Installing Vista on a non empty partition???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andre Da Costa [Extended64]
  • Start date Start date
Hi,

sorry if this question has been asked before but I want to install Vista
beside my current XP installation but don't have a clean partition
available.

Is it possible to install Vista on a non empty partition and am I still able
to access this partition and the files and programs when I boot into XP?

Sorry for my bad english, I hope the problem is understandable.


Thanks in advance

Marcus
 
If you want to install Vista, it's best on a clean partition. However, you
can only put 1 operating system on 1 partition - so if you put Vista on your
partition with XP on already, XP will get wiped but you'll have the option
to upgrade so that your files and settings are still intact.

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--
 
You can generally put many OS versions on one partition, but not with Vista.
My test system has five on the C drive partition.

However Vista offers few choices in this area and will overwrite the
existing OS in different ways. Get a second drive, or repartition your
current drive before you install. If you install on the XP partition, XP
will be gone.

These folks have simple partitioning software (BING):

www.terabyteunlimited.com

Ed
 
Hi Zack,

thanks for your answer.

But may I install Vista on a partition other than my current C: partition? I
currently have several partitions but all contain data. I read there is a
feature in Vista similar to Partition Magic to shrink a partition but is it
already stable and secure? I only have a 250 GB drive and no chance to make
a backup...

My idea was to install Vista on a 60 GB partition that by now contains about
30 GB of data. So there should be space enough for a Vista install.
 
Thanks.

I don't want to put Vista on the same partition as XP but on another that
already contains data.

Would that be possible?
 
Partitioning is pretty safe - it just seperates your hard drive into
sections to create "new hard drives" so you can have one physical drive
(C: - 250GB) and you can split it to C: at 100GB and D: at 150GB if you
like.

Yeh, if you install Vista on a seperate partition, it should be fine :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--
 
That process worked fine for me. I have four partitions. The F partition
had lots of data files, but no Windows. I put Vista that and it did not
change any data files.

Ed
 
Hi Zack,

I think I didn't describe it correctly.

The problem is the harddrive already is partitioned so under Windows XP I
have the following:

C: Windows XP home drive (20 GB)
D: My Software (50 GB)
E: My Games (80 GB)
F: Currently my drive for video editing (90 GB)

So I thought that I could install Vista on drive F: which currently has
about 40 GB of free space. As I said all partitions contain data. The
question is:

Can I install Vista without formating an existing partition???
 
Yes, that's exactly what I did.

Ed

Marcus Wulf said:
Hi Zack,

I think I didn't describe it correctly.

The problem is the harddrive already is partitioned so under Windows XP I
have the following:

C: Windows XP home drive (20 GB)
D: My Software (50 GB)
E: My Games (80 GB)
F: Currently my drive for video editing (90 GB)

So I thought that I could install Vista on drive F: which currently has
about 40 GB of free space. As I said all partitions contain data. The
question is:

Can I install Vista without formating an existing partition???
Click to expand...
 
However as a general rule, do a backup first. That way if something goes
very badly, you lose nothing.
 
Hmm... I really don't think you can. If you spread out some of the files in
the F: drive to the other drives, install (and format) from the Vista
setup - then place them back on the F: drive again. It's a bit of a pain,
but it's not really much effort to go to :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--
 
I have installed Vista this way on three different PCs. In each case on a
partition with files present before and after. When in doubt backup first.

Ed
 
Hi,

thanks to all who tried to help me.

Yesterday I tried it and what shall I say - Vista is up and running. Works
fine for me, and this is the first time that I can run Vista with all
features cause the CTPs before I only installed in VMWare.
 
Back
Top