Install Vista Rc2 ?

[irregularjoe]

Where's the best place to install Vista RC2 without screwing up my XP partition?

Another hard drive? If so, how do I make it bootable and keep the XP drive also bootable?

Or use a virtual machine?

If so, what software should I use? Parallels ?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Joe

[TheTerrorist_75]

Read the following.

Installing alongside Windows XP, and will my PC run it?

This is now free from MS.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004

Installing Windows Vista RC1 on Virtual PC

Edited October 7, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[dBTelos]

Virtual Machine should be best. Look at Whiskyman's links.

[shanenin]

If you really wnat to test and use it, I would reccomend a dual boot. If you have unallocated space on your harddrive, vista can be installed thier and run along side xp with no torubles. I am not sure if you would have any problems booting it from a slave drive.

I think virtual machines are neat for some stuff, but to truly use vista, a virtual machine would feel really boggy(slow).

[irregularjoe]

Thanks for the ideas.

M$ states that it's VM is supportrd with XP Pro. I have Home. So I think that's out.

I read on the links from Hitest that some of the XP files could get changed with a Vista seperate partition setup, although I'm not sure if that's true.

I have a second hard drive on the computer in question set up as a slave. I just formatted it and am thinking that I should partition THAT drive. That way I can put Vista RC2 on it along with Fedora5 (which I also want to use). And just leave my primary drive as XP.

My only issue is how to set up the second drive. Will it boot as a slave? I don't recall seeing an option in Bios for a slave drive boot.

Anyone know?

Oh, one more thing. Not sure if it matters, but my primary drive is SATA and my slave drive is IDE.

Now that the Yankees blew the playoffs yet again,

, I have time to try out these ideas.

Thanks,

Joe

Edited October 8, 2006 by irregularjoe

[irregularjoe]

OK, here's the latest.

I used Partition Magic to partition my second hard drive. I placed two partions on it hoping to install Vista RC2 on the first partition, and left space for a later install of Fedora 5.

All went well.

I then installed Vista RC2 on the designated drive and partition. Started it up and everything looked great.

I looked around in Vista for awhile, got online, did the updates.

I REALLY like the look of Vista! No problems with the install, everything worked right out of the box.

HOWEVER......yeah.... there always seems to be one with Windows

After a successful reboot back into XP things went south quickly on the next reboot.

Screen froze a few times before Windows started.

I tried switching the Hard drive boot order in Bios.

Upon rebooting I would either get a Safemode screen which also froze or a blank screen.

That went on for awhile. I switched the Hard drive boot priority many times and kept getting the same problems.

Finally I was able to boot into Vista again.

I noticed in Disk Management that Vista renamed my hard drive letters. I originally set it up on drive J (second HD) and my XP and data on C and E.(first HD).

I think ths is what caused the trouble.

I successfully rebooted back into Bios and changed the HD boot to Master and booted back into XP.

I then went back into Disk Management and deleted the Vista partition.

I have to find a better way for a dual boot. This one did not work.

I'm now trying the Fedora install on the Linux partition on the second HD.

Hope that works better.

[Chappy]

I also would NOT recommend a Virtual Machine for Vista, it would be unbearably slow.

VM's using virtual resources run a bit slower to start with, my XP VM's don't run anywhere near as quick as my main XP install and with Vista's humungous requirements (bloat) I think it would just be ugly...

I'm surprised you had this issue Joe, usually dual boot Windows OS's run just fine together, same physical HDD or on a slave drive partition. I've never had any issues dual booting 2 or more MS OS's. Changing the HDD boot order would make no difference as the MBR is written to the first section of the Master drive and the boot record for Vista would also be there, so changing HDD order would not change things.

Having a dual boot OS change the drive lettering is also common and no issue as that's only for it's own recognition and will not affect the XP install's device lettering conventions or flip them around in there.

Which install were you primarily trying to boot into when all this was happening?

[TheTerrorist_75]

Major improvements for running Vista on virtual setup.

Virtual PC 2007 Beta Now Available

This is also interesting for those who don't have a DVD drive.

Installing Vista Beta 1 (x86) without DVD media

Edited October 15, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[irregularjoe]

I also would NOT recommend a Virtual Machine for Vista, it would be unbearably slow.

VM's using virtual resources run a bit slower to start with, my XP VM's don't run anywhere near as quick as my main XP install and with Vista's humungous requirements (bloat) I think it would just be ugly...

I'm surprised you had this issue Joe, usually dual boot Windows OS's run just fine together, same physical HDD or on a slave drive partition. I've never had any issues dual booting 2 or more MS OS's. Changing the HDD boot order would make no difference as the MBR is written to the first section of the Master drive and the boot record for Vista would also be there, so changing HDD order would not change things.

Having a dual boot OS change the drive lettering is also common and no issue as that's only for it's own recognition and will not affect the XP install's device lettering conventions or flip them around in there.

Which install were you primarily trying to boot into when all this was happening?

Thanks for the reply.

I was in Vista......all was well.

The problems started when I tried to restart and get back into XP.

The XP installation was still there but I guess the bootloader was messed up.

I'll probably try it again.

Joe

[TheTerrorist_75]

When trying a new OS in a dual boot setup I prefer to install the OSes on separate hard drives. I will remove any hard drives containing a previouly installed OS and install the new OS on a formatted drive hooked up alone. This way other OSes cannot be corrupted. I then use the Bios boot order to pick the OS I want to boot to. Once I am confident with the new OS and know that they can be setup in a dual boot configuration without issue then I will install them in a correct dual boot setup. I would not setup a permanent dual boot setup with Vista as of yet. Whenever you go to install the newest release candidate you must remove the older version first. With Vista's different MBR this may mess you up.

[irregularjoe]

When trying a new OS in a dual boot setup I prefer to install the OSes on separate hard drives. I will remove any hard drives containing a previouly installed OS and install the new OS on a formatted drive hooked up alone. This way other OSes cannot be corrupted. I then use the Bios boot order to pick the OS I want to boot to. Once I am confident with the new OS and know that they can be setup in a dual boot configuration without issue then I will install them in a correct dual boot setup. I would not setup a permanent dual boot setup with Vista as of yet. Whenever you go to install the newest release candidate you must remove the older version first. With Vista's different MBR this may mess you up.

Not sure what you mean.

I did set up Vista on a second HD.

Do you mean physically remove the XP HD and run Vista on a seperate HD?

[TheTerrorist_75]

When trying a new OS in a dual boot setup I prefer to install the OSes on separate hard drives. I will remove any hard drives containing a previouly installed OS and install the new OS on a formatted drive hooked up alone. This way other OSes cannot be corrupted. I then use the Bios boot order to pick the OS I want to boot to. Once I am confident with the new OS and know that they can be setup in a dual boot configuration without issue then I will install them in a correct dual boot setup. I would not setup a permanent dual boot setup with Vista as of yet. Whenever you go to install the newest release candidate you must remove the older version first. With Vista's different MBR this may mess you up.

Not sure what you mean.

I did set up Vista on a second HD.

Do you mean physically remove the XP HD and run Vista on a seperate HD?

Yes. Install Vista on a second drive with the XP drive removed. That way the MBR isn't affected. Also disable Vista's System Restore. I believe that is included in the Vista tips above.

[irregularjoe]

When trying a new OS in a dual boot setup I prefer to install the OSes on separate hard drives. I will remove any hard drives containing a previouly installed OS and install the new OS on a formatted drive hooked up alone. This way other OSes cannot be corrupted. I then use the Bios boot order to pick the OS I want to boot to. Once I am confident with the new OS and know that they can be setup in a dual boot configuration without issue then I will install them in a correct dual boot setup. I would not setup a permanent dual boot setup with Vista as of yet. Whenever you go to install the newest release candidate you must remove the older version first. With Vista's different MBR this may mess you up.

Not sure what you mean.

I did set up Vista on a second HD.

Do you mean physically remove the XP HD and run Vista on a seperate HD?

Yes. Install Vista on a second drive with the XP drive removed. That way the MBR isn't affected. Also disable Vista's System Restore. I believe that is included in the Vista tips above.

OK. Thanks.