Dual booting XP32 and Vista64

ragsters

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Will I have a problem dual booting XP 32bit with Vista 64? What I mean is that when dual booting should both OS be either 32bit or 64bit or does it matter?
 

firemist

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There are many tutorials on how to do this - just Google dual boot xp and vista. Since disk drives are cheap I have installed XP on one and Vista 64 on another (and my data and media files are on another) and use the bios boot menu to select the one I want. Both XP and Vista are very happy with this setup.
 

smartel7070

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You shouldn't have any problems if you install XP first and then Vista. I did like firemist and installed XP32 bit and Vista 64 bit on separate drives but I use the vista boot manager to switch between both and everything works fine.
 

dallasjoh

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I have the same setup and have not had any problems and I've been dual booting this way for over a year.
 

ragsters

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I forgot to mention that this set up will be on the same drive via partition using partition magic. Will there be any conflicts being that they will both be on the same drive and will be using a 32bit OS and a 64bit OS? Should I not take the chance and dual boot using both 32bit OS's?
 

djbrad007

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Hi,

you won't have problems, as I did it myself on my P5W DH with both windows on a raid 1 and data on a raid 0.

Install xp x86 on partition 1 then vista x64 on partition 2.

If you install xp after vista you will lose the vista boot sector, but you can install it again by booting from the vista dvd and select "Repair my computer".

Brad
 

bruce555

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Well I got 5 drives and and man they all need some organising.

Obviously the bios is an easy way to controll the boot but if you do install xp first than vista you can use the vista boot screen.

I have 32bit xp + 32bit vista + 64bit vista, all on their own drive and no problems.
 

ragsters

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I know that I wont have problems if I install the OS's on separate drives but I'm just worried about conflicts arising with two different OS's with 32bit and 64bit on the same drive.
 

bruce555

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I agree with dallasjoh, the biggest benifit of the two OS's is having them on 2 different drives that way if one drive goes down you always have the other for backup and you can get into and repair that other drive.

For you to install on the one drive the 2 OS's the partitions will make it very risky and just not worth it IMO. It only costs another $65 for a decent sized drive.