Dual boot (Vista XP)

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I want to make my media pc dual boot. It already has vista ultimate loaded. I have a legit copy of xp. Is it simple to do?

[custard~SPARTA~]

When you do your bigger version at you second home (LOL) I noticed that many new AV amps have a built in network port (some wireless) and can view and play pic and film files on a NAT server or PC via a GUI on the TV. Saves having a seperate device.

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

I have read up on it , You can do it one of 2 ways

Useing a partition utility like partition magic create a partition on the vista hhd and install xp on it. Or a hot swap hhds= 1 vista 2 xp

[Krambo]

I know a few people who have used partition magic and done it that way with no problems Zeno.

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

Pro's and Con's for both methods but I use the hot swap system because of the

saying 'eggs in one basket' . Both OS on one drive means if the drive ever goes

faulty, you loose both OS. If the OS gets infected, then viruses of that

nature usually reside into MBR (Master boot record) and the drive needs formating

from orbit. Also installing apps. has to be done twice but each installation can be

placed onto the boot drive thus making it self contained.

 

The pro's of one drive, are, it's alot cheaper, it only uses one SATA port, it swaps

via a boot menu if you want. This is the common way and you'll find plenty of info

for this style of setup. Apps can be messed up, as you need to remember to install

each app. twice on different sections of the boot.

 

 

my two drives are like this

 

When Vista is boot

Vista32 (C:) OS

WindowsXP (I:) redundant

 

 

When Xp is boot

WindowsXP (C:) OS

Vista32 (I:) redundant

 

 

I installed vista 32 first with all other drives & USB drives disconnected, therefore making it C:

 

 

Then I unplugged it and plugged in the drive I wanted XP on and only that drive and installed WindowsXP 32. This puts Windows XP on the only drive which is now C: also..

 

I then plugged in all drives and set bios to boot from the drive that had the Vista installation.

This made it C: and the redundant XP drive became I:

 

When I want to boot XP I goto the bios and select the Windows XP drive as boot and it becomes C:

and the redundant Vista drive becomes I:

 

My appz. are on the same boot drive as each os.

 

My personal data is on a separate drive as both OS can access this

 

My Media files are as above.

 

My boot drives are both 250GB no partitions. both have slightly different ID/serial

numbers so I can tell them apart in bios. I would recommend 2 slightly

different drives so you could see the difference in bios.

 

 

This dual HD method has the added benefit that both OS are invisible to each other totally.

But you can still access the OS drive even that it's not running as OS.

[Xross]

When I set up my dual boot I had the following drives:

2-150 GB Raptors

2-500 GB Caviars

2-Optical Drives

 

Each OS uses one Raptor and one Caviar.

 

I began by only plugging in the HDDs for Vista and installing that OS.

 

Then I unplugged the Vista drives and plugged in the two HDDs for WinXP

 

Once both Operating Systems were installed I physically connected them as follows:

 

SATA1 = WinXP OS

SATA2 = WinXP Data

SATA3 = Vista64 OS

SATA4 = Vista Data

SATA5 = ODD1

SATA6 = ODD2

 

With this arrangement the operating systems are completely isolated and either can be booted by simply hitting 'F8' during the POST screen and selecting either SATA1 for WinXP or SATA3 for Vista from the Boot Menu.

 

Whichever drive is booted from is automatically assigned the 'C' drive letter and it's data drive is given 'D'.

 

I also have the BIOS boot order setup to boot into WinXP (SATA1) if the PC is just left to boot on it's own. (This could just as easily be made to default to Vista if no action is taken).

 

I never enter BIOS (unless you consider the Boot Menu as BIOS) to select which OS to boot into. Knowing which SATA ports are assigned to each drive makes the process very straight forward.

 

I think this is very similar to what Viiiper is describing so please pardon any redunancy.

 

Best of Luck

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Thanks guys.

 

I think I am going to add a second hard drive and make it an xp boot drive.

 

Very interesting about the av amps I'll be looking into them.