Running 2 operating systems..

[lookout4theyeti]

Need a little help from the computer guru's here.

I have 2 hard drives in my pc right now, one running microsoft xp, and the other is just hooked into that one (as a slave drive H).

Heres the question. I obtained a copy of windows vista ultimate, and would like to install this on my second hard drive, and be able to select which drive to boot from at startup, so that I could switch between operating systems. I just wanna give vista a try and see how I like it, and if it goes well I may stick with it.

Anyways, would I have any problems doing this? Anything I should know before doing this?

[unrealfan]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

its not hard to do on mine...i hit f8 when the first black screen pops up and it offers me a boot selection screen ,showing drives to boot from....it depends on your motherboard/bios ..read the text when you start the pc it may offer a boot selection ,if not you can go into your cmos and choose your "1st boot device" preference each time....to get to cmos you hit "del" or "f1" possibly some other key..again read the first black screens text and it'll tell ya

[pumm3l]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...749fe1033.mspx

this should help, be careful when partitioning because if you mess up you'll loose everything. Back up all important documents/photos before you do this. I've heard it's a good idea to run a defrag before you go and partition as well.

I use Paragon Partition Manager to partition my drives in xp, there's a ton of em tho.

[slow6]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

one time I installed win 2k on my backup hard drive and was installing xp on the main HDD (they were both hooked up at the same time to the same pc).
After I installed xp on the main hard drive, win 2k wouldnt work on the other one.
Just something to consider

[auto666]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

you have to install them in the right order for it to work properly check out the microsoft knoladge base it will give you what you need there should be no problem with doing it i've been running dual boot systems since win95 came out

[unrealfan]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

he has 2 seperate hard drives he wants one OS on each........so what the hell you telling him to get them in the correct order for?????


load 2nd OS on 2nd drive.....boot from the drive you want to use ...period

[bah]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

if your computer came with xp, chances are you dont want to run vista on it, unless its dual core or pretty much a high powered beast, it takes a lot of processing power to run it right

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

he has 2 seperate hard drives he wants one OS on each........so what the hell you telling him to get them in the correct order for?????


load 2nd OS on 2nd drive.....boot from the drive you want to use ...period

that only works if you only cable up the drive you want to use. Otherwise, order does matter to get the boot loader configured properly. The boot sector holds one and only one boot loader and if you install one system over the other, it will overwrite the boot loader.

[zerofailure]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

if your computer came with xp, chances are you dont want to run vista on it, unless its dual core or pretty much a high powered beast, it takes a lot of processing power to run it right

yeah what he said, but since your gonna do it anyway, just install the Vista on the other harddrive like normal. Then if needed u can run msconfig, and edit the boot.ini and add the other opposite operating system to it.. that is it.

[BobDoLe]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

i just use a damn bootloader like lilo or grub

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

i just use a damn bootloader like lilo or grub

why use a Linux bootloader to dual boot two windows versions. I mean, it works, but why go through the hassle? The Win boot loader works fine, you just need to know how to config it.

[BobDoLe]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

why use a Linux bootloader to dual boot two windows versions. I mean, it works, but why go through the hassle? The Win boot loader works fine, you just need to know how to config it.

well... i guessi would feel quite special if i used a windows bootloader to boot linux, but here are a few good reasons:

1. i use linux (not relevant to original concern)
2. linux bootloaders look 99 billion times better (customize the resolution, splash image, behavior, etc)
3. great alternative to windows bootloader if you simply end up hating the windows bootloader due to config problems

[lookout4theyeti]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

Thanks for the help guys... I may just wait to load it on there, since some of you are saying that I wont have a good enough processor for it. I haven't had much time lately anyways to mess with it so i've been putting it off but I may still try it just to see how it is.. Otherwise I'll wait till I have the money to put together a whole new computer, which would be awesome.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: Running 2 operating systems..

well... i guessi would feel quite special if i used a windows bootloader to boot linux, but here are a few good reasons:

:D that would be special. No, I meant for the OP. No need for him to run Grub to dual boot windows.