windows XP PRO OEM

[logic]

I have three hard drives in my computer,
can I install an OEM XP PRO on all three using the same code number legally.
Or even two,

[scotman]

Why do you want to install on all 3 drives?

[logic]

i do quite a lot of online bidding, and i always crash at a critical moment, in such cases I could switch from one drive to another, The reasoning is a little more difficult to explain,
But the question is, can it be done,?

[Hymie]

Personally I would have thought XP would install as an operating system on each of the three drives, since it would effectively detect it as being an installed on the original PC (motherboard, processor, hard drives etc. having not changed).

On boot up, you would then be given the option of which operating system (drive) to boot from.

Your only problem being once your PC crashes, regardless of which drive was used for the boot – you will have to re-boot the PC to recover from the crash – gaining you nothing in terms of recovery from crashes at critical times (when online bidding).

I would investigate why you are suffering crashes – are you using a USB connection to your modem, rather than an Ethernet connection? This can be a common cause of intermittent internet disconnection problems.

If you do install an operating system on the other drives, make sure you have backed everything up before attempting the install – or be prepared to loose everything.

[logic]

thanks for your answer,
guess i will just have to try it and see what hapens,

[Mobius1]

Ok, but what's the point of trying it to see what happens when you now know that installing XP on three different drives isn't actually going to make any difference when it comes to being able to recover from a crash. It also means that, to keep a contiguous experience when booting from another drive, you're going to have to maintain data and file parity between all three drives. Otherwise, if you decide to boot from, say, the second drive, you won't necessarily have access to the same files and programs that you have on your first and third.

It's a big headache with little to no benefit for doing it. Personally, I think you're better off following Hymie's advice and investigating the cause of your computer crashes. There has to be some sort of underlying problem for them to be occurring, because XP is an otherwise very stable operating system. If you found out and fixed what it is that ails you, then you could forgo all that effort and have 2 additional drives for storage and backup.