Dual Booting - Vista & XP

[Marky]

Hey all,

I'm considering making my PC a dual boot so I can play games in DX10 when they are released.

I am currently using XP, what should I do to start with? Should I reinstall XP so I have a completely clean PC to start over with, and then install Vista?

Please advice me, I have no idea when it comes to dual booting

Thanks,

Marky

 

[1337z0r]

It's simple enough, you can just put vista on then once it installs you will have a screen come up asking weather you want to boot and older version of windows which would be XP or Windows Vista.

You have to install XP before vista other wise it will not work. I would reinstall xp and then partition your drive at the same time for the XP and Vista dual boot.

 

[Marky]

It's simple enough, you can just put vista on then once it installs you will have a screen come up asking weather you want to boot and older version of windows which would be XP or Windows Vista.

You have to install XP before vista other wise it will not work. I would reinstall xp and then partition your drive at the same time for the XP and Vista dual boot.

When you mean partitioning at the same time - do you mean when reinstalling XP, make a whole HD partition and then split it up when installing vista or making a small partition for XP and small partition for Vista?

 

[1337z0r]

When you install XP, there is a screen for all your hard drives and the hard drive you want to install to. I suggest making a single partition for XP and then install with out making any other partitions. And then when you install vista make a new partition for the vista install. So you will then have 2 partitions one with XP and one with Vista.

 

[Marky]

And I assume the Dual Boot screen will appear automatically on boot with Vista? Will it happen everytime I boot or when I press a certain button upon boot?

 

[SpinningMonkey]

And I assume the Dual Boot screen will appear automatically on boot with Vista? Will it happen everytime I boot or when I press a certain button upon boot?

Hey Marky, the Dual Boot Menu will appear everytime you turn your machine on or reboot your system. You wont need to press any buttons to bring the boot menu up.

 

[Marky]

Hey Marky, the Dual Boot Menu will appear everytime you turn your machine on or reboot your system. You wont need to press any buttons to bring the boot menu up.

Is there a way to just make it load a certain OS and only boot into the other upon pressing a certain button?

 

[1337z0r]

Is there a way to just make it load a certain OS and only boot into the other upon pressing a certain button?

Nope, its not really annoying it will just mean you got to either press enter once for xp or down arrow and enter for vista .

 

[Marky]

Nope, its not really annoying it will just mean you got to either press enter once for xp or down arrow and enter for vista .

Okay thanks for the help buddy And SpinningMonkey

 

[Hxc]

You have to install XP before vista other wise it will not work. I would reinstall xp and then partition your drive at the same time for the XP and Vista dual boot.

Not true. VistaBootPro, a free piece of software, will reinstall the bootloader of your choice with the both OSes in, no matter which way round you installed them. Just reinstalled XP on here alongside Vista.

 

[RetiredGreyFox]

This is so easy even I did it.

Either make your hard drive into two partitions or have two hard drives.
If you partition your hard drive you don't have to have them equal size but personally I think it helps.
I have a 400 gig hard drive so I partitioned it into 2 x 200 gig hard drives.

Install XP onto c:\drive or it will already be on c:\drive if you used a partition tool or have just added another drive.
Install VISTA onto the other partition or other drive.

THATS IT.
Vista will make a boot screen in DOS and you can choose.

This is important and confused me for a couple of minutes.
Whichever OS you boot into that will become the c:\drive.
Thats why I think its easier to have two partitions of equal size if you are installing all the same software.

 

[1337z0r]

I just made one 14GB partition for XP, and a 30GB partition for Vista. And then another partiton for games and big programs so they don't have to be installed twice.

 

[RetiredGreyFox]

I just made one 14GB partition for XP, and a 30GB partition for Vista. And then another partiton for games and big programs so they don't have to be installed twice.

Are you saying that I can have both XP and Vista installed and I only have to install Office once?

So basically you have c:\ for XP, d:\for Vista and then you install Office to e:\?

My brain says that this won't work.

 

[1337z0r]

Im pretty sure it won't work with office but for things like games and stuff like that it will. Plus which ever OS you boot into the drive shows up as C:/.