[ptc510]

Do I need to use partition magic and a boot manager to run Vista on a dual boot machine? Will Vista handle the partitioning and boot manager?

[ChrisPC]

I've done this type of thing already, and suggest this order of operations:

1. Either before or after installing XP, create the partition structure you like using FDISK, Partition Magic, GPartEd, or Acronis DD. I suggest three partitions: XP, Vista, data

2. Install XP on the first partition (if it isn't already there).

3. Convert any FAT32 partitions to NTFS

4. Install Vista on the second partition.

If you need to resize partitions after installing Vista, your best (and perhaps only) option is Acronis DD version 10. Acronis does not advertise Vista compatibility, but a couple of people have told me that if you run it from a bootable CD, it works well with Vista partitions.

[rbase]

CHRIS, IF YOU COULD, PLEASE HELP ME OUT. I am not an advanced user but do understand an OK amount. This is my current situation.

I upgraded to vista from XPMC. I dont like how it is working, so i would like to reinstall XP, and do a clean install of Vista. I currently have an 80GB harddrive with Vista and all my programs on it. I only have 11 GB of storage left. I just purchased a 160GB internal harddrive that I am going to install tonight. How do you recommend that I do this(both installs..on which drives...etc...) thank you very much for any help.

[ChrisPC]

To be safe, if at all possible, get all important personal data burned onto a CD, or copied over to an external hard drive, or to a network share, or emailed to a GMail or Hotmail account. USB external hard drives are good for this. If your email is stored on your hard drive, you will need to find the data store for the program you use. It probably won't be in My Documents.

What I'm going to suggest would preserve all data on your current hard drive, but there is always a risk when moving hard drives around. Here are the brief steps, write back with questions on specifics if needed. If you don't feel comfortable with all of this, I suggest paying the money to have pro do it. Obviously, bad things can happen to good, well-prepared people, too, so be careful, patient, and forgiving.

1. Do the backup and take the old hard drive out of your system. Store it in an anti-static bag.
2. Install the new hard drive so that it is the first boot device. This can be tricky, and the steps vary a lot depending upon the connection type, MB, and system BIOS.
3. Using a tool like Partition Magic or GPartEd (open source, free) on a bootable CD, partition the new hard drive with three partitions. 40 gig / 40 gig / all of remainder should work. Format all using NTFS (also done using the partitioning tool). Give each partition a label, so you can easily tell which is which.
4. Install XPMC on the first partition. At this point you can reinstall all your applications and MS updates, or you could save that for later.
5. After XP is installed and the system seems stable, boot from the Vista install DVD and install Vista on the second partition (of the first drive).
6. After Vista is installed, when you boot the computer, you will see the new Vista boot menu, which by default will start Vista after a 30 second (I think) wait. The item "A previous version of Windows" (or something like that) would book XP instead.
7. After both XP and Vista are installed and stable, put your old hard drive back into the system, in a way that would make it the SECOND hard drive.
8. You should then see the partition(s) on the old hard drive as volumes in My Computer in both XP and Vista. Copy your information from that hard drive to the appropriate locations on the new one. When done copying all data over, you can reformat the old drive, or remove it, of just leave it there.

Then again, you could just pay a pro to do it. Good luck!

[rbase]

thanks chris. gonna work on it tonite. definitely dont want a pro do do it(lol). i would rather fry my computer myself(along with all of my wifes contacts). let you know if i need any help. thank you again!!

[rkpadchuri]

hey chris,

I need your help too and i recently picked a HP pavillion laptop with 1.6gz intel core 2 duo, 2gb ram, 110hdd, 10gb hdd with windows vista home premium pre installed on the bigger hard disk and with recovery files on the smaller hard disk... now i want to partition the bigger one to 3 portions so i dont disturb any of the operating system files at any point of time ... so please tell me how do i go about it. i tried approaching a geek but of no use ... so you need to give me tips ... and more importantly the HP guys didnt give the vista dvd and i dont want to crash my system cos its damn new one so ...

radz...

[jack03]

Follow this steps-
1. Backup, backup, backup
2. Reboot and Boot to your XP CD-ROM
3. Start the Recovery Console
4. Run Fixboot
5. Run fixmbr to reset the master boot record
6. Exit the Recovery Console
7. Reboot
8. To remove the extra entry, edit the boot.ini file to remove the "Microsoft Windows Longhorn" entry.
9. Format Your Vista Partition

[crjdriver]

Originally Posted by ChrisPC

I've done this type of thing already, and suggest this order of operations:

1. Either before or after installing XP, create the partition structure you like using FDISK, Partition Magic, GPartEd, or Acronis DD. I suggest three partitions: XP, Vista, data

2. Install XP on the first partition (if it isn't already there).

3. Convert any FAT32 partitions to NTFS

4. Install Vista on the second partition.

If you need to resize partitions after installing Vista, your best (and perhaps only) option is Acronis DD version 10. Acronis does not advertise Vista compatibility, but a couple of people have told me that if you run it from a bootable CD, it works well with Vista partitions.

Acronis disk director works fine from the boot disk however you can easily use vista's ability to shrink partitions to do the same thing after installing vista.

[ChrisPC]

If you use Acronis Disk Director, be sure you have build 2160, which was released March 01, 2007. Others have claimed that the previous build worked OK with Vista systems, but it did hose the one Vista system I tried it on. I have used a rescue CD created using the 2160 build a couple times now, and so far have had zero problems.

The partition shrink function that comes with Vista (http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewstory.php?t=78111) works and is free. My biggest complaint is that I have never seen it shrink a partition more than half. On one system with an 80-gig hard drive and 15-gig of data, the shrink function brought the first partition down to 40 gig, even after doing the tricks I heard about to make shrink better (remove restore points, defragment, temporarily remove the swap file file if you have enough RAM).

rkpadchuri, if you plan to install another OS, be careful. I don't think you have the option of installing XP (or any other earlier version of Windows) _after_ Vista.

Christopher Chalfant
MCSE: Security, MCTS: Windows Vista Configuration, MCDBA

[crjdriver]

When you used it, did you boot from the DD CD or did you try and install the program?

[ChrisPC]

Yes, I booted from the rescue CD. I created another posting about that experience (26-Feb-2007 05:37 PM - Acronis Disk Director CAN break Vista partitions), lots more detail there.

Prior to the new build of DD, Acronis made no claims of Vista compatibility, but with this build they are. I'm not sure if they claim that local install on Vista works, but so far I have made changes to partitions only using the DD CD.