I wanna dual boot Vista 64 and XP 32... whats the best way?

SCOTTBALL

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My setup is 2x 320GB hdd in RAID 1
and a 120GB other drive

I wanna make vista 64 my main on the 320GB drive, and XP 32 on the 120GB drive (because all the incompatability talk has got me worried about software/games not working)

Which OS should I install first? Does it matter at all?

and on a side note, how much of a hdd partition should i make for installing vista onto.. I usually use 10GB for XP

thanks!
 
Install XP first then Vista.

For Vista you'll need atleast 20GB minimum.
 
i really need to know what would make you want to do this.
 
well baisically, i would just run vista 64, but i keep seeing talk everywhere about some programs/games not having 64bit support yet

so having a XP installation also i can use if for some reason i need to use any of these programs/games

smart or dumb?
 
well baisically, i would just run vista 64, but i keep seeing talk everywhere about some programs/games not having 64bit support yet

so having a XP installation also i can use if for some reason i need to use any of these programs/games

smart or dumb?

Nothing wrong with it at all. I ran a dual boot XP32 & Vista 64 syste for a few months while i tested everything i needed worked properly on vista64.

word of warning though - as you will need to install XP first when later install vista64 the vista bootloader will be installed on the XP partition.

If you later decide to delete the XP partition you vista partition will not boot as it will not have a boot loader.

before formatting the XP partition take a copy of the hidden bootmgr file and boot folder from the root of the XP partition.

You will need them when you try and get Vista to boot ;)
 
..so my questions becomes, whats the compelling reason to install vista ? and further, why do you need to move to a 64 bit operating system ? do you have a lot of 64 bit applications you need to run ?

just playing devils advocate here. its the same as moving to minidisk on a whim, and at the same time invalidate all of your Cds cassettes and vinyl.

try skinning XP and search for VISTA Inspirat if you feel like a change :)
 
..so my questions becomes, whats the compelling reason to install vista ? and further, why do you need to move to a 64 bit operating system ? do you have a lot of 64 bit applications you need to run ?

just playing devils advocate here. its the same as moving to minidisk on a whim, and at the same time invalidate all of your Cds cassettes and vinyl.

try skinning XP and search for VISTA Inspirat if you feel like a change :)

My reasons for installing Vista64 were

- improved security (Processes run in random memory addresses and only digitally signed drivers can install and run)
- larger Ram addressing (I have 4Gb Ram)

Don't think you analogy is quite the same, you most certainly aren't invalidating your "CD's, cassettes & vinyl". I've yet to find a 32-bit application that doesn't run on VistaX64.

- dual booting means you have both your "Minidisk player" and "CD/Cassette/Vinyl player" until you are sure your happy with the move to Minidisk ;)
 
..so my questions becomes, whats the compelling reason to install vista ? and further, why do you need to move to a 64 bit operating system ? do you have a lot of 64 bit applications you need to run ?

just playing devils advocate here. its the same as moving to minidisk on a whim, and at the same time invalidate all of your Cds cassettes and vinyl.

try skinning XP and search for VISTA Inspirat if you feel like a change :)

My reasons for installing Vista64 were

- improved security (Processes run in random memory addresses and only digitally signed drivers can install and run)
- larger Ram addressing (I have 4Gb Ram)

Yeah baisically, i picked up 4GB of RAM.. and i wanna play games on DX10...
i got the system for it so i thought might as well go for vista 64.
Its not just a cosmetic change if thats what you mean, at the moment (on XP) i'm using aston shell instead of the default explorer one so it doesn't bother me too much.
 
well baisically, i would just run vista 64, but i keep seeing talk everywhere about some programs/games not having 64bit support yet

so having a XP installation also i can use if for some reason i need to use any of these programs/games

smart or dumb?

Whats wrong with using Vista 32 as your backup system. compatibility is pretty well ironed out.
 
ok........... baisically i installed XP, then installed vista (i booted the installation from the vista CD)
after everythign was done..... i got no boot menu
i created one using "EasyBCD" and made the XP option, but when i try to boot from it it doesn't work (and is missing /NTLDR or something)
I tried booting from the XP CD and running a repair but as it gets the the setup i get BSOD'ed

any ideas?
 

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