Can I do this - Will it work?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr. Heywood Floyd
  • Start date Start date
D

Dr. Heywood Floyd

My primary drive is in two partitions - "C" and "E" - "C" being my XP
pro 'working' drive.
I have a second physical drive - "D" - upon which I keep a Norton Ghost
image of my "C" drive.
If I 'restore' the image on the "D" drive to the "E" drive - making sure
it's accessible to be used (being able to boot to it) - then install
Vista on the "C" drive will I have a choice of booting to "C" or "E"
during computer startup?

Thank you
 
Hi,

The hitch is in the restoration, the drive (E:) will be enumerated wrong for
the XP installation (that install will want to think it's on C:), and the
bootloader (currently on C:) will not know what to point to. What you may
need to do is run a fixboot to get it working correctly, or perhaps a repair
install. Once working, then yes you can install Vista to C: and create the
desired dual boot scenario.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Prior to Vista, I would have just said yes. As it is, with all this being
pretty new, I'd say you should try it and let us know how it works out. If
you have a Ghost image of your existing C drive, what have you got to lose?
 
I have two partitions on my computer C: and D: C: has windows media center
on it. I deleted the partition D: creating free space. Then I installed
Vista from the C drive, using advance options, and formatted the free space.
The free space became my C: drive for Vista, and it is also seen as the D:
drive for Windows Media Center. So you really don't need to restore your C
drive to the E: drive. As long as you have an older version of windows
installed and it is active, when Vista installs it will be seen by Vista,
and if you choose to install to a different partition the old windows will
be available when you boot. Vista will swap drive letters to keep the OS you
are booting into on the C drive. Hope that answers your question.


--
David Hettel

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group for everyone
to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions addressed directly to me in
E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

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Just a lot of time. But, then, I should have a little extra of that set
aside before I state this - just in case. ;)

Dale wrote:
<SNIP>


what have you got to lose?
 
Yes, the restoration will make the "E" think it's "C". However, David
(next post) says the Vista install will fix this.

Thanks much
 
Dr. Heywood:
Using drive letters with the new operating systems like
Windows x64 or Vista is obsolete. To avoid any confusion labeling each
partition prior to installing any operating system and verify that the older
operating systems are installed in order of release. If you are running XP
and start the Vista DVD, the Vista drive letter will be the next one
available based on the XP installation. If you boot from the Vista DVD the
Vista drive letter will be C and the other operating system letters will
change when looked at from Vista. If you boot from XP, it will be C and the
other operating system drive letters will be changed compared to Vista. When
testing Windows x64 I deleted the wrong partition based on drive letters
which created a major rebuild, then I started labeling partitions and
haven't made that mistake since.
 
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