Dual Boot XP & Vista

[100Coogn]

 I already have Vista installed, but I have an XP retail OS cd here.  Is it possible to install the XP OS and have a dual boot system,
or should I just leave things alone?
 I've googled this subject, but the yea's and nay's are pretty close.  Since this computer came with Vista installed and no
OS disk, I don't want to tamper with things too much.

Coogan
 

[morfiend]

 Is it possible,yes,But it's not easy!

  It's best to install vista after you have XP already installed but it's still possible to do it the other way.



  If the comp is new and you dont have alot of things you need to save,I'd wipe it and install xp and then vista,however there are a few utilities that will help you to install xp on a vista machine. I had a dual boot on this machine for sometime but found I could pretty much do everything on vista I could on xp so I just got rid of xp completely.

 Other than being a resource hog vista isnt as bad as most make it out to be,sure it takes some extra work to make it run abit better but I've found it to be pretty stable for what I use my computer for. If your version of vista is 64bit you can use more memory than you can use with XP so load up extra memory and who cares if vista uses a gig or so!!


      Of course YMMV.




     

[100Coogn]

Thanks for the advice morfiend.  I'll probably just stick with Vista.  I don't have a disk to reinstall the Vista OS anyways, in case I screw something
up.  I've always heard, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

  Coogan

[Bizman]

A simple and fool proof way is to use so called mobile racks, using different hard disks for each operating system. Thus you would have one disk containing only XP and the programs you want to drive on it (AH, maybe?). A permanently installed disk would keep your files at hand in case you need to access them with both OSes. Otherwise you'd only need one mobile rack with two removable frames, one for your existing Vista (no modification needed) and another for a lean clean ultrafast XP based gaming experience. 

[100Coogn]

A simple and fool proof way is to use so called mobile racks, using different hard disks for each operating system. Thus you would have one disk containing only XP and the programs you want to drive on it (AH, maybe?). A permanently installed disk would keep your files at hand in case you need to access them with both OSes. Otherwise you'd only need one mobile rack with two removable frames, one for your existing Vista (no modification needed) and another for a lean clean ultrafast XP based gaming experience. 

Hey, now there's a good idea.  I think I have an old HDD buried here someplace.  It's not the best, but I should be able to put the XP
OS on it, without messing up my Vista.

Thanks Bizman. 
Coogan

[morfiend]

Hey, now there's a good idea.  I think I have an old HDD buried here someplace.  It's not the best, but I should be able to put the XP
OS on it, without messing up my Vista.

Thanks Bizman. 
Coogan

  Before I got rid of xp I did this also,I have 3 drives in my machine so it was easy. In the end I just moved everything over to vista and got rid of xp completely. If you have more than 4 gigs of ram,dont forget to include the vidcard ram,xp wont use it all. I hope to do a dual boot with win7 next but likely it will end much like xp and I'll get rid of vista as it just wont be used much and I'd rather have the extra storage space.

   Now loading an extra HD into your comp sounds like a good idea,you can always use the extra storage and I suppose you can put xp on it as it doesnt take that much room on the HD.



         

[MaSonZ]

couple questions after reading this thread... what does one gain fro ma dual boot system? what would be a perk of having one HDD running one OS, and another running a different OS?

[100Coogn]

couple questions after reading this thread... what does one gain fro ma dual boot system? what would be a perk of having one HDD running one OS, and another running a different OS?

For me, I'd like to have one HDD with only AHII installed and nothing else.  I'd use the XP OS for that.  My Vista, I'd just use for everything else I guess.
Don't get me wrong, I still like Vista, now that I've been tweaking it for the past few years.  I just want to see how AH will run without all these other processes
running in the background.

Coogan

[MaSonZ]

For me, I'd like to have one HDD with only AHII installed and nothing else.  I'd use the XP OS for that.  My Vista, I'd just use for everything else I guess.
Don't get me wrong, I still like Vista, now that I've been tweaking it for the past few years.  I just want to see how AH will run without all these other processes
running in the background.

Coogan

makes sense.

[Bizman]

couple questions after reading this thread... what does one gain fro ma dual boot system? what would be a perk of having one HDD running one OS, and another running a different OS?

I installed a mobile rack into a copilot's computer, both having the same OS (XP). The other HDD was optimized for AH, the other one was for everyday purposes. Just think about a bachelor's surfing habits and the benefits of having one disk for gaming and another for surfing and torrenting should be clear.

Nice to be of help, Coogan. 

[BaldEagl]

A simple and fool proof way is to use so called mobile racks, using different hard disks for each operating system. Thus you would have one disk containing only XP and the programs you want to drive on it (AH, maybe?). A permanently installed disk would keep your files at hand in case you need to access them with both OSes. Otherwise you'd only need one mobile rack with two removable frames, one for your existing Vista (no modification needed) and another for a lean clean ultrafast XP based gaming experience. 

There's no advantage to using seperate hard drives vs simply partitioning one to hold each OS and you'll have to do one or the other.  Once partitioned the computer sees the partitions as sepreate drives and no matter what the older OS has to be installed first.

I've actually got a dual boot Win98/XP Pro machine.  I needed Win98 to run my old SCSI flatbed scanner.

[Bizman]

There's no advantage to using seperate hard drives vs simply partitioning one to hold each OS and you'll have to do one or the other.  Once partitioned the computer sees the partitions as sepreate drives and no matter what the older OS has to be installed first.

You're absolutely right, in case one can start from scratc. But as you said, the older OS has to be installed first. Since Coogan already has Vista installed, separate and detachable drives is a very easy way to run several OSes without any risk of them affecting each other. I can also find at least one advantage: If one disk breaks, the computer is still fully usable with the other one. Think about long holidays with a broken factory installed HDD and no reinstall media...