Dual Boot XP Pro & Vista Business

I recently bought a Dell Precision M4400 from the Dell Outlet. It came with XP Pro installed on a 160GB 7200 HD and a Vista Business license. It came with a XP Pro SP3 CD and Vista Business SP1 DVD.

I have ordered a 320GB 7200 HD and an external case. I want to split the 320GB HD and put XP on one partition and Vista on the other. I have Acronis True Image and Partition Magic.

Which would be best?

1. Image XP to the first partition and install Vista on the second

2. Install Vista on the first partition and image XP to the second

3. Use the CD and DVD to install XP and Vista

Thanks in advance for your help

Herman

 

If you've not got a lot of stuff on there program wise and data, I would go with option 3, installing XP first then Vista.

 

My usual method:

1: Partition the hard drive. I like to have a partition for each OS plus a data partition to make sharing files easier. Usually I point the My Documents to this third partition in each OS.

2: Clean install XP. With a Dell, this will get rid of all of their "bonus" software and "features."

3: Clean install Vista. It will recognize XP and set up the boot manager for you.

That should get you a good working system without the Dell bloatware.

 

Make sure first that you do actually have two separate licenses - one for XP and one for _Vista - and not just one license that gives you merely the right to either use XP or to upgrade the XP installation to _Vista.

 

Good point. According to Microsoft:

"Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business." [emphasis added]