XP? Vista?

[talldude123]

Pretty soon, the moderators will have to "sticky" a guide showing members how to partition their hard drive to use both XP and Vista, since everybody wants to try it out, and are still used to XP.

 

[AMD6415]

ok so i can't just put Vista on the other hard drive, I have to make the partition on the new one even if there is nothing on it? how come? Also after I get Vista on the other hard drive how would I pick which OS to go into does it automatically come up when you start up the computer. Sorry for all the questions I just have never done this and I don't wanna miss/mess anything up

 

[Meithan]

ok so i can't just put Vista on the other hard drive, I have to make the partition on the new one even if there is nothing on it? how come? Also after I get Vista on the other hard drive how would I pick which OS to go into does it automatically come up when you start up the computer. Sorry for all the questions I just have never done this and I don't wanna miss/mess anything up

You're misunderstanding this. You can just put Vista on the second hard drive.

You see, a hard drive needs to have a "file system", something that tells the computer how to write and read files from the drive. New hard drives don't come with a built-in file system (we say they disk is unformatted). In order to use it, you have to make a partition and format that partition with some file system (the standard Windows system is called NTFS). Don't worry about all this technical stuff, the Windows installer does it all for you.

The partition by itself is just a way to give a name to a file system in your hard drive (with letters like C, D, etc). You can put a single partition in a hard drive, by formatting the whole drive in one go. I know the term sounds like "splitting up", but you can split up a hard drive in only 1 piece.

Hope I'm not confusing you.

As for how to select the OS, you have to install a "boot loader". Every time you turn on the computer, you'll be asked which OS you want to boot into.

I'm not sure, though, if the Vista installer comes with a built-in boot loader. If not, you'd have to use a third party program such as partition magic. I recommend using one to make the partitions in the first place, anyway.

 

[AMD6415]

ok makes a little more sense now, but now I am to my final question with the new hard drive before I download Vista I have to make the partition and format it? this is the only part i am still a little fuzzy on sorry. So would I just use partition magic while in my old hard drive (XP) to do this to the new hard drive? and then download Vista?

 

[Meithan]

I'm not sure if the Windows Vista installer is smart enough to create its own partition in a new hard drive, so I'll assume we have to prepare everything from Windows XP. In this case, this is what you'd have to do.

1) Install new hard drive.
2) Download Vista with your current Windows XP install. Burn the ISO to a DVD.
3) Using Partition Magic, create a new partition in your new hard drive; give it any letter you want. Make it of type "primary" when asked; this is important. You don't need to format it, just create it (the new partition won't have a file system yet; it will be 'blank)'. You'll be asked to reboot.
4) Back in Windows XP, you should be able to "see" this new partition in the File Explorer, with whatever letter you chose in the previous step. (If you click on it, Windows will tell you it doesn't have any format; this is ok).
5) Pop in the Vista DVD, and follow the installer (apparently you don't have to boot into it). Select the newly created partition as installation destination. You'll be asked to reboot a few times; just follow the instructions.

By the time the installer is done, you'l have an operational Vista partition on your new hard drive. Apparently Vista automatically installs a sort of "boot loader". Every time you boot up, you'll be asked which OS you wanna boot into: "Microsoft Windows" refers to Vista, and "Earlier version of Windows" refers to XP.

Hope this helps (info extracted from the article talldude posted).

 

[AMD6415]

all i can say is thanks a ton for all the help.