Hi Kerry,
Thanks for getting back to me. I'll see if setting the Bios is available
with my PC. It's a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 5. I have some things to talk to
them about anyway, so I'll see if their tech support actually knows the
answer to this one.
Thanks!
hselburn
"Kerry Brown" wrote:
> hselburn wrote:
> > Hi,
> > After finding out that I can't install Vista on an external HD, but
> > before attempting it, I was curious about one thing about installing
> > Vista on a 2nd internal drive. Does it matter what drive letter is
> > used for that hard drive and if Vista modifies the C drives master
> > boot record and it becomes corrupt, how do you fix that? My C drive
> > is my mission critical drive and therefore I'll get a 2nd drive for
> > vista, especially since I'd like pre-RC1 if I can get a link to that
> > file. The thing is, if the MBP is modified, bad things can happen,
> > although to be optimistic, hopefully nothing bad will. I can use my
> > external HD to backup my XP install with a disc image of my C Drive,
> > but which software has worked well in your experience? Any advice is
> > appreciated!
> >
> > Thanks!
> > hselburn
>
> Make sure you have a backup before you start. The safest way to use Vista
> and another OS is to use your BIOS to dual boot. If possible specify which
> drive is the boot drive in the BIOS and change as needed to boot either OS.
> This way Vista will not modify the boot sector on the other drive. Vista
> will still see the other drive and will write to it which may cause
> problems. If you have mission critical data on this computer I would not
> install Vista or any other beta software on it unless the drive with the
> data is physically disconnected.
>
> --
> Kerry
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca/forum/Forum.htm
>
>
>