Instaling Vista dual boot
- Thread starter Shane
- Start date
First of all how large is the hard drive? XP requires a minimum 1.8gb free for the creation of swap files(virtual memory). With Vista still being in beta some report anywhere from 8.5gb to 15gb are needed. Link #7 is a downloadable word doc for boot configuration data in Vista. http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&q=dual+booting+vista&first=21&FORM=PNME
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computerhakk
VIP Member
For Link #7, there's nothing but a quote saying that the forum isn't for troubleshooting issues, but development issues. So the link has no info. for dual booting.
As far as dual booting with XP Pro and Vista, that's pretty simple. You just need to resize your exisitng hdd and partition it. I've done this before and currently have the setup like that. I used 25gb for my Vista partition. I'd say atleast 20gb should be good enough or even more if you have a bigger hdd.
For the partition, download this utility:
GParted Live Disc
If you need help on using the software, their site provides very detailed and robust info. that you can follow along.
When you're done resizing and partitioning so that the drive is recognized in your "My Computer." Put in your Vista disc into your drive and it should automatically autostart. Don't do this from bootup tho, do it within Windows. Eventually, after you enter the key and everything, it'll let you select which partition to install it on. Then of course you just choose to install it onto the newly created partition you made.
ooh i didnt know i had to do it that way...That maks it a little simpler then
Btw...My hard drive size has been in my siggy for a long time (120Gb)
Do you think 20Gb will be big enough for the Vista partion?
The link there was moved up a few pages where Link #7 is a downloadable doc. The address is download.microsoft.com/download/a/f/7/af7777e5-7dcd-4800-8a0a-b18336565f5b/BCD.doc DOC file
The next few pages after that also have the same link on the search made there.
computerhakk
VIP Member
ooh i didnt know i had to do it that way...That maks it a little simpler then
Btw...My hard drive size has been in my siggy for a long time (120Gb)
Do you think 20Gb will be big enough for the Vista partion?
That's good. I have a 100gb and it runs fine on mines. As Encore4More said, it depends on how much u want to use it. As for me, I have installed Vista, Photoshop CS2, Antivirus/Spyware, Office, and other various small apps and have used about 9.4gb of my 25gb. So if you plan on using it often, you can make it bigger if you want.
Unless you are used to dual OSing drives you could go a little larger then the 8.5gb to 15gb size range mentioned earlier to have room for any programs you wanted to try out. Just remember this is still the beta not the final release. 20gb would be adequate for adding a few softwares while here I plan 40gb or larger due to running two 250gb drives. That allows far more room for any custom installation as well as having a 135gb storage partition on the second drive for backing up the primary to some degree. Vista or Linux?