New Build Dual Boot XP 32 and Vista 64

junkmanj · Rated PG Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 13

Hi all:

I'm building a new computer and with to have dual boot capabilities. I believe it would be best to install XP first and create separate partitions for XP and Vista. If so, what size should the partitions be? Can I create the partitions with the XP disk manager? Since I will be running raid, I suppose XP will ask to load the drivers. I'm thinking a flash drive would be best for this? Finally, I guess I can tweek the boot loader by installing EasyBCD?

Thanks ahead for any tips or help you might have.

Jim

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 07 May 2008 09:27:16 Post Subject:

Hi! How big is the drive you have? I did something similar... Had a 750GB drive and gave only 50GB to XP, which was installed first, and the rest to Vista. I assumed XP would just be temporary and didn't think it needed much space. Needless to say, there was less than 10GB left since I like it better than Vista.

How about two different drives? That is what I do now... Each OS has its own drive (750GB each) and it isn't truly a dual boot... I go into the BIOS and reset the order of boot drives to switch.

No matter what, I would make XP first and get all of its drivers right. Depending on what kind of space you have to offer, give each at least 100GB...

sbrehm72255 · Posted: Wed, 07 May 2008 10:21:22 Post Subject:

Different drives is what I do as well, one for XP, Vista (64 bit) and Ubuntu (Linux 64 bit)............... Wink

I'm only running smaller drives (250GB) which works out well for what I do on a daily basis.

I'm also running hot swap drive cages along with the fact that with MSI MoBo's all you have to do is hit F11 at boot to select your boot drive, so there's no need to go into the system bios.

SpeedZone · Rated NC-17 Joined: 06 Apr 2008 Posts: 193

Question for Dr.Feelgood:

I have WinXP on my main hdd...on partition C. This hdd also has D and E partitions. And then i have IDE RAID0 (partitions G and H). Now...if i format the RAID hdd's (both partitions)...and try to install vista there...whats the best way to do it? Either to first switch drives in bios...so that RAID drives would be boot drive...and install then...or just format and install on the current configuration...so...reboot...boot from vista dvd...and voila...set install drive as this RAID drives...and thats it?

The reason i ask this is that in the past...when i tried to have xp's on both (non raid) hdd's...at some times it said that ntdl or something like that, driver was missing and it wouldnt boot (and that driver always installs on C partition (disk?). So would both drives have that driver (or whatever other such driver Vista uses) or not? Confused

Point is that i would like to have both hdd's bootable even if i remove any one of them and try to boot from single hdd (either the one with vista or xp).

Thanks in advance. Grin

EDIT:
Or is it best to install Vista with only drives that i intend to have Vista on, connected? And same for every other OS you install? And later maybe connect them all at once and select the one you want to boot from? Or what? Confused

edvallie · Posted: Wed, 07 May 2008 11:38:21 Post Subject:

Keep in mind that both of your partitions for Vista and XP will be NTFS, so you'll be able to access both under XP and Vista alike. I wouldn't sweat too much on the size, so long as both are large enough to hold the OS and any software you'll be installing.

Re-Speedzone:
You say that your RAID0 array is on partitions G and H, and the lettering system is really only used on windows. Your RAID array should only be viewed as one physical drive inside of windows. I'm hoping your referring to two seperate harddrives, because if you somehow managed to get a RAID0 array onto a single disk, it'd probably hinder your performance a lot more than helping it.

I've never heard of that issue with a missing driver like that. Each OS ought to be installed on its own filesystem, theres no reason it should have dependencies on any others. If you are really convinced that is the cause(somehow) Try pulling the extra drives when you're installing the OS to make sure there aren't any files that are being linked to from another install.(Though this really shouldn't be happening in the first place)

junkmanj · Rated PG Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 13

In my case, volume "C" will be (2) 320 GB hard drives in RAID 0. I also have (1) 750 GB hard drive as volume "D"

Maybe your right, just install XP on volume C and Vista 64 on D. I've always been told to create a separate partition in the main volume for the OS. 100 GB for the OS yikes!!!

junkmanj · Rated PG Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 13

Further to my last post, I've read on Maximum PC that the OS's and executables should be on the faster volume ( C volume 2x 320 GB HDD's in RAID 0) and the page files on the slower drive.

As per Dr Feelgood, maybe the speed increase is not worth the potential hassles with a dual boot configuation. Thinking further, separate OS's on separate drives makes sense as my #1 son can install his direct X 10 + games on the D drive with Vista and the direct X 9 and older games on the first C volume with XP.

SpeedZone · Rated NC-17 Joined: 06 Apr 2008 Posts: 193