Not sure I follow what you're trying to do, but BootIt Next Generation
(BING),
www.bootitng.com, will do what you want -- set the "Active"
partition. Download the program, use it to make a bootable floppy or CD,
then boot to that. Make sure you CANCEL the installation. This will drop you
into Maintenance Mode, where you can use Partition Work to manipulate the
partitions. BING has a thirty-day trial period if you actually install it.
Otherwise, it's no cost for these procedures.
Note that if you're going to use a Vista or XP boot manager, instead of BING
or Partition Magic, etc., then the Active partition has to be the one that
holds the boot manager. One will necessarily be C and the other has to be
something else. Also, once the OS(es) have been installed, you can't change
the drive letter(s) of the system partition(s). Only if you use a
third-party boot manager can you change the Active partition, allowing you
to make each system partition C:\ when that system is booted.
Perhaps you could describe the current setup in detail and then what you
want it to look like. Your description thus far leaves me a bit perplexed on
these counts. What are you using as a boot manager, are you actually
dual-booting or do you want to manually change the Active partition whenever
you desire to change OS? Again, once the OS is installed, you can't change
its drive letter. Also, in order to install XP where a Vista system already
exists, or vice-versa, and keep each OS as C:\ drive, you need to use
something like BING to actually hide them from one another until the
installations are complete. In fact, with the way those two OSes act -- they
don't really play well together -- I set up BING (installed) to hide them
from each other during normal use.
