advice needed, please

  • Thread starter Thread starter niknik1971
  • Start date Start date
N

niknik1971

I have just install visa onto my old computer and I am thinking of putting
it on my new computer.
I have xp pro on my C: drive and I was thinking of putting vista on my D:
drive.
If when the beta period runs out, or if it (vista) does not like my
hardware/ software and is unusable could I not just boot into xp delete all
the vista files on the D: drive and edit the boot.ini file?

If vista is installed on the D: drive what gets added to the C: drive?

Any help and advice would be gratefully appreciated.

NIK
 
Nothing gets added to the C: drive as far as I know. you should be able to
boot into XP and format the hard drive then edit your boot.ini file with no
problems.
 
Nothing gets added to the C: drive as far as I know. you should be able to
boot into XP and format the hard drive then edit your boot.ini file with
no
problems.
Click to expand...


Vista's bootloader files get installed on the primary active partition.
Without knowing more about the OP's system that is most likely the C drive.
 
I have just install visa onto my old computer and I am thinking of putting
it on my new computer.
I have xp pro on my C: drive and I was thinking of putting vista on my D:
drive.
If when the beta period runs out, or if it (vista) does not like my
hardware/ software and is unusable could I not just boot into xp delete
all the vista files on the D: drive and edit the boot.ini file?

If vista is installed on the D: drive what gets added to the C: drive?
Click to expand...

What you are asking about is a standard dual boot scenario. Vista installs
it's own boot loader files in the first active primary partition which is
probably the C drive in your system. The Vista boot loader takes over.
When the computer is booted a menu comes up from the Vista boot loader
giving you a choice of the Vista installation or legacy installations (XP).
If you choose legacy, then the XP boot loader is displayed or it boots right
into XP depending on how your system is set up.

Removing the Vista installation involves removing the Vista partition and
running some commands from XP's recovery console to remove the Vista boot
loader and restore XP's. There are some new 3rd party tools such as
VistaBootPro that can do this as well.

As a word of caution. Vista should only be installed on a test system,
never on a production machine or a primary home computer. You should have
some means for restoring the system to it's current condition (the XP
installation) in case something goes wrong during the install.

Do some research first by reading the posts in this newsgroup that deal with
dual boot situations.
 
Have heard lots of "horror" stories on this...

Do yourself a favor: hard drives are cheap. Get another drive (a 20 gig will
do if money is an issue) and put Vista on it. Go into your BIOS and
*disable* the controller of your primary drive before installing (and while
using) Vista. If you have to transfer stuff from your XP hard drive, do it
via CD/DVD burner or flash drive. It'll save alot of headaches.
 
I agree with you 100%.
Rick is right that the odds favour the Vista boot files will be written on
the C drive. At the very least, the XP MBR must be restored and if the
computer has a special MBR installed by the system builder, that is what
should be restored (like systems with a restore partition)


jwardl said:
Have heard lots of "horror" stories on this...

Do yourself a favor: hard drives are cheap. Get another drive (a 20 gig
will do if money is an issue) and put Vista on it. Go into your BIOS and
*disable* the controller of your primary drive before installing (and
while using) Vista. If you have to transfer stuff from your XP hard drive,
do it via CD/DVD burner or flash drive. It'll save alot of headaches.
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, that's Rock :-(

John Barnes said:
I agree with you 100%.
Rick is right that the odds favour the Vista boot files will be written on
the C drive. At the very least, the XP MBR must be restored and if the
computer has a special MBR installed by the system builder, that is what
should be restored (like systems with a restore partition)
Click to expand...
 
Looks like I will not bother with doing that then.

I will just have to wait till the final version comes out till I bite the
bullet

NIK

--
Remove nospam for personal reply if responding via newsgroup.
John Barnes said:
Sorry, that's Rock :-(
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top