vista and xp on seperate HDD

[jonj]

I have xp installed on my computer now. I want to install vista ultimate x64(mostly for DX10 and Crysis ) on my other HDD, but I dont know how to have them both running seperately. I read about dual booting different opperating systems from one partitioned drive, but I cannot find anywhere to guide me through installing vista on a seperate HDD. Does anyone know any sites that could tell me how to go about this, or anyone have any advise??
Thanks.

 

[Galin]

I've done similar to what you are trying to do but I did it on one partitioned drive, but the process shouldn't be any different. Try this site for instructions http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista Just don't worry about shrinking your partition. Just tell vista to install on your second hard drive, make sure you have any drivers you need ready though. BTW once you have it installed vista should automatically install its boot loader, the program which lets you choose between os's at boot up. The default boot loader is functional, but if you want something with a few more features osl2000 and the Acronis disk director suite are good bets. Best of luck!

 

[Zorg]

This isn't necessarily the best way if you are going to be booting back and forth all the time, but if you are going to use one or the other primarily it will work well and it is clean. Unplug the XP drive and install Vista normally. Then plug the XP drive back in and change the boot order in the BIOS. I don't know what mobo you have but my Gigabyte P35 allows you to press F12 and change the boot order quickly. I made the mistake of installing Kubuntu with the XP drive plugged in and it loaded the grub boot loader. I removed the Kubuntu drive and XP would not boot. I had to do a repair of the MBR to get it to work again. I don't know if Vista will cause the same problems, but IMO it's not worth the aggravation.

 

[pastit]

I do that all the time with XP and Ubuntu.
I have each disk in a rack, then at startup I switch one in and the other out (I have 2 racks in the computer)

 

[hassa]

You could install a swapable hard drive caddy, and then swap the two hard drives. This way you don't need to partition the HD(s), you just plug the one you want in. My mate does this for him main computer - uses the work hard drive during the week and then puts in the games one for Battlefield 2 on Friday nights.

 

[stromm]

Jonj, this is EXTREMELY easy if you bought the FULL version of Vista. Check your BIOS to make sure you can boot to CD/DVD. Put your Vista disk in the optical drive (don't bother to run the install under windows), Shutdown XP and Power off your PC. Install the new HDD and power the PC back up. Make sure you boot to the CD/DVD drive. Vista's installer will load up. You will get to a screen giving you the option to install Vista over the existing OS. Don't. Select the new drive (un-partitioned) and click next. The loader will install Vista to that drive after it's partitioned/formatted it. It will also install Vista's bootloader on the original OS drive. Let Vista go through all it's install. When it's done, you'll be in Vista. Activate, install drivers/updates, etc.

I suggest you do this a different way though. If you have two drives, you really should install both OS's on the first, and use the second for all your apps/games/data. Only downside is that you'll need to copy all your data (not games/apps, just data, email, pics, movies, music, etc.) to the new drive. Partition/Format it using your active XP, then do the file copy. Then boot to the XP disk, delete the old drive's partition. Create a new partition (not the whole drive though) of at least 20GB but no more than HALF the drive. Tell the XP installer to install XP to that partition. Follow through the install, get all your drivers/updates installed (NOT YOUR APPS/GAMES!!!). Go into Drive manager and set your DVD drive to something like I: (eye) and the new HDD to E: (this makes sense later).

Next, reboot to the Vista DVD. Do a custom install of that to the remaining unpartitioned space on your original drive. Finish the install and get activated/patched/updated. Again DON'T install games/apps yet. If you noticed, XP will be on the D: drive, Vista on the C: and DVD on E:. Change the DVD To I:. This way you'll be able to add more HDD's later without messing up where Windows apps think your DVD is at.

Now, reboot to XP. Install all your apps/games to the "data" drive which should be E:. To do this just make sure you select the custom install option on the apps/games and change the C: to a E:. Only install an app on the C: drive if it ONLY works on XP or if it's AntiVirus/Spyware software (They don't play well being installed to the same directory from multiple OS's). Also, notice that the Vista partition is D:.

Now, once you've installed everything you use XP for, reboot to Vista and go through the same process. If installing the same app/game, just install it overtop the the existing files on E:. Most things will work fine this way. If they don't you just install it to a different location on the data drive. I still suggest keeping the AV/AS software on the C: drive of EACH OS though.

Also, some people think it's safer to put the OS's on different drives in case one OS/drive fails. Doesn't work that way. Windows "boots" from the first drive, always. If the first drive fails, you can't disconnect it and get into the second OS.

Have fun.

 

[notherdude]

Also, some people think it's safer to put the OS's on different drives in case one OS/drive fails. Doesn't work that way. Windows "boots" from the first drive, always. If the first drive fails, you can't disconnect it and get into the second OS.

But that's exactly what I and many of us do. Your BIOS allows you to alter the drive order on most modern systems, so it's a simple matter of going into BIOS and telling it to make a certain drive the first drive. I do it all the time. I have several OS installed, 2 on dual boot and a third I access by altering drive order and a fourth I just plug in when I want to run Linux.

You can also simply swap the drives in and out of the system. Take out the first OS drive to be safe when you install the second, just to be sure nothing gets altered on it.

Dual boot is the simplest option but to dual boot you can still install the second OS to any drive you want. Install XP first and then Vista to another drive/partition, Vista will install its bootloader and you're done. Easy as pie.