Is dual boot possible

I was able to dual boot using an Ultimate Upgrade disk

I have a Full Business Edition from my MS January Action pack.  If I start to run the in stall do i get the option at that point or must I do some other work first?

Thanks

A

Newegg.com offers a PartitionMagic for 20 bucks

Hi :smileyhappy:

 

Vista will need to be installed into a partition of its own. 

 

If XP is installed on "C" you cannot install Vista on "C" as well.  To partition the "C" drive you will need a program like Partition Magic otherwise you will lose everything.
It is not free though

http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80

the upgrade does allow dual boot but you have to install vista first then install the legacy version

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Alex H wrote:

Hi i have an Inspiron 6400 Vista Ready.  Currently I have XP Pro installed.  Drive configuration is as per factory setting with the C partition having over 100GB free still.  Is there anyway i can install Vista as a dual boot so that i dont upset all my current installation.  I would rather like to try this before rolling out to our clint machines

 

thanks

A

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See my article here:
http://windowstalk.org/dual_boot_vista.htm

Yes it is possible. I'm doing it right now. Just create a 20 to 30GB partition on your hard drive and go from there.

Another option to consider is buying a totally separate hard drive and placing Vista on that.  This is what I have done.  However, I have currently ran into other issues that I have to resolve.

 

In your case, a separate hard drive would be safer than attempting a partition of a single drive while keeping XP and Vista installed on it. 

 

Just a thought for you.

 

Thanks to all who posted.  Just to let you know:

I used a partition manager to create a new 40GB drive on my laptop drive.

From within XP I ran my Vista Business Upgrade to this new partition.

Now laptop dual boots no problem - i can play to my hearts content.

 

I assume that when i have finished and want to install for real:

I remove new parition and join it back to the original partition

Run the Vista upgrade.

 

One question, when I do this, am I able to do a clean install to the drive.  i have read that this will create a windows.old folder with all my old files in it

is this right please?

 

Thanks

 

Alex

 

---

Alex H wrote:

Thanks to all who posted.  Just to let you know:

I used a partition manager to create a new 40GB drive on my laptop drive.

From within XP I ran my Vista Business Upgrade to this new partition.

Now laptop dual boots no problem - i can play to my hearts content.

 

I assume that when i have finished and want to install for real:

I remove new parition and join it back to the original partition

Run the Vista upgrade.

 

One question, when I do this, am I able to do a clean install to the drive.  i have read that this will create a windows.old folder with all my old files in it

is this right please?

 

Thanks

 

Alex

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A 'windows.old' folder is only created when you upgrade from XP. A clean install means that you are installing to a clean (freshly formatted) partition. There is still some confusion about the possibilty of using an Upgrade disc to do a clean install of Vista, as was possible with XP. There are some workarounds to this floating around the `net at this time.

yes it will be called windows.old

if you wanted to recover that system rename it windows and set  it to boot to ntldr

Would Partition magic work on a Vista machine that I want partition for XP??, having XP  is my default OS instead?

 

Symantec doesn't specify if works on Vista.

mikedizzel8 :smileyhappy:

 

Actually, you can now resize partitions from within Disk Management in Vista, so you no longer need to use 3rd party tools.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/f2e9a502-e63c-413d-8804-87326ef4f4cc1033.mspx

 

Make sure the drive is well defragged before doing this