Does this dual-boot installation plan work?

[Milhouse Van Houten]

I've been reading bunches o' posts here in advance of moving to Vista soon,
so I thought I'd post the highlights of my plan in case I've made some
incorrect assumptions.

One of the goals is not to have drive letters that flip depending on which
OS I'm in.

Before starting, I should mention that I have a bootable 1GB primary system
partition (FAT/DOS)*, with the rest of the disk unformatted.

1) Boot Vista DVD and format two partitions: A) 32GB for Vista, followed
by... B) 12GB for XP

2) Quit Vista installation and boot XP CD to install it on the 12GB
partition.

(I think XP should put itself on an "E" drive, since the 12GB is the third
partition, but I'm hazy on that. QUESTION: Will it actually be "D"?)

3) FROM XP, install Vista to 32GB partition, which should be referred to as
the "D" drive.

What I'm assuming the result will be:

A) Vista's boot manager will have Vista and "Earlier version of Windows" --
the latter will pass me to XP's boot menu, which in turn allows me to boot
XP or a command prompt.
B) When in either Vista or XP, Vista will be D and XP will be E.

*Historically I've always kept a small (512MB to 1GB) system partition (C)
so that I can easily boot to a DOS command prompt (allowing me to run
various utilities) and also so that OS system files can go there rather than
commingling on the first boot partition. This makes the first boot partition
more easily expendable.

 

[Chad Harris]

Hi Milhouse--

Dual Boot Instructions for XP and Vista Dual Boot
http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista

1) Drive letters flip if and when you install Vista from a restart. They
would not change if you run the Vista setup from XP which is easy to do and
then you will see a screen in Vista setup which allows you to choose the
drive you want to install Vista on. If you boot the Vista DVD and don't run
setup from XP you are going to have different drive letters on Vista and the
same drive letters if you go to the XP boot.

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/winvista_rtm_install_13.jpg


2) You must install Vista onto an NTFS drive--it's not supported to install
it on a FAT drive--so you need to convert your FAT drive to NTFS and there
is an MSKB that shows you how as well as thousands of links on the web. get
the whole drive converted to NTFS would be my advice. There are also a
number of advantages to using an NTFS files system on a hard drive.

3) How many GB you need on either drive is up to you depending on how many
apps you plan to install but 32GB will work for Vista--if you have more room
I'd up that number to 40-50GB

4) I don't know what you are referencing when you say "quit Vista
installation." You can't quit any installation to achieve any advantage.
You need to finish the Vista installation as I said, and running the Vista
setup from the XP desktop will ensure you maintain your drive letters for
the dual boot--otherwise if you restart to run Vista setup you're going to
get different drive letters dictated by the BIOS.

5) The result will be that you'll get a screen that has the default
highlight of the item Vista and you will have the XP boot listed above it
(black and white menu). You should not need any boot loader manager like
Vista Boot Pro if you do this correctly. It goes without saying that the
older OS (XP) always must be installed first, or you're going to run into
problems and sometimes you can't fix them.

http://www.theeldergeekvista.com/images/Vista Dual Boot Installation/Vista Final -0037.jpg



6) You can maintain your historical small partition if you like; just run
that Vista setup from the XP boot as I've said.

7) Best to shortcut from Vista desktop to XP desktop once you install the
dual boot, because if you boot to XP you will lose your Vista restore points
unless you encrypt them with Bit Locker(there are other methods to protect
the Vista restore points discussed on this and the general group) if you
have it on your Vista edition. (I rarely need to go to an XP boot on a dual
boot because you can access XP from the Vista desktop this way:

C: (or whatever drive)\Documents and Settings\Milhouse' Profile\Desktop and
if on XP you can go to Vista Desktop via this path:

Vista Drive\Users\Milhouse's Profile\Desktop

If you have any questions shoot.

I am a dual boot proponent because you always have your months or years of
accumulated docs, settings, shortcuts, files and folders from XP on the box.
Why waste time and energy transfering and copying when you don't need to and
you can drag the icon on the top left of the folder that shortcuts to either
and put it on the desktop and click it when you want to access the other
desktop.

Best of luck.

CH

 

[Milhouse Van Houten]

Hi Milhouse--

Dual Boot Instructions for XP and Vista Dual Boot
http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista

Yes, I've seen that.

1) Drive letters flip if and when you install Vista from a restart. They
would not change if you run the Vista setup from XP which is easy to do
and

Yes, that's why I'm doing Step 3 in the way that I mentioned.

2) You must install Vista onto an NTFS drive--it's not supported to
install it on a FAT drive

I am (I should have mentioned that). Only the C drive is FAT, and I'm not
installing Vista or XP onto it.

4) I don't know what you are referencing when you say "quit Vista
installation." You can't quit any installation to achieve any advantage.

In the first step, I'm using Vista's setup purely as a partitoning and
formatting program and not even progressing to the stage of copying files. I
just quit the install after formatting the two drives. I figure it's better
to use Vista than XP to do this (I think I read something about Vista's NTFS
being a later version than XP's), and since Symantec abandoned Partition
Magic I'm no longer comfortable using it.

If you have any questions shoot.

Yes, I'm definitely still wondering which drive letter XP gets in my Step 2.
I just can't recall if XP considers the partition that it's on (in this
case, the third) when it's determining its drive letter. If it does, then it
would get "E"; if it doesn't, then it would get "D".

I am a dual boot proponent because you always have your months or years of
accumulated docs, settings, shortcuts, files and folders from XP on the
box. Why waste time and energy transfering and copying when you don't need
to and you can drag the icon on the top left of the folder that shortcuts
to either and put it on the desktop and click it when you want to access
the other desktop.

I'm mainly interested in it for ER situations or for testing something
that's just not working right in Vista, though for the latter case a VM in
Vista would do. The ridiculous restore point issue has been high on my mind,
but my goal is not to have to go into XP much at all. None of the
workarounds are acceptable to me (there's no way I'm going back to 3rd-party
boot managers, for example). I know MS has a reputation for letting issues
sit for years unresolved, but I just have a hunch they'll be able to come up
with some quick-n-dirty mod to XP (even if it's simply a new,
industrial-strength policy) that will allow XP to completely disregard
Vista's partition and therefore bypass the issue. If they don't, a 3rd-party
will (not talking boot managers).

Thanks!

 

[Chad Harris]

MVH--

I see. Vista's NTFS is an improved transactional NTFS and it's discussed on
a number of MSFT MSDN blogs and MSDN web pages.

As to PM, I believe the current status is not that Symantec abandoned it,
but about 18 or so months ago they bought it from Power Quest--maybe longer.
Maybe you are making an observation on Symantec's having PM and you feel
they're not innovating instead.

www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/

I'm not sure I can predict your drive letter question because again if you
plan to have XP installed first and run the Vista setup from the XP desktop,
you will retain the drive letters on Vista. If you have that small
partition you use already installed, and then install XP, (a small (512MB to
1GB) system partition (C)
so that I can easily boot to a DOS command prompt (allowing me to run
various utilities) I imagine XP will be on D:\ and then if you install Vista
from the XP desktop, Vista will be installed to E:\ if you choose it. If
you install XP and then XP is D:\ and you install Vista from a restart,
Vista may become D:\. What makes me a bit uncertain is that small system
partition you want to use.

Philosophically, a reassignment of drive letters is just no big deal. You
get used to it very quickly. I have done it both ways. Vista for whatever
reason, after about the last 4 builds refused to install as a setup from my
XP desktop, so I install it from a restart by necessity when I dual boot.
It's easy to get used to, and remember, if you shortcut to the XP desktop
the way I mentioned, you would have a rare reason to boot to XP since you
can access files or if need be copy them with a few mouse clicks.

Good luck,

CH