Partitioning and dual booting

blackjack

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I have downloaded the gparted live CD and intend to shrink my XP installationhttp and make a new one and install Vista like it says here http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_xp__stepbystep_guide_with_screenshots.htm
My question is this, say I have a problem with my XP installation a virus or corrupt/damaged files etc, if i then use my ghost restore image of XP that was created before I created the vista partition will it restore my XP back as it wont be shrunk and will the Vista partition still be there? will it affect me booting up? has anyone ever reversed a gparted partition to erase it and return your hdd back to its original state as one partition, I need to know so I can definatley get rid of Vista if I don't want to keep it and keep my HDD as it is now whole.
can you partition your HDD without shrinking with gparted? I have 140g spare on this drive so I could allocate 40g FOR VISTA that should be enough shouldn't it?,
I have a 1gig of ram, how much will it effect my speed on either system if I dual boot/
 
For one GParted live for cd is an excellent free drive partitioning tool. Shrinking down a primary will take time depending how much is currently on it. You will want to back things up before attempting this first.

The APC mag articles are incomplete and leave out a few important details on how to see XP added onto an existing Vista installation and making it work. Note that when going to boot into XP in a dual boot configuration with Vista XP will cancel the Vista restore points out. APC mag doesn't tell you that one!

When going to install Vista being the newer version following XP the new boot loader will include XP as a boot option. Once detected by the newer version of Windows the older becomes an option at startup when automatically added into the new version's own boot loader.

GParted has a few platform independent releases for use on both MS and other partition types other than Linux. Create, delete, shrink, expand, and even copy entire partitions from one drive to another. Most live for cd distros will see that on those as well as the separate download found at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828

For the actual guide for use see the documentation with screen shots seen at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm Once you have worked with the Linux tool a few times it becomes quite simple to follow. Some additional screens are found at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
 
Thanks for the reply mate but My system wont run the gparted disk, ig boots up and I get to the screen where you select the key logger bit, so press enter twice according to the onscreen instructions and it loads alot of stuff and then gives me a video error and when I follow the correction instructions it doesnt fix it so I gave up and used partition magic 8, and that worked but the dual booting
failed
 
Which release of GParted did you use? Following the 0.3.3.0 release there was a "start x" automatic graphical configuration tool I could never get to work for the live cd version.

The 0.3.3.0 and 0.3.2.0 releases are cross platform versions while the others are mainly for Linux. For those you simpy press enter at each of the four stops seen while loading to reach the main screen.

Don't change the defaults of 24 to 32bit or 1024x768 to 1280x1024 or the map setting. You'll get lost fast and end up rebooting every time. The higher screen res is only good for large wide screens not a typical lcd since things like the drive selector wander offscreen.

If you want some other real information for seeing XP added to the Vista boot loader get the EasyBCD tool found at http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

In fact the latest 1.7.2 version just came out. I use the 1.7.1 for the dual boot here. You first have to keep Vista as the default until finished. Vista being the newer version will see XP added in automatically when installed after XP. That will manage thing easily plus allow you to add XP to a Vista installation as well as changing the default of Vista to XP as the boot OS.
 
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