Vista - If you change the boot priority in the BIOS, will 2 OS installs stay independent?

Still trying to decide which way to go to have one PC with XP and Vista 64. I kinda like the idea of completely separated installations, and was hoping to get assurance that if I installed them each on two separate drives I could control which OS started simply by changing the bootable drive in the mainboard's BIOS. I have a new ASUS P5E and you can in fact set the boot drive. My only concern is whether or not in this situation each OS remains completely independent of the other--ie, that XP does not know Vista is installed in the same box, and vice versa. Can anyone confirm this is the case? I am trying to get around various entanglements and issues (like the restore point deletions, etc) that can occur with dual booting in typical ways.

Thanks in advance,

Noel

Hi Noel.

I have XP and Vista Premium installed on my laptop with two separate hard drives. I installed XP first on the C drive and then Vista on the D drive.

There is no interference between the two OS's at all. I have had no problem running either one of them. I don't see the need to change the boot order in the BIOS as Vista installs a boot manager and you can select Vista or "Older windows operating system" to boot into.

Even though Vista is on the D drive, it fools itself into believing it is the C drive. I don't know how this works, but it does. (eg: When using windows explorer under vista, XP is on the D drive).

Let me know if you have any other questions!!

Snark

Thanks for sharing that Snark. I have had Colin and others elsewhere describe some nasty stuff that can occur with deletion of restore points in Vista when XP boots in this dual boot situation. Have you discovered this issue yet Snark? Seems it IS an issue, tho there are proposed workarounds. Take a look here:

System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete

I think it would be handier to use the built in boot manager, but with the issue noted I wonder if there is a better way. So, I guess you are not sure what would happen by changing the drive in the BIOS as far as the OS' remaining 100% independent, eh?

Hi again Noel.

Hrm. I didn't even realize that was an issue. I don't really rely on restore points and shadow copies as I back up with Acronis True Image on a regular basis. I find that is a better alternative to the restore points. I'll have to look a little more closely at my machine to see if the restore points are indeed being deleted.

I don't use XP much anyways and I'm thinking of getting rid of it all together. I'm using Vista pretty much all the time now.

Snarks