awkward solution and the drive would not be cooled by the hd bay fan. I already have a caddy installed for backup purposes
I am no expert at this and appreciate your help, Thanks for your reply