running 2 operating systems

i have an old epson a3 printer and it wont run on windows 7 its a parellel port printer old but works fine right i have two seperate hdds installed both ide is it possible to run both hdds with differant os on like one hdd with win7 installed and the second hdd with win xp installed then when i turn on the pc i get a choice with os i want to run from hopefully this can be done and isnt to difficult to set up if i need to format and reinstall both hdds then thats fine as i have all my files backed up
cheers for looking
dave(darkangel)

 

big thanks bud will check this out once it a bit quiet here as usual its a darn madhouse

 

try pressing and hold F12 when u start up ,and u shud get a menu to select a drive to boot from

btw ... also , hope u don't mind me saying so , but new printers are now VERY inexpensive, and these days they are multi function, and is probably yr best solution , with much improved print quality , speed ,ease of use . and so on ...

hope this helps

 

Interesting ... on my computer it's F11 that generates the Boot Menu.

 

A3 printer you say it is, well yes they are a bit more expensive yet.
I use two operating systems on one of my PC's, but I am no fan of dual booting I use Racks one rack for Win 7 the other for XP. I shove in the drive with the OS I want and boot up.
hawk22

 

Why not just print from inside a virtual machine using Windows Virtual PC in Ultimate?

I do this to use a perfectly good scanner that no Win7 drivers exist for. It saves the hassle of dual booting, especially if you don't have a license for both operating systems! If I need to scan something I just fire up the virtual machine (which takes about 15~20 seconds), scan the document, and close it back down again... all from within Windows 7. No reason why you can't print to your A3 printer using the same proceedure.

Hope it helps.

Andy.