1 Topic by TorrentialFIre (edited by TorrentialFIre 2009-02-01 05:27:27)

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Topic: Help: Partitioning my hard-drive to run both Vista and XP. [Solved]

Okay, so where to start...

I like Vista. I don't care what XP/MAC/Linux junkies say. Vista has an appeal to me and while I don't respect some of it's features, I have been able to find ways to turn them off. However, I will admit the necessity of XP and it's usefulness. So after a train of thought I have come to the conclusion that I would like to have both XP and Vista on my computer.

Now, while I am no expert on the ways of computer engineering, I know that my hardware may come into play in this situation. So I will state now that my hardware should (since I obviously haven't tested this) be compatable with both XP and Vista. Here are the specs:

A Pentium Core 2 Duo Processor,
an ASUS P5N-E SLI Motherboard (Windows Vista Drivers included),
an EVGA 256Mb Graphics Card (SLI Compatable, but not running in dual card mode),
2Gb of RAM,
a Maxtor 250Gb Serial-ATA (SATA) hard disk drive,
a Sony DVD-RW drive,
and a Generic Floppy Disk Drive (never leave home without it, right?).

Okay, so as I said all the manuals and information say that my hardware is XP/Vista compatable. However, I feel uneasy about this project because I don't want to screw up my rather expensive equipment, and I want eveything to work right. I assume that this program (gParted) can run from a CD-ROM? I will want to simply delete the existing partition on my hard-drive and create two 'new' equally sized partitions with XP and Vista installed respectivly. I am prepared with a jump-drive for important data to be saved on. Because of my insecurity complex I will not resize an existing partition and therefore must run this program from boot on the DVD-RW drive. That is, logically assuming I cannot delete a partition that the hard-drive is currently utilizing i.e. while the computer is running Vista. Knowing that, I assume that running both XP and Vista at the same time will be vitually impossible. That's not a problem however, as long as I can switch between the two rather smoothly. Here are my main questions:

1. (Previously stated) Can this program run from boot on a CD-ROM (burn to)? (Instructions please XD)
2. How, if possible, does one switch between OS's without manually setting boot priority in the BIOS (which is the only method I can think of)? (fastest, securist, and smoothest way possible)

Thank you for your support. I'll be checking back tommorow morning January 30, 2009 for any responses, as it is rather late in this part of the country.

2 Reply by stormhead

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Re: Help: Partitioning my hard-drive to run both Vista and XP. [Solved]

Hi!

GParted can be run off a bootable CD (just tahe the "official" LiveCD, for example) - and if you don't have a Linux system on your hard drive, you even MUST run it off a CD or USB key.
But for your project, GParted is not needed:
- Just boot the system from the Windows XP setup CD and follow the instructions on the screen. At some point, you'll come to a point where you can choose the destination parttition. At this point, delete the existing partition, and create a new one that is the size you want to have for your XP system (there should be hints on how to do this on the screen). Then continue the setup until it finishes; you'll then have a freshly-installed XP on your drive.
- Next, boot off the Vista install DVD and tell Vista to install itself into the unused area of your drive. It will create a partition there, occupying all the space that is not assigned to the XP installation, install itself there, and create a boot menu that will let you choose between XP and Vista after powering on the system, so you can select the operating system of your choice without fiddling around with BIOS settings (after all, the BIOS lets you choose whit hard drive to boot from - but not which partition, so if you have two operating systems on one hard drive, the BIOS won#t be of any great help).

3 Reply by class413

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Re: Help: Partitioning my hard-drive to run both Vista and XP. [Solved]

(Topic moved to the Support Section).

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

4 Reply by TorrentialFIre

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Re: Help: Partitioning my hard-drive to run both Vista and XP. [Solved]

Thank you very much, your information was helpful. So helpful that I'm writing this post from windows XP. Thanks a bunch! smile