Can i have Vista on one hard disk and xp on another?!

[cbarsenal]

Hi Chaps,
Im getting a 2nd SATAII hard drive soon for my system which currently runs on windows xp. With the new 2nd hard disk could i install a copy of vista on it and then simply change my first boot in the bios each time depending on what operating system i wish to use at the time? reason i wanted to do this is because i want to keep xp but don't wanna use the dual boot method offered by installing both os on one hard disk. Would i have to set the disks to master and slave like normal or something different? if this is possible when im in any of the 2 operating systems will it be safe to drag and drop documents, pics etc from hard disk to hard disk? any help is appreciated.

 

[pkellmey]

This should not be an issue. Your boot.ini file is all that needs to be changed - no major re-partitioning required. You can even have the timer menu ask which one you want to boot into. Once in an OS, you can drag and drop data (pics, video, etc.) but you will have to install apps in one OS and then boot into the other in order for the registries to get updated with the new app.

 

[Oatmealsoup]

You can do it, but it's kludgy.

Do you need to be able to read files from the other OS disk when running in either one?

 

[Oatmealsoup]

This should not be an issue. Your boot.ini file is all that needs to be changed - no major re-partitioning required. You can even have the timer menu ask which one you want to boot into. Once in an OS, you can drag and drop data (pics, video, etc.) but you will have to install apps in one OS and then boot into the other in order for the registries to get updated with the new app.


Meh, this is a little misleading. There are distinct issues when installing on two distinct physical drives.

 

[riser]

You know there is a quote button and a reply button instead of just the "Post Reply."

 

[Jodym2]

I spent the morning installing Vista Home Premium for a customer today. It worked well even though he had a modest system. I previously built him a Giabyte Nforce 3 AMD 3700+ with 1 GB RAM and ATI 9550 Video Card. The 9550 Just Squeeked by for Vista but it did do DX9. I upgraded him to 2- 1GB G.Skills PC3200 and a 200 GB Maxtor Diamond Max 10 Serial Drive. We did a clean install on the 200 GB Drive and he can elect to boot to the old hard drive & XP System by changing the boot priority in BIOS. It worked out pretty well for some reason the image was moved over about two inches to the left, leaving a black unused band on the right side of the monitor. I fixed it by changing the monitor in display properties.

He had a few flash drives laying around so I told him about Superfetch & Ready Boost. I put an old 256 MB Kenington Flash Drive in the Rear USB Port. A dialog box appeared asking if I wanted to look at the contents of the drive or Speed up the Performance of the system. I chose the Later and it brought up another window explaining that the Flash Drive lacked the speed necessary to help. I removed it and used a 1GB USB Flash drive he owned. Again the 1st Dialog box I choose speedup system it liked this one but said it would only use 640 MB of the Drive. I thought Cool but after rebooting the system it hung and would not reboot untill I removed the Flash Drive.

I spent three hours All together to download Catalyst Driver and NAV 07 Plus Windows Updates Vista had to Partition the Drive But I didn't notice it takeing the usuall time to Format a new 200 GB Drive.

 

[Oatmealsoup]

You know there is a quote button and a reply button instead of just the "Post Reply."

I do know that.

 

[Zoron]

reason i wanted to do this is because i want to keep xp but don't wanna use the dual boot method offered by installing both os on one hard disk.

Don't know where you've heard this, but you have been woefully misinformed. I have been dual-booting XP and Vista for quite some time (I'm still running RC 2) and I did not have to put both operating systems on one drive. I have XP Pro on my 160GB SATA drive and Vista resides on my secondary 60GB PATA drive. I do not have to change my boot order in the BIOS to boot either OS... and all files that I want to be accessible in both are accessible in both.

Install XP on whatever hard drive you wish, then install Vista on the other drive. Vista will automatically set up your boot options and you don't have to mess around with your boot order every time you want to change... just select the appropriate option from the boot menu.

 

[cbarsenal]

Thanks for all the replys!

Judging by the last post can i do exactly what you said, buy a 2nd sataII hard drive install it in my system as master or slave? then install my copy of vista premium on it, then judging by what you said every time i boot my system it will ask if i want to boot into vista or xp right? this seems a good option to take so soon as you can confirm i'll go ahead and buy a 2nd hard disk! Word documents etc can be transferred between both disks as long as you have the relevant software on that particular hard disk ie microsft office i presume? thanks again.

 

[pkellmey]

It doesn't matter as much which disk it's on, it's which OS you have the app using the data installed in. You can see the documents on both OS, but if you only have Excel installed on XP, only XP will open the file. That is why if you install an app on one OS you may want to switch into the other to install it there as well if you need the functionality in both OS versions.