partitioning for dual boot ...

Status
Not open for further replies.

masjana.liza

Beta member
Messages
1
hey,

im planning to format my harddrive and do clean a reinstall of windows but i want to dual boot XP and vista. ive formatted and reinstalled windows before so i know what im doing there but since i have no idea about how to partition drives and dual booting i have a few questions:

1. how do i know if my harddrive currently has any partitions? i have 2 drives in my PC but they show up as one in 'my computer', how do i know if either of them are partitioned? and if they are partitioned should i undo it before partitioning them again?

2. how do i partition a drive and how do i install each OS onto one? do i partition it after ive formatted but before i install anything?

3. once both OS's have been installed where do i install programs, games etc? do i install them onto the XP partition or the vista?

also, ive been advised that, due to me not having a full version of vista but one that you upgrade XP to, i should start off by installing one version of XP and upgrading that to vista, and then i should go ahead and try to install the second XP - does that affect how i should go about doing it?

thanks ...
 
1...thats odd if you have two hdds in your computer they should show up as 2 drives in My Computer, unless they are setup in a Raid Strip-0 configuration

2. i use partition magic to partition my stuff...works well, and it will see each partition as a different drive in My Computer...ex: 1 80gb hdd with two partitons each of 40gb will show up as C: 40gb and D: 40gb (the drive letters will probably be different for you) so all you need to so is install the OS you want on each drive letter

3. the programs will go in the program files directory of each os's drive

ya, you'll want to do what they said and upgrade to vista, then install xp on the other partition
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom