I want to install Vista

  • Thread starter Thread starter Newtechie
  • Start date Start date
So when I open My Computer in either system, there will be 2 C drives, and
not C and D - correct?
 
Newtechie said:
So when I open My Computer in either system, there will be 2 C drives, and
not C and D - correct?
Click to expand...

No. Each O/S sees itself as drive/partition "C:" and other
drives/partitions will be lettered appropriately. Think of it this way:
drive letters don't exist when the computer is turned off, and drive letters
are assigned each time an O/S (DOS counts) is started.
 
As Mark said, each operating system will see itself as C the way you are
going to install. Depending on what else you have on your system, the other
os will be assigned another drive letter. Drive letters are carried in each
systems registry from the time they are assigned. You can change the drive
letters in drive management, except the system and boot drive.
 
Ok - out of curiosity, I installed from within XP instead of disconnecting
the drives. If I boot into XP, it shows XP as the C drive and Vista as the
D drive. If I boot into Vista, it shows as the C drive and XP as the D
drive. Is that the way it's suppose to happen? Otherwise, I need to go
back and do it the way I intended.

Also, the Vista boot screen does not have a logo like XP. The only thing I
see is a green progress bar. Is that the way Vista was designed?
 
In Line:

Newtechie said:
Ok - out of curiosity, I installed from within XP instead of disconnecting
the drives. If I boot into XP, it shows XP as the C drive and Vista as
the D drive. If I boot into Vista, it shows as the C drive and XP as the
D drive. Is that the way it's suppose to happen? Otherwise, I need to go
back and do it the way I intended.
Click to expand...

Yes, as mikeyhd stated earlier, this is the expected result if Vista is
installed from within XP, since XP has control of the drive letters at the
time the installation is started. As a note, if Vista is installed by
booting from the DVD instead, this would be different.
Also, the Vista boot screen does not have a logo like XP. The only thing
I see is a green progress bar. Is that the way Vista was designed?
Click to expand...

They have to save some surprises for the retail product!
 
Ok - so if I start from scratch, will that mess up my XP drive? Also, will
I have any problems reinstalling Vista?
 
Newtechie said:
Ok - so if I start from scratch, will that mess up my XP drive? Also,
will I have any problems reinstalling Vista?
Click to expand...

1. Vista is still a test product so the answer to your first question is
probably not but there is always the possibility.

2. If you already have Vista installed, why do you need to reinstall it?
 
Newtechie said:
Hi Mark - I'd reinstall it to boot from the DVD and not install within XP.
Click to expand...

I went back and re-read your post about the way you installed Vista and the
result of how the drive letters are being assigned by the respective
operating systems.

" installed from within XP instead of disconnecting
the drives. If I boot into XP, it shows XP as the C drive and Vista as the
D drive. If I boot into Vista, it shows as the C drive and XP as the D
drive."

This actually is the opposite of what mikeyhsd posted, and my original
posted opinion is wrong.

If you install Vista by booting from the Vista DVD you should achieve the
same result. In fact, I (and I am sure a few others) am curious as to how
you achieved the result you did when you installed from within XP, since I
believe mikeyhsd is correct in that when you install Vista from within XP,
Vista will assign itself a different drive letter (to the system drive when
Vista is the active operating system) than the drive letter that XP was on
when the installation occurred.

The only way I can think of that this is possible is that you are using a
boot manager like BootIt NG or BootMagic and hiding one system drive from
the other when you are booting. If you aren't, this is interesting indeed
and very unlike the experiences of others who have posted here and become
generally accepted as standard.

Okay that's a very long way of me saying "leave it like it is" since it is
working.
 
It is the opposite of what would be expected installing from within XP and
pointing to the D drive to install Vista to. Vista should remain the D
drive when booted into and XP should stay the C drive.
I agree with Mark. You should end up with the results you say you have now.
 
Hi John,

This is getting more and more confusing by the minute and I didn't
understand Mark's post. Ok, here's the situation: there are 2 physical
drives, NOT 2 partitions and I think that may be confusing some. Before I
installed Vista, XP (My system drive - assigned C - set to master) was the
only operable drive. The 2nd drive (D - set to slave) was being used as a
storage drive only - no operating system. My plan is to take the 2nd drive
and install Vista on it without interfering with XP system.

Here's what I did: set the jumpers on both drives to CS, insert the DVD
into the drive, rebooted the system to boot from the DVD and installed Vista
using the custom option and pointed it the D drive. Installation finished
and I rebooted the system - went into the BIOS and changed priority drive to
Vista and I got a boot menu after saving my options. Booted into Vista and
looked in My Computer and noticed that Vista was C and XP was D.

Did I do something wrong? I did not use a boot manager.
 
Newtechie said:
Hi John,

This is getting more and more confusing by the minute and I didn't
understand Mark's post. Ok, here's the situation: there are 2 physical
drives, NOT 2 partitions and I think that may be confusing some. Before I
installed Vista, XP (My system drive - assigned C - set to master) was the
only operable drive. The 2nd drive (D - set to slave) was being used as a
storage drive only - no operating system. My plan is to take the 2nd
drive and install Vista on it without interfering with XP system.

Here's what I did: set the jumpers on both drives to CS, insert the DVD
into the drive, rebooted the system to boot from the DVD and installed
Vista using the custom option and pointed it the D drive. Installation
finished and I rebooted the system - went into the BIOS and changed
priority drive to Vista and I got a boot menu after saving my options.
Booted into Vista and looked in My Computer and noticed that Vista was C
and XP was D.

Did I do something wrong? I did not use a boot manager.
Click to expand...

Well, in two separate posts you describe two different installations. In
one post you state you installed Vista from inside XP:

"Ok - out of curiosity, I installed from within XP instead of disconnecting
the drives."

In the post I am responding to, you state you installed by booting from the
DVD.

So which is it?
 
Mark - I installed within XP - I only disconnected the drives to set the
jumpers to CS and left the IDE cables connected. XP was still the system
drive at time of installation.
 
NewTechie - You did not do anything "wrong" - depending on how Vista is
installed in certain circumstances it will take the "C" designation on
boot -
 
Installing from within XP means you start XP and then when you have the XP
desktop insert the Vista install DVD and when you get the menu, you do your
installation. Clear?
Alternately you go to the DVD from My Computer, again from the XP desktop
right click and select autorun (autoplay). When you get the menu, you do
the installation.
 
Your installation is fine, but you installed from the DVD and therefore you
got the results you have described. There is no reason to change anything
unless you want the same drive letters for the same system in both systems.
ie. both systems have Vista as D
 
Newtechie said:
Mark - I installed within XP - I only disconnected the drives to set the
jumpers to CS and left the IDE cables connected. XP was still the system
drive at time of installation.
Click to expand...

"Here's what I did: set the jumpers on both drives to CS, insert the DVD
into the drive, rebooted the system to boot from the DVD and installed Vista
using the custom option and pointed it the D drive."

If this what you did, than you did not install from inside XP, you installed
by booting from the DVD. Installing from inside XP means that the computer
is on and XP is running and you pop the DVD into the cupholder and
double-click on "Setup.exe" and then it does its thing.
 
Yes- that's exactly what I've been wanting from the start and I'm sorry I
didn't make myself more clear. XP will be C in both systems and Vista to be
D in both systems! Would this effect the boot.ini file? Also, will I have
a problem if I reinstalled Vista by itself?

Thanks John!
 
Oops..my bad - must've gotten confused.

John Barnes said:
Installing from within XP means you start XP and then when you have the XP
desktop insert the Vista install DVD and when you get the menu, you do
your installation. Clear?
Alternately you go to the DVD from My Computer, again from the XP desktop
right click and select autorun (autoplay). When you get the menu, you do
the installation.
Click to expand...
 
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