dual boot Vista & XP

[FN-GM]

Hi

In my desktop at work I have two hard drives 2 x 250GB. The machine currently has XP installed. I have left the office tonight with the machine ghosting incase this goes wrong. Would it be possible to install Vista on the second hard drive and duel boot? Or would I need to install Vista first? Please can I have advice from your personal experience?

Thank you

[jcollings]

We were doing something similar. All we did was disconnect the XP drive, build the other drive with Vista, reconnected the XP drive then used a bit of free software that managed the Vista boot menu.

VistaBootPRO - Go PRO with Microsoft Windows Vista Boot Manager

Think that was about it from memory.

[john]

Ive done it both ways XP original to Vista and Vista original with XP on it. Easiest is XP then add a Vista as Vista should automatically pickup your XP install and add it onto the boot manager. This link is for Vista already and then to add in XP - How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide it works well used it 4 or 5 times now myself. This is for adding Vista after XP - How to dual-boot Vista with XP - step-by-step guide with screenshots

[FN-GM]

Cheers

[PEO]

This could also be of some use to you How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide

[john]

Great minds hey Mr Happy

[Sirbendy]

I've done it at home with the "disconnect drive 1, install, reconnect" method, and I just pick from the BIOS boot menu..

[FN-GM]

Hi, i did this today all went well. Detected i had XP on the other HDD and made and allowed me to duel boot. Simple as that

[PEO]

Great minds hey Mr Happy

Ha yeh you seem to have won me to it

Good stuff zak, I was thinking about ding this to just not got round to it yet, but now I know it works ok, I should be doing the same thing next week

[FN-GM]

Its much better with the service pack only had one issue.

[OverWorked]

I've found that he general rule with dual-booting MS OSs is to install them in order or release. i.e. Win95, win98, 2000, XP, Vista.

It's easier that way, because the newer ones can detect the older ones.

It's possible the other way, but a little bit harder.