XP Partition, Vista Partition

[Brautigam]

I have been using Vista for about 3 weeks now and I have experienced many annoying bugs in a bunch of different programs. The computer I am using now has nothing on it since I have been running off of my external harddrive for this time so I don't care if I have to reformat everything, it's no problem.

What I want to do is be able to run XP and Vista on my computer. The only reason I want Vista is so when Halo 2 Vista comes out, I can play that. Otherwise, I can live with XP since it is just more efficient. I have a 120GB HDD so I guess I can split the drive into 2 partitions, probably a 20GB for Vista and a 100GB for XP.

I just want to know if this seems like the right thing to do? Should I install 2 versions of Windows on two separate partitions? Will there be any conflicts?

And one more question...will I be able to pick which version I want to run when I turn on the computer? I think that screen with different choices that I have seen before will pop up after I install two different operating systems, but I am not sure.

[jcarle]

Please do not double post.

[MIKE MANE 60]

I think if you try the following 2 links it may just be the solution that you are looking for.

http://www.apcstart.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

http://www.apcstart.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista

[spacesurfer]

Or try this solution here which is more versatile in my opinion: Dual booting with Grub.

[jaclaz]

Just for the record, this site appears to be VERY informative on Vista dual booting:

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/

jaclaz

[beejay1a]

I just set up a dual boot of Vista and XP. XP was installed first then I resized the partition to make room for Vista. When I boot into Vista, it takes forever to load like 3 to 5 mins sometimes and possibly longer. Is there a way to speed up the boot process, or is this a common fault of dual booting?

Also, if I decide to keep Vista, is there a way to remove XP and leave Vista without screwing things up?

[spacesurfer]

Most likely, since you installed Windows XP first and then installed Vista, Vista's boot manager is on XP partition.

Which means if you delete XP partition, then you won't be able to boot Vista unless you do a repair.

So, using a partition manager, you can delete XP partition, merge Vista and old XP partitition, then use Vista DVD to repair the boot loader.