Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows XP > Windows XP General Discussion > How to make a dual boot system: Windows XP vs. Vista beta 2?
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VSD   06-10-2006 at 08:38:02 PM

I´d like to use Windows Vista right now and keep Windows XP for gaming.

Regards

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Mike995   06-10-2006 at 08:58:20 PM
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First you must format your harddrive, then make 2 partitions the size is at your discresion, how ever I would recommend having a larger partition for your xp install. To format pop in your windows xp disk, create the two partitions, then select the partition that you would like to run windows xp on, continue on with install of the os once finished pop in your vista disk boot off of it, then select your vista partition and install on it. Note: when in the xp disk formatting do not format your vista partition only format your xp partition. You must format then install windows xp first then you may do the same for vista, but only in that order other wise you will get an error loading the operating system during the xp install if you chose to set up vista first. Also from what I have tested games run on vista, I have bf2, and cs running on vista atm, how ever cs crashes when minimized, and the performance when gaming is subpar to windows xp.

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dizman   06-11-2006 at 01:05:23 AM
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How do you switch between them once you do that? does it ask you when you start the computer?

The reason I want to do it is I'd loved to mess around with Vista but my brief experince with the 64bit version is that it won't install the drivers for my wifi card (not the ones on the disk or the ones Vista comes with) which is the only type of internet I have in my apartment, so I wouldn't be able to update it or download the latest drivers. I know it's beta, but it kind of sucks, got shot down as soon as I finished installing it basically, haha

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kukito   06-11-2006 at 03:25:51 AM
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You don't really need to reformat the whole drive if you use utilities like Partition Magic. Such utilities can shrink the original partition and create new partitions with the recovered space. Acronis Disk Director has a free trial offer which you might use for this purpose. You can also use BootIt NG. Just boot from the BING floppy or CD, hit "Cancel" to enter into maintenance mode and there you can create your partition. Make sure you back-up your hard drive before attempting any of these operations. Also, it's better to create your new partition first rather than allow Vista to do it during install. The Vista partitioner screwed up my partition table when I allowed it to use unallocated space to create a partition to install itself. If anything goes wrong, use bcdedit.exe or bootsect.exe to fix things. With bootsect, located in the /boot directory of the Vista install DVD, you can revert to the standard XP bootloader.

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kukito   06-11-2006 at 03:38:09 AM
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Quote :

How do you switch between them once you do that? does it ask you when you start the computer?



Yeah, the bootloader pops up giving you a choice between the two.

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Zoron   06-11-2006 at 07:18:33 AM
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The other thing I thought was really cool was the fact that Windows Memory Diagnostic is also included... so you can now boot and check your RAM if your install of Vista gets botched somehow.

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o1die   06-11-2006 at 11:25:45 AM
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With win2k, vista just ignored it and created a separate partition. I got dual boot by doing nothing. But xp might be different.

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GAZZOO   06-17-2006 at 02:44:20 PM
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simple have 2 hard drives one with vister one with xp when you boot hit del key and change the hard drive in bios to what ever one you want
I play 4 games in 64 bit with xp64 and i do everything else on my other hard drive with windows xp
because xp64 doesnt suport all the hardware im running but it is better playing the games fear, halflife2 episode one, call of duty 2
any who thats what I do

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