Dual boot questions!

Hi!

I've had more than enough of Vista. I am installing it for 10th or 11th time within 20 days. While I am at it, I am considering installing XP Pro SP2 on my system as well. But since I have not ever done a dual boot, I have some questions.

1) Do I have to install the softwares twice? Like Winamp, once for Vista, and then for XP?

2) Do I need to install XP on a different partition than Vista?

3) Will the XP Windows folder be shown when I'm using Vista, and vice versa? What is a cleaning software removes a file of either of the OS?

4) Can I later remove one of the OS?

5) I install all the softwares in one partition (one partition only for this). Can I install both the OS' softwares in that drive (E:\Softwares)?

6) Are there any downgrades in performance?



Thank you!

 

1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) Yes. It might not be accessible but I'm pretty sure it is.
4) Yes.
5) It's two totally different sections of your Hard Drive. It's almost like having 2 computers.
6) No. (Maybe slower start up if you don't select which OS you want to boot with at the startup screen. There's an automatic 30 second timer, which can be changed most likely in the registry, if you don't select an OS.) No real downgrade in performance though.

Norton Partition Magic 8.0
If you can grab a full version go for it, otherwise I don't know of any free partitioning programs.

Vista's install DVD I believe has it's own partition manager. So you might be able to create a new one if not then you can delete or format another one.

 

Fixed it

Great Dual-Booting Giude.

 

Nothing personal, but if you're installing Vista for the 10th time in 20 days, wouldn't you re-evaluate why you're keeping it installed on your computer? It just seems like a tremendous waste of your time if you keep reinstalling once every other day...

 

Because I don't know how to slip-stream etc! I mean I know, but I really don't want to make a new DVD with modded this and that for XP Pro, then a path for dual core processors as well. I am downloading XP's drivers right now. So it'll be XP (after my latest install has failed).

Thank you ThomasH and Zachareasy! Thomas, I'll be using this format, so I have to install the softwares twice?

 

So, after a heart-to-heart with my laptop, I decided to go back to XP. I downloaded all the drivers and read how to do it (SATA and Dual-core etc). But at the last moment, I decided against it. Going for Vista. This will b e my last Vista installation, till SP1.

 

As Silas posted C:\ windows vista D:\ windows XP E:\ software... F:\ music, movies... so when you turn your system on, can you pick which windows you want or you need some software to boot it up, then you can choice which one you want, because I want to set up a dual boots on my laptop, I have 2 harddrives one loaded with XP and other loaded with vista, I tried to put both into my laptop but it won't let me pick boot from D drive, it only boot from C drive, does any software or some trick I can set up then let me pick which drive I want to boot, hope someone can help me with this ,Thanks.

 

You have 2 drives, or partitions? Because I was talking about having 4 partitions.

 

I'm surprised you have had to reinstall Vista so often. I've been using it for 7 or 8 months now and I've not had to reinstall once. I may have to do it for the first time in the next couple of days if I can't restore to remove the blasted curse that is Linux.